Sass version 1.6.0 introduces a notable update to the popular CSS preprocessor, building upon the foundation laid by version 1.5.1. Both versions maintain the core functionality of providing a pure JavaScript implementation of Sass, appealing to developers seeking a versatile and easily integrated solution. The fundamental information such as the license (MIT), repository details, and author information remain consistent between the versions, ensuring continuity for existing users.
However, the key difference lies in the introduction of a new dependency in version 1.6.0: "chokidar" with a version requirement of "^2.0.0". This addition suggests enhancements in file watching capabilities, potentially improving the efficiency of development workflows by automatically recompiling Sass files upon changes. This is very important for developers that use sass for live editing. Furthermore, a considerable increase in the unpacked size of the package, from 618,847 bytes in version 1.5.1 to 1,919,246 bytes in version 1.6.0, points towards more extensive features, performance optimizations, or internal code refinements, even potentially meaning support for new standards adopted by CSS. The release date difference implies roughly a two-week development cycle between the versions, signifying active maintenance and improvements to the library. Users should evaluate whether the new dependency fits within their project's constraints and weigh the benefits of enhanced file watching against the larger package size.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 1.6.0 of the package
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.
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.
