Ts-loader versions 0.5.3 and 0.5.4 are both TypeScript loaders for webpack, designed to streamline the process of integrating TypeScript code into webpack-based projects. Examining the differences, the core dependencies remain identical: both leverage popular libraries like colors, semver, loader-utils, object-assign, and enhanced-resolve. Similarly, the development dependencies, important for testing and building the library itself, are consistent between the versions, featuring mocha, mkdirp, rimraf, webpack, fs-extra, babel-core, babel-loader, and escape-string-regexp. This suggests that the fundamental architecture and underlying toolchain haven't changed.
The key distinguishing factor lies in their release dates. Version 0.5.4 was released on September 8th, 2015, a week after version 0.5.3 which was released on September 1st, 2015. This small time gap suggests that version 0.5.4 likely contains bug fixes, minor improvements, or refinements addressing issues identified in the previous version. While the specific changes aren't explicitly detailed here, developers upgrading from 0.5.3 should anticipate improved stability and potentially enhanced performance. Because the dependencies were identical, the upgrade path should be straightforward, minimizing the risk of breaking changes in existing webpack configurations. If encountering problems with typescript and webpack, it is recommended to check if you are using the latest version of ts-loader and potentially upgrade to 0.5.4 or later.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 0.5.4 of the package
Prototype pollution in webpack loader-utils
Prototype pollution vulnerability in function parseQuery in parseQuery.js in webpack loader-utils prior to version 2.0.3 via the name variable in parseQuery.js.
Prototype Pollution in JSON5 via Parse Method
The parse method of the JSON5 library before and including version 2.2.1 does not restrict parsing of keys named __proto__, allowing specially crafted strings to pollute the prototype of the resulting object.
This vulnerability pollutes the prototype of the object returned by JSON5.parse and not the global Object prototype, which is the commonly understood definition of Prototype Pollution. However, polluting the prototype of a single object can have significant security impact for an application if the object is later used in trusted operations.
This vulnerability could allow an attacker to set arbitrary and unexpected keys on the object returned from JSON5.parse. The actual impact will depend on how applications utilize the returned object and how they filter unwanted keys, but could include denial of service, cross-site scripting, elevation of privilege, and in extreme cases, remote code execution.
This vulnerability is patched in json5 v2.2.2 and later. A patch has also been backported for json5 v1 in versions v1.0.2 and later.
Suppose a developer wants to allow users and admins to perform some risky operation, but they want to restrict what non-admins can do. To accomplish this, they accept a JSON blob from the user, parse it using JSON5.parse, confirm that the provided data does not set some sensitive keys, and then performs the risky operation using the validated data:
const JSON5 = require('json5');
const doSomethingDangerous = (props) => {
if (props.isAdmin) {
console.log('Doing dangerous thing as admin.');
} else {
console.log('Doing dangerous thing as user.');
}
};
const secCheckKeysSet = (obj, searchKeys) => {
let searchKeyFound = false;
Object.keys(obj).forEach((key) => {
if (searchKeys.indexOf(key) > -1) {
searchKeyFound = true;
}
});
return searchKeyFound;
};
const props = JSON5.parse('{"foo": "bar"}');
if (!secCheckKeysSet(props, ['isAdmin', 'isMod'])) {
doSomethingDangerous(props); // "Doing dangerous thing as user."
} else {
throw new Error('Forbidden...');
}
If the user attempts to set the isAdmin key, their request will be rejected:
const props = JSON5.parse('{"foo": "bar", "isAdmin": true}');
if (!secCheckKeysSet(props, ['isAdmin', 'isMod'])) {
doSomethingDangerous(props);
} else {
throw new Error('Forbidden...'); // Error: Forbidden...
}
However, users can instead set the __proto__ key to {"isAdmin": true}. JSON5 will parse this key and will set the isAdmin key on the prototype of the returned object, allowing the user to bypass the security check and run their request as an admin:
const props = JSON5.parse('{"foo": "bar", "__proto__": {"isAdmin": true}}');
if (!secCheckKeysSet(props, ['isAdmin', 'isMod'])) {
doSomethingDangerous(props); // "Doing dangerous thing as admin."
} else {
throw new Error('Forbidden...');
}