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Babel vulnerable to arbitrary code execution when compiling specifically crafted malicious code

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Oct 12, 2023 in babel/babel • Updated Apr 4, 2024

Package

npm @babel/traverse (npm)

Affected versions

< 7.23.2
>= 8.0.0-alpha.0, < 8.0.0-alpha.4

Patched versions

7.23.2
8.0.0-alpha.4
npm babel-traverse (npm)
< 7.23.2
None

Description

Impact

Using Babel to compile code that was specifically crafted by an attacker can lead to arbitrary code execution during compilation, when using plugins that rely on the path.evaluate()or path.evaluateTruthy() internal Babel methods.

Known affected plugins are:

  • @babel/plugin-transform-runtime
  • @babel/preset-env when using its useBuiltIns option
  • Any "polyfill provider" plugin that depends on @babel/helper-define-polyfill-provider, such as babel-plugin-polyfill-corejs3, babel-plugin-polyfill-corejs2, babel-plugin-polyfill-es-shims, babel-plugin-polyfill-regenerator

No other plugins under the @babel/ namespace are impacted, but third-party plugins might be.

Users that only compile trusted code are not impacted.

Patches

The vulnerability has been fixed in @babel/[email protected].

Babel 6 does not receive security fixes anymore (see Babel's security policy), hence there is no patch planned for babel-traverse@6.

Workarounds

  • Upgrade @babel/traverse to v7.23.2 or higher. You can do this by deleting it from your package manager's lockfile and re-installing the dependencies. @babel/core >=7.23.2 will automatically pull in a non-vulnerable version.
  • If you cannot upgrade @babel/traverse and are using one of the affected packages mentioned above, upgrade them to their latest version to avoid triggering the vulnerable code path in affected @babel/traverse versions:
    • @babel/plugin-transform-runtime v7.23.2
    • @babel/preset-env v7.23.2
    • @babel/helper-define-polyfill-provider v0.4.3
    • babel-plugin-polyfill-corejs2 v0.4.6
    • babel-plugin-polyfill-corejs3 v0.8.5
    • babel-plugin-polyfill-es-shims v0.10.0
    • babel-plugin-polyfill-regenerator v0.5.3

References

@nicolo-ribaudo nicolo-ribaudo published to babel/babel Oct 12, 2023
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Oct 12, 2023
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Oct 16, 2023
Reviewed Oct 16, 2023
Last updated Apr 4, 2024

Severity

Critical
9.4
/ 10

CVSS base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVE ID

CVE-2023-45133

GHSA ID

GHSA-67hx-6x53-jw92

Source code

Credits

Checking history
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