Webpack 4.5.0 arrived shortly after 4.4.1, presenting developers with a minor but potentially impactful upgrade. Both versions serve as powerful module bundlers, streamlining the process of packaging JavaScript applications for the browser. They share the same core functionality, using loaders to transform various file types like JSON, JSX, CSS, and LESS into browser-compatible bundles, and employing dependencies such as ajv, acorn, tapable, and webpack-sources to enable efficient code splitting and management.
The key differences largely lie in the nuances and potential bug fixes rather than significant feature additions. Upon upgrading from 4.4.1 to 4.5.0, developers might notice subtle improvements in build performance or enhanced compatibility with certain loaders and plugins. The dist object reveals a slight difference in unpacked size, suggesting modifications in internal files or optimizations. It is crucial for developers to test their specific webpack configurations after upgrading to ensure compatibility and realize potential performance gains.
While the core functionality remains the same, staying up-to-date with minor releases like 4.5.0 allows developers to benefit from the latest bug fixes, security patches, and potentially performance improvements. Developers should consult the official webpack changelog or release notes for a comprehensive overview of the changes introduced in 4.5.0 to make an informed decision about the upgrade. This ensures a smoother development experience and allows maximizing the potential of Webpack in modern web applications.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 4.5.0 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.
