The babel-plugin-transform-es2015-modules-commonjs package, a crucial tool for developers using Babel, converts ES2015 modules into CommonJS format, ensuring compatibility with environments that don't natively support ES modules, like older Node.js versions. Comparing versions 6.3.16 and 6.4.0 reveals subtle yet important distinctions for developers.
While the core dependencies like babel-types, babel-runtime, babel-template, and babel-plugin-transform-strict-mode remain consistent, the key difference lies in the release date and potentially underlying bug fixes and minor internal improvements. Version 6.3.16 was released on December 9th, 2015, while version 6.4.0 arrived on January 6th, 2016. Developers should prioritize the later version, 6.4.0, as it incorporates accumulated bug fixes and optimizations made between these dates. While no breaking changes or significant feature additions are explicitly mentioned, upgrading ensures you're working with the most stable and refined version of the plugin, minimizing potential issues and maximizing compatibility. Staying current with minor version updates is generally advised within the Babel ecosystem to leverage incremental improvements and maintain a healthy dependency tree. This plugin is vital for bridging the gap between modern JavaScript syntax and older environments, enabling developers to write code using the latest features while still supporting a wide range of platforms.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 6.4.0 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