Awesome-typescript-loader version 3.2.0 brings several updates compared to the previous stable version, 3.1.3. Both versions serve the same core purpose: providing an efficient TypeScript loader for webpack, enabling developers to seamlessly integrate TypeScript compilation into their webpack build processes. A key upgrade in 3.2.0 is the addition of micromatch as a dependency, a versatile glob matching library, suggesting enhanced file matching capabilities within the loader, potentially for improved include/exclude configurations. Furthermore, several development dependencies reflect version bumps indicating alignment with more recent tooling. Specifically, @types/chai, @types/lodash, @types/node, @types/shelljs, @types/sinon, @types/webpack, chai, fs-extra, mocha, tslint and typescript and webpack have all been bumped to newer versions. This indicates improved compatibility and access to the latest features and fixes provided by those tools.
For developers, these changes mean a potentially smoother integration with newer TypeScript and webpack versions. The updates in development dependencies suggest the library is actively maintained and kept up-to-date with the evolving JavaScript ecosystem. Specifically Typescript was updated from version 2.3.0 to version 2.4.1 and Webpack was updated from version 2.4.1 to version 2.6.1. While the core functionality remains consistent, the enhancements in 3.2.0 point towards better performance, stability and developer experience. Developers should consider upgrading to leverage these improvements.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 3.2.0 of the package
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in micromatch
The NPM package micromatch prior to version 4.0.8 is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS). The vulnerability occurs in micromatch.braces() in index.js because the pattern .* will greedily match anything. By passing a malicious payload, the pattern matching will keep backtracking to the input while it doesn't find the closing bracket. As the input size increases, the consumption time will also increase until it causes the application to hang or slow down. There was a merged fix but further testing shows the issue persisted prior to https://github.com/micromatch/micromatch/pull/266. This issue should be mitigated by using a safe pattern that won't start backtracking the regular expression due to greedy matching.
Uncontrolled resource consumption in braces
The NPM package braces fails to limit the number of characters it can handle, which could lead to Memory Exhaustion. In lib/parse.js, if a malicious user sends "imbalanced braces" as input, the parsing will enter a loop, which will cause the program to start allocating heap memory without freeing it at any moment of the loop. Eventually, the JavaScript heap limit is reached, and the program will crash.
