Webpack-cli versions 3.3.2 and 3.3.1 offer similar core functionalities as command-line interfaces for webpack, a popular JavaScript module bundler. Both utilize identical dependencies like chalk, yargs, interpret, cross-spawn, findup-sync, import-local, loader-utils, global-modules, supports-color, enhanced-resolve, and v8-compile-cache, ensuring consistent handling of command-line arguments, file system operations, and color output. They also share identical peer dependencies, specifically webpack version 4.x.x, indicating compatibility with the same webpack core.
The principal changes between versions 3.3.2 and 3.3.1 reside primarily within their developer dependencies. Version 3.3.2 introduces a subtle update to nyc from version 13.3.0 to 14.1.0 and upgrades typedoc from version 0.13.0 to 0.14.2. lerna also sees a minor bump from 3.13.2 to 3.13.4. These updates might bring improved code coverage reporting, enhanced documentation generation capabilities, and streamlined management of multi-package repositories, respectively. Importantly, regarding bundle size optimization webpack-cli 3.3.2 has increased slightly with an unpacked size of **201844** compared to **191671** of version 3.3.1. Developers can benefit from dependency updates due to bug fixes and feature improvements within their testing and development workflows. While the core functionality for end-users remains largely the same, the updated development dependencies in version 3.3.2 reflect an effort to modernize the tooling used in the webpack-cli build process.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 3.3.2 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.
