The Silent Supply Chain Attack That Could Have Compromised 17,000 Sites
Six months ago, while auditing a client’s website, I stumbled upon a forgotten npm package that hadn’t been updated in 4 years — yet was still installed in 17,000+ projects. What started as a routine check uncovered a time-bomb vulnerability that could have enabled mass remote code execution. Here’s the full investigation, with critical lessons for every developer.
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The Problem with Modern Dev Ecosystems
- 95% of projects rely on open-source dependencies (Synopsys 2024 Report)
- 42% of npm packages have zero updates in 2+ years
- 15% of abandoned packages still have critical vulnerabilities
The Silent Killer:
“Maintained” ≠ “Secure” — Many packages are functionally abandoned but still widely used.