Mocha version 5.0.0 introduces several changes compared to the prior stable release, 4.1.0, primarily within its development dependencies, indicating refinements in the tooling and development workflow. Both versions share identical core dependencies, including "he," "diff," "glob," "debug," "growl," "mkdirp," "commander," "browser-stdout," "supports-color," and "escape-string-regexp," suggesting a continued commitment to existing functionality and dependency stability.
The noticeable differences reside in the "devDependencies" section. Version 5.0.0 adds "nps" a tool often used for scripting and managing npm package scripts, and it drops "buffer" and "karma-phantomjs-launcher". This could indicate a shift in testing strategies or build processes. Notably the introduction of nps is interesting, as it might signal a move towards a more streamlined and maintainable build and test process for Mocha itself which can lead to developers working on mocha itself to have a better experience. The removal of "karma-phantomjs-launcher" can signal a deprecation for that testing enviornment and a possible push towards Chrome as testing enviornment which is already a dev dependency with "karma-chrome-launcher".
For developers using Mocha, these changes might not directly impact test writing or execution. However, the updated tooling could result in more efficient build times or improved internal testing practices, ultimately contributing to a more robust and reliable testing framework over time. The core testing experience remains the same, focusing on flexibility and ease of use for JavaScript testing.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 5.0.0 of the package
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS)
A vulnerability was found in diff before v3.5.0, the affected versions of this package are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) attacks.
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).
