Displaying items by tag: npm

Attackers are always looking to get targets coming and going. As such you have a very rich ecosystem of attack types to cover as much ground as possible. A concerning one has always been direct supply chain attacks. These attacks seek to compromise software during the development stage, so the malicious pieces get bundled into the released code and signed with a trusted certificate. The highly publicized attack on SolarWinds is one of those types of attacks and shows just how effective and dangerous they can be. Supply chain attacks some in multiple flavors including (but certainly not limited to) compromising code repositories, poisoned plugins or open-source packages, and targeting of developer systems.

A new flaw has been identified in the Node.js package manager, NPM. The flaw is being described as a logical flaw, but in reading over the data it seems more like a permissions flaw. The good news is that as of April 26, the flaw has been addressed by NPM, the bad is that it was in play until then. According to the researchers that discovered it, the flaw related to the way you can attach other accounts to an uploaded package.

The Open Source community has been one that many leverage to help build their applications. It has become a great place to find applications packages that make building out a larger application or eco systems less time consuming. We see this in just about every development space from large to small. Having helpful sources of working code can speed up the development lifecycle and allow for greater interoperability as many applications use the same dependencies and core functions. The open source community is a great resource and typically is one that you can trust to pull code from.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have seen a massive increase in what can only be called cyber warfare. This battle is not just being fought at the state level though. Even APT groups have gotten involved as they take sides in the conflict. One step down from that (and only a very small step) we see the hacktivists jumping into the fray on both sides. Now, we see a new and unexpected form of protest from the open source community.