Mocha 7.0.0 represents an evolution of the popular JavaScript test framework, building upon the solid foundation of version 6.2.3. While both iterations share core dependencies like he, ms, diff, and glob, subtle but significant changes make version 7 a compelling upgrade.
One notable difference lies in the dependency yargs. Version 7.0.0 utilizes yargs@13.3.0 while 6.2.3 uses yargs@13.3.2. Developers should investigate potential changes in yargs' argument parsing behavior between these minor versions. A similar minor version difference is present in the yargs-parser dependency; version 7.0.0 uses yargs-parser@13.1.1 and version 6.2.3 uses yargs-parser@13.1.2. Importantly, Mocha v7.0.0 introduces new dependencies. These are chokidar for file watching functionality. Additionally, the node-environment-flags packages are new, likely impacting how Mocha interacts with environment variables during testing.
On the development dependency side, the newer version includes ansi-colors, log-symbols, and strip-json-comments. This suggests enhancements in error message output or configuration file processing. While the core testing functionalities (like assertions via chai and mocking with sinon) largely remain consistent, version 7.0.0 is likely to include internal improvements, minor bug fixes, and potentially new features related to the added dependencies. Check the Mocha changelog directly for full context. Developers should thoroughly test their existing test suites against version 7.0.0 to ensure compatibility and benefit from any performance gains or newly introduced capabilities.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 7.0.0 of the package
Regular Expression Denial of Service in debug
Affected versions of debug are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service when untrusted user input is passed into the o formatter.
As it takes 50,000 characters to block the event loop for 2 seconds, this issue is a low severity issue.
This was later re-introduced in version v3.2.0, and then repatched in versions 3.2.7 and 4.3.1.
Version 2.x.x: Update to version 2.6.9 or later. Version 3.1.x: Update to version 3.1.0 or later. Version 3.2.x: Update to version 3.2.7 or later. Version 4.x.x: Update to version 4.3.1 or later.
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.
yargs-parser Vulnerable to Prototype Pollution
Affected versions of yargs-parser 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 --foo.__proto__.bar baz' adds a bar property with value baz to all objects. This is only exploitable if attackers have control over the arguments being passed to yargs-parser.
Upgrade to versions 13.1.2, 15.0.1, 18.1.1 or later.
flat vulnerable to Prototype Pollution
flat helps flatten/unflatten nested Javascript objects. A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, was found in hughsk flat up to 5.0.0. This affects the function unflatten of the file index.js. The manipulation leads to improperly controlled modification of object prototype attributes ('prototype pollution'). It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. Upgrading to version 5.0.1 can address this issue. The name of the patch is 20ef0ef55dfa028caddaedbcb33efbdb04d18e13. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component. The identifier VDB-216777 was assigned to this vulnerability.
