Sass version 1.9.0 represents a minor update in the Dart Sass package, succeeding version 1.8.0. Both versions maintain identical core features, delivering a pure JavaScript implementation of the widely-used Sass stylesheet language. This makes them suitable for projects where Ruby Sass isn't an option. A key dependency, chokidar (version 2.0.0 or higher), remains consistent across both releases, indicating continued focus on efficient file watching capabilities crucial for automated Sass compilation workflows. The license remains MIT, assuring developers of freedom in using, modifying, and distributing the library.
The key differentiating factor lies in the internal changes reflected in the dist data. Version 1.9.0 exhibits a marginally increased unpacked size of 688,190 bytes, compared to version 1.8.0's 687,374 bytes. This suggests that the newer version includes some internal refinements, possibly bug fixes, performance enhancements, or minor feature additions that don't warrant a major or minor version bump. Developers should note that the release date of 1.9.0 is July 4th, 2018, while 1.8.0 was released on June 30th, 2018. This short interval between releases further supports the idea of a patch-level update focusing on stability and refinements rather than substantial new functionality. Users are advised to upgrade to version 1.9.0 to benefit from these improvements, ensuring they're working with the most polished and up-to-date JavaScript Sass compiler.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 1.9.0 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.
