"No Way To Prevent This" Says Only Package Manager Where This Regularly Happens*
*
This is a joke about gun violence.
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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Real question? Is it really isolated to npm or is there a few lessons others could take and discover their own vulnerabilities?
It happens in python pip too.
Arch checking in. It may happen less. But it still does.
To be fair to Arch, the AUR was always advertised as a caveat emptor type thing. It never really claimed to be secure in the first place.
That is fair.
Python and Ruby have both had various repo issues too.
I've never heard of anything similar with Perl, but that may partly be because applications for new developers who want to join CPAN still appear to be processed by humans, with up to a couple of weeks lag. The time inefficiency plus the language being less popular probably makes it an unattractive target.
“Bless the Maker and His water.
Bless the coming and going of Him.
May His passage cleanse the world.
May He keep the world for His people.”
I avoid NPM like the plague.
I feel like I'm better off for it.
That is pretty evil.
Without signing attestation (both developer and code) there will be no way to find out who was responsible and stop the propagation. This will happen again.
Edit: there have been attempts like https://docs.npmjs.com/trusted-publishers, but that hasn't fixed the problem.
Thought this was a reference to the hardcore band for a second… seeing them next month for the first time. I’m pumped! Sucks the malware is back
It's surely a reference to the Dune novels.
Yup