Browserify version 9.0.8 represents a subtle update over its immediate predecessor, version 9.0.7, both maintaining the core functionality of enabling Node.js-style require() statements in browser-side JavaScript. A primary focus remains on bundling JavaScript modules and their dependencies for efficient web browser execution. Developers leveraging Browserify benefit from a consistent approach to managing dependencies across both client-side and server-side environments, simplifying project architecture.
A review of both versions reveals minimal changes in the dependencies and devDependencies sections, suggesting an emphasis on stability and refinement rather than sweeping changes. Both share an identical range of dependencies, including crucial components like module-deps, browser-pack, and various browser-compatible shims for core Node.js modules like http, url, and zlib. This indicates that the core module resolution and bundling processes remain largely unchanged.
The real difference between the versions lies in the release date. Version 9.0.8 was released on April 9th, 2015, while version 9.0.7 was released on April 3rd, 2015. This suggests that the update may address bug fixes identified in the previous stable version. Developers should prioritise the newer version for enhanced stability and the assurance of addressing any potential minor issues present in version 9.0.7. If you had version 9.0.7 installed, it is recommended to upgrade to version 9.0.8 to take advantage of the most up-to-date patches and improvements.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 9.0.8 of the package
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.