Babel plugin transform ES2015 modules to CommonJS, versions 6.6.2 and 6.6.3 offer developers a seamless way to convert modern JavaScript module syntax (ES2015) into the more widely supported CommonJS format. This is crucial for ensuring compatibility across different JavaScript environments, especially when targeting older browsers or Node.js versions that don't natively understand ES modules.
Both versions share a similar core functionality and dependency structure, relying on packages like babel-types, babel-runtime, babel-template, and babel-plugin-transform-strict-mode. These dependencies handle the core transformation logic, type checking, runtime support, template manipulation, and strict mode enforcement. The babel-helper-plugin-test-runner in their devDependencies assists in robust testing of the plugin's functionality during development.
The primary distinction lies in their release dates: version 6.6.3 was published on March 1st, 2016, at 16:40:54.212Z, while version 6.6.2 was released earlier on the same day at 14:08:39.106Z. This time difference suggests that version 6.6.3 likely includes bug fixes, minor improvements, or refinements made after the initial release of 6.6.2. Developers should generally opt for the latest version (6.6.3 in this case) to benefit from these enhancements and potential stability improvements. Using this plugin is beneficial for code that needs to run both in modern browsers that support ES modules and older environments or build systems that rely on CommonJS. This ensures wider compatibility without having to maintain multiple versions of the code.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 6.6.3 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