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441 points longcat | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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inbx0 ◴[] No.45040282[source]
Periodic reminder to disable npm install scripts.

    npm config set ignore-scripts true [--global]
It's easy to do both at project level and globally, and these days there are quite few legit packages that don't work without them. For those that don't, you can create a separate installation script to your project that cds into that folder and runs their install-script.

I know this isn't a silver bullet solution to supply chain attakcs, but, so far it has been effective against many attacks through npm.

https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v8/commands/npm-config

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eitau_1 ◴[] No.45041820[source]
Why the same advice doesn't apply to `setup.py` or `build.rs`? Is it because npm is (ab)used for software distribution (eg. see sibling comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45041292) instead of being used only for managing library-dependencies?
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1. username223 ◴[] No.45046598[source]
It should, and also to Makefile.PL, etc. These systems were created at a time when you were dealing with a handful of dependencies, and software development was a friendlier place.

Now you're dealing with hundreds of recursive dependencies, all of which you should assume may become hostile at any time. If you neither audit your dependencies, nor have the ability to sue them for damages, you're in a precarious position.