Html-to-text is a valuable npm package designed for developers needing to convert HTML content into plain text, simplifying the process of extracting readable content from structured web data. Comparing version 2.0.0 with the older 1.6.2 reveals key updates in dependency management and tool usage. Version 2.0.0 introduces more precise dependency versioning, specifying exact or compatible ranges for packages like he (HTML entities encoder/decoder), htmlparser, optimist (command-line argument parsing), underscore, and underscore.string. This ensures greater stability and predictability compared to the broader version ranges (e.g., "1.x.x") used in version 1.6.2, which leaves projects vulnerable to breaking changes in minor or patch updates of those dependencies.
Furthermore, the newer version upgrades development dependencies, utilizing newer versions of chai for assertions and mocha for testing, potentially reflecting improvements in testing methodologies and code quality. It's worth noting the introduction of the he dependency in 2.0.0 indicating improved HTML entity handling so the output text is more accurate. For developers, this means version 2.0.0 offers a more robust and reliable foundation with targeted dependency updates and potentially better entity encoding, crucial for consistent results when converting HTML to text in diverse web environments. Switching to newer versions likely involves dependency updates and a review of test implementation to ensure compatibility.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 2.0.0 of the package
Prototype Pollution in minimist
Affected versions of minimist are vulnerable to prototype pollution. Arguments are not properly sanitized, allowing an attacker to modify the prototype of Object, causing the addition or modification of an existing property that will exist on all objects.
Parsing the argument --__proto__.y=Polluted adds a y property with value Polluted to all objects. The argument --__proto__=Polluted raises and uncaught error and crashes the application.
This is exploitable if attackers have control over the arguments being passed to minimist.
Upgrade to versions 0.2.1, 1.2.3 or later.
Prototype Pollution in minimist
Minimist prior to 1.2.6 and 0.2.4 is vulnerable to Prototype Pollution via file index.js, function setKey() (lines 69-95).
