Webpack versions 4.9.0 and 4.9.1 are both iterations of the popular JavaScript module bundler, designed to package CommonJs and AMD modules for browser deployment. Both versions share the same core description: they empower developers to split codebases into manageable bundles that load on demand and provide support for loaders that preprocess files such as JSON, JSX, ES7, CSS, LESS, and custom formats. This allows for optimized delivery of web applications.
Examining the *package.json* data, the dependency lists for both versions appear identical across both dependencies and devDependencies. This suggests that the update from 4.9.0 to 4.9.1 doesn't introduce significant changes in the tools or libraries the project relies upon and no change in the developement environment.
The key difference lies in the dist section, specifically the unpackedSize and releaseDate. Although the fileCount is same, *4.9.1* has a slightly larger unpacked size (1200634 bytes) compared to *4.9.0* (1198659 bytes). Moreover, *4.9.1* was released approximately an hour after *4.9.0*. Given the rapid release and small size increment, *4.9.1* likely contains minor bug fixes or very small improvements that don't affect the core functionality or dependency structure. Developers should upgrade to *4.9.1* for the latest, potentially more stable, version, although major behavioural changes are not expected. These small fixes address minor issues, contributing to a marginally more polished development experience.
All the vulnerabilities related to the version 4.9.1 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.
