Socket:
- Sep 15 (First post on breach): https://socket.dev/blog/tinycolor-supply-chain-attack-affect...
- Sep 16: https://socket.dev/blog/ongoing-supply-chain-attack-targets-...
StepSecurity – https://www.stepsecurity.io/blog/ctrl-tinycolor-and-40-npm-p...
Aikido - https://www.aikido.dev/blog/s1ngularity-nx-attackers-strike-...
Ox - https://www.ox.security/blog/npm-2-0-hack-40-npm-packages-hi...
Safety - https://www.getsafety.com/blog-posts/shai-hulud-npm-attack
Phoenix - https://phoenix.security/npm-tinycolor-compromise/
Semgrep - https://semgrep.dev/blog/2025/security-advisory-npm-packages...
These attacks may just be the final push I needed to take server rendering (without js) more seriously. The HTMX folks convinced me that I can get REALLY far without any JavaScript, and my apps will probably be faster and less janky anyway.
However, processes and practices around NodeJS and npm are in dire need of a security overhaul. leftpad is a cultural problem that needs to be addressed. To start with, snippets don't need to be on npm.
This said, less potential vendors supplying packages 'may' reduce exposure, but doesn't remove it.
Either way, not running the bleeding edge packages unless it's a known security fix seems like a good idea.
- npm should require 2FA disallow tokens for publishing. This is an option, but it should be a requirement.
- npm should require using a trusted publisher and provenance for package with over 100k downloads a week and their dependencies.
- Github should require a 2FA step for automated publishing
- npm should add a cool down period where if won't install brand new packages without a flag
- npm should stop running postinstall scripts.
- npm should have an option to not install packages without provenance.
Sure, there will be a step/stage that will require access to NPM publish credentials to publish to NPM. But why does this stage need to execute any code except a very small footprint of vetted code? It should just pickup a packaged, signed binary and move it to NPM.
The compilation/packaging step on the other hand doesn't need publishing rights to NPM. Ideally, it should only get a filesystem with the sources, dependencies and a few shared libraries and /sys or /proc dependencies it may need to function. Why does some dependency downloading need access to your entire filesystem? Maybe it needs some allowed secrets, but eh.
It's certainly a lot of change into existing pipelines and ideas, and it's certainly possible to poke holes into there if you want things to be easy. But it'd raise the bar quite a bit.