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NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

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Re: NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

#91
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did the phishing email say that made you click and login?

That it had been more than 12 months since last updating them. Npm has done outreach before about doing security changes/enhancements in the past so this didn't really catch me. Screenshot here: https://imgur.com/a/q8s235k

Perfect example of why habituating users to renewing credentials (typically password expiration) is a terrible practice.

Re: NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

#92
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That it had been more than 12 months since last updating them. Npm has done outreach before about doing security changes/enhancements in the past so this didn't really catch me. Screenshot here: https://imgur.com/a/q8s235k

Yikes, looks legit. Curious what are the destination addresses? Would like to monitor them to see how much coin they are stealing.

In terms of presentation, yes. In terms of substance, short deadlines are often what separate phishing from legitimate requests.

Re: NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

#93
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did the phishing email say that made you click and login?

That it had been more than 12 months since last updating them. Npm has done outreach before about doing security changes/enhancements in the past so this didn't really catch me. Screenshot here: https://imgur.com/a/q8s235k

That green checkmark ... what application is this?

Re: NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

#94
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did the phishing email say that made you click and login?

That it had been more than 12 months since last updating them. Npm has done outreach before about doing security changes/enhancements in the past so this didn't really catch me. Screenshot here: https://imgur.com/a/q8s235k

@everyone in the industry, everywhere:

Urgency is poison.

Please, please put a foot in the door whenever you see anyone trying to push this kind of sh*t on your users. Make one month's advance notice the golden standard.

I see this pattern in scam mail (including physical) all the time: stamp an unreasonably short notice and expect the mark to panic. This scam works - and this is why legit companies that try this "in good faith" should be shamed for doing it.

Actual alerts: just notify. Take immediate, preventive, but non-destructive action, and help the user figure out how to right it - on their own terms.

Re: NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

#95
post #85
post #61

I have nothing to do with this but still I am getting second hand embarrassment. Here is an example, is-arrayish package, 73.8 MILLION downloads per week. The code? 3 lines to check if an object can be used like an array. I am sorry, but this is not due to not having a good standard library, this is just bad programming. Just pure laziness. At this point just blacklist every package starting with is-.

Meanwhile in Python: 134 million weekly downloads, seemingly slowly trending upward over time, for https://pypistats.org/packages/six which provides third-party compatibility for a version of Python that dropped support over five years ago.

The code is 813 lines [0]. Not saying everyone should use it but these two are not directly comparable.

[0] https://github.com/benjaminp/six/blob/main/six.py

Re: NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it terrifying? They clicked through a 2FA reset email, a process that I have never, and will never need to go through, and seemingly one that they didn't even initiate.

Like you’ve never made a mistake before. Blatantly blaming the maintainer is unfair. They made a mistake, it happens.

No, I have never, ever responded to an explicit ask to reset the most important security feature of my accounts, without me initiating it, and I use a password manager (lol) so, no, I will never, ever encounter this problem. Because I care about my data, safety, and integrity, and my users'. There's literally no reason ever why I would or will do a 2FA reset.

It does happen, yes, it's not terrifying.

Re: NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

#97
post #43

Developer account got hijacked through phishing. @junon acknowledged this readily and is trying to get it sorted. Meanwhile, this is a mistake that can happen to anyone, especially under pressure. So no point in discussing the personal oversight. So let me raise a different concern. This looks like an exploit for web browsers, where an average user (and most above average users) have no clue as to what's running unde…

> Meanwhile, this is a mistake that can happen to anyone, especially under pressure. So no point in discussing the personal oversight.

Unless this is a situation that could've been easily avoided with a password manager since the link was from a website not in your manager's database, so can't happen to anyone following security basics, and the point of discussing the oversight instead of just giving up is to increase the share of people who follow the basics?

Re: NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

#98
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not Java, thankfully! Libraries containing 1-2 trivial classes do exist, but they're an exception rather than a rule. Might be that the process of publishing to Maven Central is just convoluted enough to deter the kinds of people who would publish such libraries.

Also because Java, .NET, etc. all have very expansive standard libraries. You don't need to import most stuff, as it's already built-in.

Very true... I'm more experienced with .Net, but usually when you bring in something, it's much more of a compositional library or framework for doing something... like a testing harness (XUnit), web framework (FastEndpoints), etc. No so much in terms of basic utilities, where the std library and extensions for LINQ cover a lot of ground, even if you aren't using LINQ expressions themselves.

Re: NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see (I think): they tricked you into entering a TOTP code into their site, which they then proxied to the real names, thereby authenticating as your account. Is that correct?

It only proves that TOTP is useless against phishing.

Every day brings me another reason to ask the question: "Why the hell did they throw away the idea of mutual TLS?". They then went onto invent mobile OTP, HOTP, TOTP, FIDO-U2F and finally came a full cycle by reinventing the same concept, but in a more complex incarnation - Passkeys.

Re: NPM debug and chalk packages compromised

#100
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not Java, thankfully! Libraries containing 1-2 trivial classes do exist, but they're an exception rather than a rule. Might be that the process of publishing to Maven Central is just convoluted enough to deter the kinds of people who would publish such libraries.

Also because Java, .NET, etc. all have very expansive standard libraries. You don't need to import most stuff, as it's already built-in.

I mean, Apache Commons are still widely used. But it's just a handful of libraries maintaned by one organisation.
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