Ts-loader versions 5.2.0 and 5.1.1 are incremental releases of the popular TypeScript loader for webpack. Both versions share the same core dependencies, including chalk, semver, micromatch, loader-utils, and enhanced-resolve, crucial for handling terminal styling, semantic versioning, file matching, webpack loader utilities, and module resolution, respectively. The development dependencies also remain consistent, encompassing tools for transforming code (Babel), testing (Karma, Mocha, Jasmine), linting (TSLint, Prettier), and webpack plugins for various tasks.
The key difference lies in the release date and potentially minor bug fixes or performance improvements incorporated between version 5.1.1 (released September 15, 2018) and version 5.2.0 (released September 23, 2018). Developers considering an upgrade from 5.1.1 to 5.2.0 should primarily focus on any specific bug fixes or minor feature enhancements documented in the release notes, if available. Given the minimal version bump, compatibility issues are highly unlikely. Therefore, updating is advisable for users seeking the most recent fixes and optimizations, ensuring a smoother TypeScript compilation workflow within their webpack-based projects. The consistency in dependencies suggests a low-risk upgrade path, making it a worthwhile consideration for ongoing project maintenance. The unpacked size exhibits a small divergence, 406653 vs 389046, suggesting a likely small addition of functionality.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 5.2.0 of the package
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.
