@babel/runtime versions 7.25.6 and 7.25.4, both serving as Babel's modular runtime helpers, share a foundational purpose: enabling the execution of Babel-compiled code across various JavaScript environments. Both versions maintain the MIT license and are developed by The Babel Team. The code is hosted in the babel/babel GitHub repository, specifically within the packages/babel-runtime directory. Functionally, both versions rely on regenerator-runtime version ^0.14.0 as a dependency.
The primary difference lies in the release date and, consequently, potential bug fixes or minor feature additions. Version 7.25.6 was released on August 29, 2024, a week after version 7.25.4, which was released on August 22, 2024. While their file count is the same (233), there's a slight size difference; 7.25.6 has unpacked size of 248436 compared to 7.25.4's 248384. This minor increase could indicate updated helper functions or minor optimisations. Developers should consider upgrading to the latest 7.25.6 to benefit from any bug fixes or improved performance within the helper functions. It's advisable to check the Babel changelog between these versions for any specific changes that might impact their projects. Developers relying on very specific edge cases of the runtime helpers might want to examine the differences closely but in general the latest version is recommended.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.25.6 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.