Version 7.24.8 of @babel/runtime, released on July 11, 2024, is the latest stable version of Babel's modular runtime helpers, succeeding version 7.24.7, released on June 5, 2024. Both versions share a consistent core functionality, providing essential runtime implementations for transformed Babel code to function correctly in various JavaScript environments.
A key element of both versions is the dependency on regenerator-runtime version ^0.14.0, which enables support for async/await syntax and generator functions. This ensures compatibility with modern JavaScript features often transpiled by Babel. The library is licensed under the MIT license, encouraging broad usage and contribution. The source code is maintained within the Babel repository on GitHub, specifically in the packages/babel-runtime directory.
While superficially similar, a minor difference exists in the unpacked size of the packages. Version 7.24.8 has an unpacked size of 245856 bytes, while version 7.24.7 had 245880 bytes. This suggests a very slight optimization or code refactoring in the newer version, potentially involving minor bug fixes, efficiency improvements, or small adjustments to the included helper functions. The number of files however is the same in both with 229 files.
The primary appeal of @babel/runtime lies in its modularity. Developers can selectively include only the necessary helpers for their specific project needs, minimizing the overall bundle size and improving application performance. Regularly staying up-to-date with the latest minor versions like 7.24.8 is generally recommended to benefit from potential bug fixes and performance enhancements, even if the changes are subtle.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.24.8 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.