@babel/runtime version 7.7.2 is a minor update to the core Babel runtime library, succeeding version 7.7.1. Both versions provide modular runtime helpers designed to enable the use of Babel's transformations in projects without bloating the final bundle size. They share the same fundamental characteristics: identical dependencies on regenerator-runtime (version ^0.13.2) and devDependencies on @babel/helpers (version ^7.7.0). Both versions are MIT licensed and are authored by Sebastian McKenzie. They also have the same repository location and directory in Github, the same number of files (150) and unpacked size (91433).
The key difference lies in the timing of releases. Version 7.7.2 was released on November 6th, 2019, while 7.7.1 was released the day before. This suggests that 7.7.2 likely includes bug fixes or very minor compatibility improvements missed in 7.7.1. For developers already using 7.7.1, upgrading to 7.7.2 is recommended to benefit from these subtle enhancements, ensuring greater stability and potentially resolving edge-case issues. Given the small difference in release date and the lack of explicitly stated changes, the upgrade is likely seamless.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.7.2 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.