Webpack versions 4.2.0 and 4.1.1, both essential tools for bundling JavaScript applications, share a common purpose: streamlining the process of packaging CommonJs/AMD modules for browser deployment. They empower developers to split codebases into manageable bundles, enabling on-demand loading and optimized performance. Both support loaders, allowing diverse file types like JSON, JSX, ES7, CSS, and LESS to be preprocessed, expanding functionality. The direct dependencies, including crucial libraries like ajv, acorn, tapable, and webpack-sources, remain consistent across both versions guaranteeing a stable core functionality.
However, subtle yet impactful differences exist. Version 4.2.0, released on March 21, 2018, boasts a slightly reduced unpacked size compared to 4.1.1 reflecting possible optimizations in code structure. While the file count increased in Version 4.2.0 this may indicate the introduction of more granular modules or assets. These seemingly minor changes may result in tangible improvements to build times or runtime efficiency for developers building complex web applications. While the development dependencies are identical, this minor release contains optimization and bug fixes that can lead to overall better build performance of your application.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 4.2.0 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.
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.
