Moment.js version 2.23.0 brings subtle but notable enhancements over its predecessor, version 2.22.2. Both versions are designed for parsing, validating, manipulating, and formatting dates and times in JavaScript, targeting both browser and Node.js environments. Developers reliant on this popular library for date-time operations will find key differences in the development dependencies and build structure.
Specifically, version 2.23.0 upgrades several development dependencies, including nyc now at ~11.9.0 (previously ^2.1.4), qunit now at ^2.7.1 (previously ^2.6.0), and coveralls now at ^3.0.2 (previously ^2.11.2). These updates likely reflect improvements in code coverage, testing frameworks, and build processes, contributing to a more robust and reliable library core. Although the core functionality remains largely the same, this enhanced stability benefits developers indirectly.
Another notable change resides in the distribution files. Version 2.23.0 features fileCount of 366 and unpackedSize of 2737053, compared to 2.22.2's fileCount of 364 and unpackedSize of 2714826. These numerical differences may represent minor changes in documentation, build artifacts, or internal library assets. Finally version 2.23.0 was released on 2018-12-13 while version 2.22.2 was released on 2018-06-01. As a result if you are considering upgrading, developers should always consult the official changelog for a comprehensive list of fixes, performance improvements, and potential breaking changes that would arise from upgrading between the versions.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 2.23.0 of the package
Path Traversal: 'dir/../../filename' in moment.locale
This vulnerability impacts npm (server) users of moment.js, especially if user provided locale string, eg fr is directly used to switch moment locale.
This problem is patched in 2.29.2, and the patch can be applied to all affected versions (from 1.0.1 up until 2.29.1, inclusive).
Sanitize user-provided locale name before passing it to moment.js.
Are there any links users can visit to find out more?
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
Moment.js vulnerable to Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity
The problem is patched in 2.29.4, the patch can be applied to all affected versions with minimal tweaking.
In general, given the proliferation of ReDoS attacks, it makes sense to limit the length of the user input to something sane, like 200 characters or less. I haven't seen legitimate cases of date-time strings longer than that, so all moment users who do pass a user-originating string to constructor are encouraged to apply such a rudimentary filter, that would help with this but also most future ReDoS vulnerabilities.
There is an excellent writeup of the issue here: https://github.com/moment/moment/pull/6015#issuecomment-1152961973=
The issue is rooted in the code that removes legacy comments (stuff inside parenthesis) from strings during rfc2822 parsing. moment("(".repeat(500000)) will take a few minutes to process, which is unacceptable.
