minimist Prototype Pollution vulnerability

[bytestream]

┌───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Low           │ Prototype Pollution                                          │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Package       │ minimist                                                     │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Patched in    │ >=0.2.1 <1.0.0 || >=1.2.3                                    │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Dependency of │ selectize                                                    │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Path          │ selectize > sifter > optimist > minimist                     │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ More info     │ https://npmjs.com/advisories/1179                            │
└───────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

https://github.com/substack/node-optimist is deprecated. The author seems to have no intention of maintaining the package.

I think optimist should be replaced with yargs which has all the same functionality - https://github.com/yargs/yargs/blob/master/docs/examples.md#even-more-shiver-me-timbers

Alternatively, optimist should be forked and minimist version bumped to 0.2.1.

[bytestream]

Safest option is to probably ditch optimist and use [email protected] directly

Comparison of current minimist version against suggested
https://github.com/substack/minimist/compare/0.0.10...0.2.1

[bunnymatic]

I was looking into submitting a PR that replaced optimist with minimist. Would you, the owner, prefer yargs? Do you have a preference?

It does seem like minimist doesn't have all the same stuff. The first thing I see that's missing is the usage and describe methods. Those could certainly be handled but maybe yargs would be closer out of the box.

[sandstrom]

Another solution would be to move out the CLI (which most people doesn't use), see #58

[bytestream]

For anyone who's given up the will to live with npm audit notifications which most over-stretched open source library maintainers would argue only affect node applications and not web applications, I would suggest to integrate https://github.com/naugtur/npm-audit-resolver#readme

Just be careful you don't accidentally turn a blind eye to a real vulnerability...

[acbramley]

GHSA-xvch-5gv4-984h the vulnerability is now a Critical.

[sandstrom]

For anyone looking at alternatives to Sifter, here are a few I've found:

• https://github.com/lucaong/minisearch
• https://github.com/LyraSearch/lyra
• https://github.com/nextapps-de/flexsearch