Webpack-cli version 3.2.2 is a minor update to version 3.2.1, offering enhancements valuable to developers leveraging webpack for their projects. The core functionality remains consistent, as both versions provide a command-line interface for webpack, streamlining the configuration and execution of webpack builds. Descriptively, webpack-cli empowers developers with tools for scaffolding projects, running builds, and generally interacting with webpack through the command line.
The primary difference lies in the updated dependencies. Version 3.2.2 replaces the dependencies "lightercollective" and "global-modules-path" with "webpack-cli-scripts." This change suggests a potential shift in how webpack-cli manages internal scripts or dependencies, possibly aiming for better maintainability or performance. Developers upgrading should be aware of this internal structural change, although it should not drastically impact the user experience.
Both versions share a wealth of development dependencies that ensure the project's quality through testing, linting, and documentation. These dependencies signal a dedication to a stable and well-documented tool. The consistent peer dependency on "webpack":"4.x.x" signifies that both CLI versions are compatible with Webpack version 4, providing a level of compatibility for existing Webpack 4 projects. In essence, version 3.2.2 is mainly intended to provide improvements or fixes relating to the package's dependencies. Developers should upgrade to benefit from these optimizations and ensure they are running the most up-to-date and stable version of webpack-cli.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 3.2.2 of the package
yargs-parser Vulnerable to Prototype Pollution
Affected versions of yargs-parser are vulnerable to prototype pollution. Arguments are not properly sanitized, allowing an attacker to modify the prototype of Object, causing the addition or modification of an existing property that will exist on all objects.
Parsing the argument --foo.__proto__.bar baz' adds a bar property with value baz to all objects. This is only exploitable if attackers have control over the arguments being passed to yargs-parser.
Upgrade to versions 13.1.2, 15.0.1, 18.1.1 or later.
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.
