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Stabilize 8.0.0 (or backport @electron/rebuild@^4 to 7.x): current 7.x pulls vulnerable tar@6.2.1 via @electron/rebuild@3 #4228

@thebillzh

Description

@thebillzh

Summary

@electron-forge/*@7.11.1 (current stable) pins @electron-forge/core-utils@7.11.1, which pins @electron/rebuild: ^3.7.0. @electron/rebuild@3.7.2 has a direct dependency on tar@6.2.1, and also pulls in @electron/node-gyp@10.2.0-electron.1 (via git) → make-fetch-happen@10.2.1cacache@16.1.3 → another copy of tar@6.2.1.

tar@6.2.1 is deprecated on npm and carries 6 high-severity advisories:

Downstream, cacache@16 also pulls deprecated @npmcli/move-file@2.0.1 and glob@8.1.0 (transitively pulls deprecated inflight@1.0.6), and @electron/get@3.1.0 pulls global-agent@3.0.0 (which depends on deprecated boolean@3.2.0). npm audit reports 28 vulnerabilities (22 high, 6 low) in a fresh npm install of a project whose only direct deps are @electron-forge/*@^7.11.1.

Upstream state

The 8.0.0-alpha.* line has already moved @electron-forge/core-utils to @electron/rebuild: ^4.0.1, which uses tar: ^7.5.6 (patched) and node-gyp: ^11.2.0 (no git source, no deprecated transitives). So the fix already exists on the 8.0 line.

Ask

Projects that have a hard "no alpha versions in production" policy (like ours) cannot use 8.0.0-alpha.7 and also cannot apply long-lived overrides to the 7.x tree without committing to maintain those overrides themselves. That leaves them shipping with the 28 advisories above.

Options in order of preference:

  1. Cut 8.0.0 stable. The @electron/rebuild@^4 upgrade is self-contained; from the package.json diff it looks ready.
  2. Backport @electron/rebuild@^4 to a 7.12.x release. @electron-forge/core-utils would need @electron/rebuild: ^4.0.0 (or ^3.7.0 || ^4.0.0 if you want a non-breaking bump window).
  3. Drop the git+ssh:// pin on @electron/node-gyp in favor of the registry-published node-gyp@^11. This alone would clear 3 of the 28 advisories and the two npm install skipping integrity check for git dependency / gitignore-fallback warnings.

Happy to send a PR for any of (1)-(3) if there's a direction the maintainers prefer.

Repro

mkdir forge-audit && cd forge-audit
npm init -y
npm install --save-dev @electron-forge/cli@^7.11.1 @electron-forge/plugin-vite@^7.11.1
npm audit
# 28 vulnerabilities (6 low, 22 high)

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