chore(whatsapp-bridge): npm audit fix + bump Baileys to patched release (5 of 5 vulns)

[capitelist]

Summary

Resolves all 5 npm audit vulnerabilities in scripts/whatsapp-bridge/ — the 4 moderate transitive deps and the 1 critical in @whiskeysockets/baileys. Closes #43814.

package	before	after	advisory
protobufjs	<=7.5.7	7.6.4	GHSA-jggg-4jg4-v7c6 (mod)
qs	6.11.1-6.15.1	6.15.2	GHSA-q8mj-m7cp-5q26 (mod)
ws	8.0.0 - 8.20.0	8.21.0	GHSA-58qx-3vcg-4xpx (mod)
express	4.21.0 - 4.22.1	4.22.2	transitive via qs
@whiskeysockets/baileys	01047deb (rc.9)	1aee6ed6 (rc.12)	GHSA-qvv5-jq5g-4cgg (critical)

The Baileys bump moves the pin from the pre-fix commit 01047deb to the rc.12 release commit 1aee6ed6011ef77035c2b072eff478fc5f327809, which is 1 commit ahead of the upstream fix 3beb08e (verified via GitHub compare API: ahead_by: 1, behind_by: 0).

Why not also apply shouldSyncHistoryMessage: () => false?

The advisory recommends that flag as a workaround. Evaluated and rejected: Baileys 7.x logs a DANGER warning when history sync is disabled, stating it "PREVENTS BAILEYS FROM ACCESSING INITIAL LID MAPPINGS, LEADING TO INSTABILIY AND SESSION ERRORS". scripts/whatsapp-bridge/allowlist.js relies on those LID mappings for sender identity expansion (lines 36-64), so the workaround would break allowlist matching on first connect. The pin bump to rc.12 makes the workaround unnecessary because the fix is included in that release.

Verified

• npm install clean (one pre-existing pino peer-dep warning, unrelated)
• npm audit reports 0 vulnerabilities
• node --check bridge.js passes
• Bridge startup smoke test: starts cleanly on :3000, session dir loaded, QR rendered, exits cleanly on SIGTERM, no DANGER warning (workaround not applied)

Test plan for reviewer

1. cd scripts/whatsapp-bridge && npm install
2. npm audit — expect "found 0 vulnerabilities"
3. node --check bridge.js
4. (Optional, requires WhatsApp account) npm start — expect QR render and successful auth

[egilewski]

Recommendation: request changes

I reviewed this against current GitHub main a118b94a856ef80301cb26d16be6d08c0104e0db, PR base d62979a6f34f64f2ed840f159aac66e24d7cad78, and PR head 4b9e113c8b76e6f6e512ffcddb5e2347fb37c407.

Validation:

• gh pr checks 44980 --repo NousResearch/hermes-agent: no checks reported, so there is no completed PR-specific failing check to gate on.
• git fetch --no-tags upstream main and git -c maintenance.auto=false -c gc.auto=0 fetch --no-tags upstream +pull/44980/head:refs/remotes/upstream/pr/44980: passed.
• git rev-list --left-right --count refs/remotes/upstream/main...refs/remotes/upstream/pr/44980: 411 104, showing the submitted branch is far behind/diverged from current main.
• git merge-tree --write-tree refs/remotes/upstream/main refs/remotes/upstream/pr/44980: failed with content conflicts in many current-main files, including agent/agent_runtime_helpers.py, agent/tool_executor.py, apps/desktop/electron/main.cjs, gateway/run.py, hermes_cli/web_server.py, scripts/release.py, tests/test_tui_gateway_server.py, and tools/transcription_tools.py.
• git diff --check refs/remotes/upstream/main...refs/remotes/upstream/pr/44980: failed on the submitted branch diff.

Finding:
The GitHub PR file list is focused on scripts/whatsapp-bridge/package-lock.json, but the submitted branch itself is stale and does not currently merge into GitHub main. Please rebase/update the branch so the dependency lockfile change can be validated against the current tree; I stopped review at the mergeability gate, so there may be other issues after the branch is made current.

Signed: GPT-5.5-xhigh in Codex

[egilewski]

looks mergeable

Validation:

• Reviewed against current GitHub main 992b9223893453b3b1527b2ba728996ec81e83f2, PR base 425e777f54b810b7d762b0a5bbe8372dcf782def, and PR head e7b01934340151416d135a3a744a86c64d243c06.
• GitHub's generated merge ref 7c74a288cf201e945d02579758fc225ace8b7ede is parented to current main and the PR head, and its diff against current main is limited to scripts/whatsapp-bridge/package.json and scripts/whatsapp-bridge/package-lock.json.
• npm audit --package-lock-only --json in scripts/whatsapp-bridge went from 7 vulnerabilities on current main to 0 vulnerabilities on this PR's merge ref.
• npm install --package-lock-only --ignore-scripts --dry-run in scripts/whatsapp-bridge exited 0 and left the lockfile clean.
• node --test allowlist.test.mjs passed 5 tests.
• CodeRabbit ran against the committed merge-ref diff with --base upstream/main and reported no findings.

Signed: GPT-5 in Codex

[teknium1]

Thanks for the security-focused dependency update and for documenting why the history-sync workaround was unsuitable.

• Automated hermes-sweeper review verified that current main already uses published @whiskeysockets/baileys 7.0.0-rc13 in scripts/whatsapp-bridge/package.json:11 and scripts/whatsapp-bridge/package-lock.json:756-759, exceeding this PR's proposed rc.12 update.
• The same current lockfile resolves the audit-related packages at equal-or-newer versions: express 4.22.2 (package-lock.json:1068-1071), protobufjs 7.6.5 (:1653-1656), qs 6.15.3 (:1715-1718), and ws 8.21.0 (:2155-2158).
• This was implemented by merged commit c30c9753b6efc08e154d66b6501a444739df3859 (fix(whatsapp): unpin Baileys from git commit, use published 7.0.0-rc13, fix(whatsapp): unpin Baileys from git commit, use published 7.0.0-rc13 #60643), included in v2026.7.7.2. The linked issue fix(whatsapp-bridge): bump Baileys to >=7.0.0-rc12 for CVE-2026-48063 (GHSA-qvv5-jq5g-4cgg) #43814 was closed on that basis.