Webpack 4.22.0 is a minor release following version 4.21.0 of this popular JavaScript module bundler, designed to package code for web browsers. Both versions share the same core functionality, offering features like CommonJs/AMD module packing, code splitting for on-demand loading, and loader support for preprocessing diverse file types (JSON, JSX, CSS, etc.). Their dependency trees are largely identical, including key packages like ajv, acorn, tapable, and webpack-sources. Comparing the package.json files of versions 4.22.0 and 4.21.0 reveals only slight differences, suggesting bug fixes, performance improvements, or minor feature additions in the newer version.
Developers considering upgrading from 4.21.0 to 4.22.0 should review the changelog for detailed information on specific changes. While the core API remains consistent, subtle enhancements might affect build processes or output. The "dist" section of each package provides slight differences. For example, version 4.22.0 shows "unpackedSize": 1311132 and "releaseDate":"2018-10-21T09:35:00.321Z, whereas version 4.21.0 show "unpackedSize":1306751 and "releaseDate":"2018-10-17T17:50:03.697Z". This indicates a small increase in unpacked size and a later release date for 4.22.0. These attributes helps developer to verify the package's integrity and authenticity, also to evaluate the impact on installation size and deployment. Always test upgrades in a non-production environment to confirm compatibility with existing projects to avoid any unexpected issue.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 4.22.0 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.
