@babel/runtime, a crucial package for Babel users, has been updated from version 7.24.6 to 7.24.7. Both versions provide Babel's modular runtime helpers, essential for executing transformed code in environments that lack native support for newer JavaScript features. While the core functionality remains the same, there are subtle differences that developers should note.
Both versions depend on regenerator-runtime version ^0.14.0, ensuring continued support for async/await functionality. They are both licensed under MIT.
The key differences lie in the distribution details. The newer version, 7.24.7, has a slightly smaller unpackedSize of 245880 compared to 7.24.6's 248883. This suggests that there have been minor optimizations or removal of unnecessary files. Similarly, fileCount has reduced from 235 to 229.
The newer release date is also a differentiating factor. Version 7.24.7 was released on June 5th, 2024, while 7.24.6 was released on May 24th, 2024.
For developers, upgrading to 7.24.7 is recommended as it includes the latest fixes and optimizations. The reduced size may lead to slightly faster installation and potentially reduced bundle size, which can improve application performance. While not drastic, these incremental improvements contribute to a better overall development experience. Always test your application after upgrading dependencies to ensure compatibility.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.24.7 of the package
Babel has inefficient RegExp complexity in generated code with .replace when transpiling named capturing groups
When using Babel to compile regular expression named capturing groups, Babel will generate a polyfill for the .replace method that has quadratic complexity on some specific replacement pattern strings (i.e. the second argument passed to .replace).
Your generated code is vulnerable if all the following conditions are true:
.replace method on a regular expression that contains named capturing groups.replaceIf you are using @babel/preset-env with the targets option, the transform that injects the vulnerable code is automatically enabled if:
You can verify what transforms @babel/preset-env is using by enabling the debug option.
This problem has been fixed in @babel/helpers and @babel/runtime 7.26.10 and 8.0.0-alpha.17, please upgrade. It's likely that you do not directly depend on @babel/helpers, and instead you depend on @babel/core (which itself depends on @babel/helpers). Upgrading to @babel/core 7.26.10 is not required, but it guarantees that you are on a new enough @babel/helpers version.
Please note that just updating your Babel dependencies is not enough: you will also need to re-compile your code.
If you are passing user-provided strings as the second argument of .replace on regular expressions that contain named capturing groups, validate the input and make sure it does not contain the substring $< if it's then not followed by > (possibly with other characters in between).
This vulnerability was reported and fixed in https://github.com/babel/babel/pull/17173.