Mocha, a versatile JavaScript test framework, saw a notable update with version 5.1.0 following the 5.0.5 release. In terms of core functionality exposed to developers directly using Mocha for testing, the dependencies list remains largely consistent, suggesting no significant breaking changes or alterations to fundamental testing APIs between the versions. Both versions rely on core libraries such as he, diff, glob, and debug for essential operations.
However, diving into the devDependencies reveals modifications that signal improvements and updates to the development and build process of the Mocha library itself, rather than impacting the end-user test writing experience significantly. A valuable update is observed in eslint, moving from version 4.8.0 to 4.19.1 to improve the codebase quality control. This commitment to code standards is further reflected in version bumps for eslint-plugin-node, eslint-plugin-import, eslint-plugin-promise,eslint-config-standard, and eslint-config-semistandard. Though such upgrades might not directly translate into improved test writing for the developer, they ensure a stronger and more maintainable testing framework. Another intriguing change is the modification of the unpacked size of the distribution archive, which increased from 772,000 to 785,155, as well as file count incrementing from 52 to 53, presumably because of the updated dependencies and library code.
In essence, version 5.1.0 appears to be a maintenance release focused heavily on refining the internal development environment and code quality through updated tooling and linter configurations. Developers using Mocha can expect consistent behavior and API stability between the two versions, while benefiting from a project enjoying improved development practices.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 5.1.0 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).
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.
