CVE-2025-27789: Babel has inefficient RegExp complexity in generated code with .replace when transpiling named capturing groups

When using Babel to compile regular expression named capturing groups, Babel will generate a polyfill for the .replace method that has quadratic complexity on some specific replacement pattern strings (i.e. the second argument passed to .replace).

Your generated code is vulnerable if all the following conditions are true:

• You use Babel to compile regular expression named capturing groups
• You use the .replace method on a regular expression that contains named capturing groups
• Your code uses untrusted strings as the second argument of .replace

If you are using @babel/preset-env with the targets option, the transform that injects the vulnerable code is automatically enabled if:

• you use duplicated named capturing groups, and target any browser older than Chrome/Edge 126, Opera 112, Firefox 129, Safari 17.4, or Node.js 23
• you use any named capturing groups, and target any browser older than Chrome 64, Opera 71, Edge 79, Firefox 78, Safari 11.1, or Node.js 10

You can verify what transforms @babel/preset-env is using by enabling the debug option.