Babel preset stage 0 offers a convenient way for developers to experiment with JavaScript features still in the early stages of proposal. Comparing versions 6.22.0 and 6.24.1 reveals subtle yet crucial updates for those on the bleeding edge of JavaScript development. Both versions provide access to features like transform-do-expressions and transform-function-bind, empowering developers to use these functionalities early.
The key difference lies in the babel-preset-stage-1 dependency. Version 6.22.0 relies on babel-preset-stage-1 version 6.22.0, while version 6.24.1 upgrades this dependency to babel-preset-stage-1 version 6.24.1. This seemingly small change is significant because it bundles in all the updates and bug fixes present in the later stage 1 preset. For developers, this generally translates to a more stable and up-to-date experience when utilizing features already in stage 1 of the proposal process.
Choosing between the two versions depends on your project's specific needs. If you are working with a codebase that depends also on babel present stage 1, upgrading to 6.24.1 ensures that all features, including those inherited from stage-1, are aligned with the latest improvements in the Babel ecosystem. For greenfield projects, staying current with 6.24.1 is the recommended approach, providing a forward-looking and potentially less buggy experience. However, be mindful that stage-0 features are experimental and subject to change, warranting continuous testing and potential adjustments as proposals evolve.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 6.24.1 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