NYC version 12.0.2 is a minor update to the Istanbul command line interface, building upon version 12.0.1. Both versions maintain the core functionality of providing code coverage reports for JavaScript projects, leveraging Istanbul's powerful instrumentation capabilities. Developers using NYC can generate reports in various formats (e.g., HTML, text, lcov) to understand how thoroughly their tests exercise their codebase.
Comparing the two versions, the key differences lie in the dist object. Version 12.0.2 has a significantly reduced number of files (1611 vs. 2931) and a smaller unpacked size (9320609 bytes vs. 12082221 bytes) compared to version 12.0.1. This suggests that version 12.0.2 includes some optimizations and might result in faster installation times and reduced disk space usage. Aside from this, dependencies and devDependencies remain the same: therefore the core functionalities and the API of the library have not been affected.
Both versions rely on a rich ecosystem of dependencies, including tools for file manipulation (glob, rimraf, mkdirp), argument parsing (yargs, yargs-parser), source map handling (convert-source-map, istanbul-lib-source-maps), and report generation (istanbul-reports). Developers familiar with these tools will find NYC easy to integrate into their existing workflows. The test-exclude dependency is particularly important, allowing users to specify files and directories to be excluded from coverage analysis. If upgrading from a version prior to 12.0.1, make sure to check out all of the changes of the previous version.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 12.0.2 of the package
Denial of Service in mem
Versions of mem prior to 4.0.0 are vulnerable to Denial of Service (DoS). The package fails to remove old values from the cache even after a value passes its maxAge property. This may allow attackers to exhaust the system's memory if they are able to abuse the application logging.
Upgrade to version 4.0.0 or later.
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in micromatch
The NPM package micromatch prior to version 4.0.8 is vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS). The vulnerability occurs in micromatch.braces() in index.js because the pattern .* will greedily match anything. By passing a malicious payload, the pattern matching will keep backtracking to the input while it doesn't find the closing bracket. As the input size increases, the consumption time will also increase until it causes the application to hang or slow down. There was a merged fix but further testing shows the issue persisted prior to https://github.com/micromatch/micromatch/pull/266. This issue should be mitigated by using a safe pattern that won't start backtracking the regular expression due to greedy matching.
Uncontrolled resource consumption in braces
The NPM package braces fails to limit the number of characters it can handle, which could lead to Memory Exhaustion. In lib/parse.js, if a malicious user sends "imbalanced braces" as input, the parsing will enter a loop, which will cause the program to start allocating heap memory without freeing it at any moment of the loop. Eventually, the JavaScript heap limit is reached, and the program will crash.
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.
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) in cross-spawn
Versions of the package cross-spawn before 7.0.5 are vulnerable to Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS) due to improper input sanitization. An attacker can increase the CPU usage and crash the program by crafting a very large and well crafted string.
