Webpack 4.41.0 represents a minor version update from the previous stable release, 4.40.3, within the Webpack 4 series. While the core functionality remains consistent, several subtle refinements and internal adjustments likely contribute to enhanced stability and potential performance improvements. Developers transitioning to 4.41.0 can expect a largely seamless experience, with no major breaking changes anticipated.
The key differences might be found in bug fixes address in 4.41.0, addressing specific edge cases or compatibility issues that some developers encountered with 4.40.3. Examine the changelog or release notes associated with version 4.41.0 to see details on bug fixes.
Both versions share the same core set of dependencies, including tools for code analysis (like eslint-scope), module resolution (enhanced-resolve), and asset optimization (terser-webpack-plugin). Also, they share the same devDependencies so the quality is kept amongst the versions. This signals a focus on maintaining a consistent development environment for Webpack users. For developers already using Webpack 4, upgrading to 4.41.0 offers an opportunity to take advantage of the latest refinements and bug fixes, ensuring a smoother and more reliable build process. However, its important for the final user to always check the changelog to verify that suits the project requirements.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 4.41.0 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.
