@babel/runtime version 7.7.4 is a minor update to Babel's modular runtime helpers, building upon the previous stable version 7.7.2. Both versions provide essential runtime support for compiled Babel code, allowing developers to leverage modern JavaScript features while maintaining compatibility with older environments.
The core functionality remains consistent: both versions depend on regenerator-runtime for async/await support, ensuring smooth execution of asynchronous code transformations. The key difference lies in the development dependency @babel/helpers. Version 7.7.4 utilizes @babel/helpers version 7.7.4, whereas 7.7.2 relies on version 7.7.0. This indicates improvements or bug fixes within the helper functions used during Babel's compilation process. While the impact on end-user code might be minimal, this update likely offers enhanced stability and potentially improved performance for developers using Babel to transpile their code. The file count increases slightly from 150 to 151 and unpackaged size from 91433 to 91503.
For developers, upgrading to version 7.7.4 is recommended to benefit from the latest refinements in Babel's helper functions, which can lead to more reliable and efficient code transformations. As with any minor release, it's advisable to review the changelog and test any potential breaking changes in your specific build environment. This ensures a seamless upgrade and continued optimal performance when using @babel/runtime for JavaScript compilation.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.7.4 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.