@babel/runtime version 7.7.0 represents an incremental update over version 7.6.3, offering developers the latest refinements to Babel's modular runtime helpers. Both versions share the same core purpose: providing essential runtime support for Babel-transformed code, ensuring wider compatibility across diverse JavaScript environments. A key dependency remains consistent, with both versions relying on regenerator-runtime at version ^0.13.2 for handling asynchronous functions and generator support.
The primary difference lies in the devDependencies. Version 7.7.0 depends on @babel/helpers version ^7.7.0, while the older version 7.6.3 utilizes @babel/helpers version ^7.6.2. This indicates internal improvements and likely bug fixes within Babel's helper functions, potentially optimizing the generated code and improving overall performance.
The dist object also reveals minor variations. Version 7.7.0 has an unpacked size of 91433 bytes compared to 91092 bytes in version 7.6.3. This slight increase suggests potential additions or modifications to the runtime helpers. Also, the repository url is different between versions. For developers, upgrading to version 7.7.0 ensures access to the most up-to-date and potentially more efficient runtime support for their Babel-compiled code. The release date confirms that version 7.7.0 represents a more recent iteration. While the core functionality is unchanged, staying current with minor version bumps like this is generally advised to benefit from ongoing improvements and optimizations.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.7.0 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.