Webpack version 4.17.1 is a patch release following closely after version 4.17.0, focusing primarily on stability and bug fixes rather than introducing new features. Both versions are powerful module bundlers designed for modern JavaScript applications, enabling developers to efficiently package code and assets for optimal browser delivery. They share the same core dependencies, ranging from essential tools like acorn for JavaScript parsing and webpack-sources for source code manipulation, to utilities for enhanced code resolution and optimization, such as enhanced-resolve and uglifyjs-webpack-plugin. The developer dependencies also remain consistent, indicating no significant changes in the build or testing process. These include testing frameworks like jest, linting tools like eslint, and various loaders for handling different file types, such as css-loader, less-loader, and file-loader, ensuring versatile asset management. For developers already using webpack 4.17.0, upgrading to 4.17.1 is recommended to benefit from the latest bug fixes and stability improvements without encountering breaking changes, thus ensuring a smoother development experience. The patch release prioritizes reliability, making it a safe and worthwhile update for maintaining a robust build process. While both versions are nearly identical in terms of features and dependencies, the subtle differences in internal code might address specific edge cases or performance bottlenecks encountered in the previous release.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 4.17.1 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.
Regular Expression Denial of Service (ReDoS)
npm ssri 5.2.2-6.0.1 and 7.0.0-8.0.0, processes SRIs using a regular expression which is vulnerable to a denial of service. Malicious SRIs could take an extremely long time to process, leading to denial of service. This issue only affects consumers using the strict option.
Cross-Site Scripting in serialize-javascript
Versions of serialize-javascript prior to 2.1.1 are vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). The package fails to sanitize serialized regular expressions. This vulnerability does not affect Node.js applications.
Upgrade to version 2.1.1 or later.
Insecure serialization leading to RCE in serialize-javascript
serialize-javascript prior to 3.1.0 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary code via the function "deleteFunctions" within "index.js".
An object such as {"foo": /1"/, "bar": "a\"@__R-<UID>-0__@"} was serialized as {"foo": /1"/, "bar": "a\/1"/}, which allows an attacker to escape the bar key. This requires the attacker to control the values of both foo and bar and guess the value of <UID>. The UID has a keyspace of approximately 4 billion making it a realistic network attack.
