Babel Preset Stage 0 offers a convenient way to incorporate cutting-edge ECMAScript features into your JavaScript projects, representing proposals still in the very early stages of standardization. Examining versions 6.3.13 and its predecessor, 6.2.4, reveals a straightforward upgrade path focused on dependency alignment. Both versions share the same core purpose: bundling together a curated set of Babel plugins that implement stage 0 proposals. They also share Sebastian McKenzie as author, the MIT license, and the same repository location.
The primary difference lies in the versions of the dependencies. Version 6.3.13 updates the required versions of babel-plugin-transform-do-expressions, babel-plugin-transform-function-bind, and babel-preset-stage-1 to their respective 6.3.13 releases. Similarly version 6.2.4 relies on older 6.2.4's versions. This is important as these plugins are being actively developed, and using the latest compatible versions ensures access to the newest features, bug fixes, and performance improvements within the scope of Stage 0 proposals.
For developers contemplating using Babel Preset Stage 0, the decision hinges on their appetite for risk and their need for bleeding-edge features. Stage 0 proposals are subject to significant changes or even removal from the specification. However, adopting this preset allows developers to experiment with innovative language constructs, provide feedback to the standardization process, and potentially gain a competitive advantage by leveraging these features early. Always carefully evaluate the stability and potential impact of these features on your codebase before deploying them in production. The bump from 6.2.4 to 6.3.13 might contain small breaking changes on the syntax so proceed with care.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 6.3.13 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