Babel plugin transform ES2015 modules to CommonJS, a crucial tool for developers targeting Node.js or older browser environments, saw a notable update moving from version 6.1.5 to 6.1.17. Both versions essentially perform the same core function: converting ES2015 module syntax (import/export) into CommonJS format (require/module.exports), enabling compatibility with environments that don't natively support ES modules.
However, the update from 6.1.5 to 6.1.17 incorporates updated dependencies, specifically bumping babel-types, babel-template, and babel-plugin-transform-strict-mode from version 6.1.5 to 6.1.17. These dependency updates likely include bug fixes, performance improvements, and potentially new features within those individual modules. Developers should note that babel-runtime remains at version ^5.0.0 in both versions, indicating the runtime support for the transpiled code remains consistent.
The development dependencies also saw an update with babel-helper-plugin-test-runner moving from 6.1.5 to 6.1.17, which is mostly important for plugin developers extending or contributing to the Babel ecosystem, ensuring the tests work correctly with the newest version.
The release date difference indicates that version 6.1.17 followed 6.1.5 within the same day. This suggests the changes probably contained bugfixes. This update would be invaluable to developers who depend on the stabilty of the tool to perform ES2015 to CommonJS conversions within their build pipelines. As well updating ensures compatibility and access to latest bug resolutions from the updated and dependent modules.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 6.1.17 of the package
Babel vulnerable to arbitrary code execution when compiling specifically crafted malicious code
Using Babel to compile code that was specifically crafted by an attacker can lead to arbitrary code execution during compilation, when using plugins that rely on the path.evaluate()or path.evaluateTruthy() internal Babel methods.
Known affected plugins are:
@babel/plugin-transform-runtime@babel/preset-env when using its useBuiltIns option@babel/helper-define-polyfill-provider, such as babel-plugin-polyfill-corejs3, babel-plugin-polyfill-corejs2, babel-plugin-polyfill-es-shims, babel-plugin-polyfill-regeneratorNo other plugins under the @babel/ namespace are impacted, but third-party plugins might be.
Users that only compile trusted code are not impacted.
The vulnerability has been fixed in @babel/traverse@7.23.2.
Babel 6 does not receive security fixes anymore (see Babel's security policy), hence there is no patch planned for babel-traverse@6.
@babel/traverse to v7.23.2 or higher. You can do this by deleting it from your package manager's lockfile and re-installing the dependencies. @babel/core >=7.23.2 will automatically pull in a non-vulnerable version.@babel/traverse and are using one of the affected packages mentioned above, upgrade them to their latest version to avoid triggering the vulnerable code path in affected @babel/traverse versions:
@babel/plugin-transform-runtime v7.23.2@babel/preset-env v7.23.2@babel/helper-define-polyfill-provider v0.4.3babel-plugin-polyfill-corejs2 v0.4.6babel-plugin-polyfill-corejs3 v0.8.5babel-plugin-polyfill-es-shims v0.10.0babel-plugin-polyfill-regenerator v0.5.3