Expect, a widely used assertion library, underwent a significant transformation between versions 1.20.2 and 21.0.0. Version 1.20.2, authored by Michael Jackson and licensed under MIT, focused on providing core assertion capabilities with dependencies such as has, tmatch, and is-equal. It included a substantial suite of development dependencies like karma, mocha, eslint, and webpack, indicating a strong emphasis on thorough testing and code quality using tools familiar for web developers. This version was self contained using his own repo.
Version 21.0.0, part of the Jest ecosystem, marks a major shift. Now integrated within Facebook's Jest framework, implying a more opinionated and comprehensive testing environment. Licensed under BSD-3-Clause, it leverages Jest-specific utilities like jest-diff, jest-get-type, jest-regex-util, jest-message-util, and jest-matcher-utils, highlighting a deeper integration with the Jest testing framework and facilitating more advanced matching and reporting capabilities. This newer version focuses on being a part of a bigger ecosystem, trading stand-alone nature for enhanced features within Jest. The repository URL points to the Jest repository, further solidifying its integration. Developers considering an upgrade should note the tighter coupling with Jest in the newer version, which may necessitate adopting Jest as their primary testing framework to fully leverage the improved features.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 21.0.0 of the package
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in micromatch
The NPM package micromatch prior to version 4.0.8 is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS). The vulnerability occurs in micromatch.braces() in index.js because the pattern .* will greedily match anything. By passing a malicious payload, the pattern matching will keep backtracking to the input while it doesn't find the closing bracket. As the input size increases, the consumption time will also increase until it causes the application to hang or slow down. There was a merged fix but further testing shows the issue persisted prior to https://github.com/micromatch/micromatch/pull/266. This issue should be mitigated by using a safe pattern that won't start backtracking the regular expression due to greedy matching.
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in braces
A vulnerability was found in Braces versions prior to 2.3.1. Affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) attacks.
Regular Expression Denial of Service in braces
Versions of braces prior to 2.3.1 are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS). Untrusted input may cause catastrophic backtracking while matching regular expressions. This can cause the application to be unresponsive leading to Denial of Service.
Upgrade to version 2.3.1 or higher.
Uncontrolled resource consumption in braces
The NPM package braces fails to limit the number of characters it can handle, which could lead to Memory Exhaustion. In lib/parse.js, if a malicious user sends "imbalanced braces" as input, the parsing will enter a loop, which will cause the program to start allocating heap memory without freeing it at any moment of the loop. Eventually, the JavaScript heap limit is reached, and the program will crash.
