Articles by Liran Tal
Inside the keyv npm Compromise: preinstall Malware, Trusted Provenance, and IDE Hooks
Attackers compromised the release path for keyv and related npm packages on August 4, 2026. The malicious releases add a preinstall hook that runs an obfuscated loader before application code starts, then launches a much larger second-stage payload. This is an active software supply chain incident, not a proof of concept.
Snyk VulnBench JS 1.0: Can LLMs Find the Same Bugs Twice?
Written by June 29, 2026 0 mins read We ran 300 vulnerability-finding scans to measure how repeatable an agentic LLM security review is on the same code, prompt, and harness. The headline result is not that one scanner "wins" a self-referential leaderboard. It is that LLM security findings are unevenly repeatable: reference-matched findings were stable, but extra-model reports varied widely from run to run.
A Forgotten Contributor Account Compromised the Entire Mastra npm Package Scope
An attacker republished the entire @mastra npm scope on June 17, 2026, slipping a single malicious dependency into 142 packages, including @mastra/core, which pulls roughly 4 million downloads a month and has hundreds of dependent projects. The injected dependency, easy-day-js, is a dayjs lookalike whose install hook disables TLS verification, downloads a second-stage payload from a raw IP address, and runs a cross-platform cryptocurrency stealer in the background.
Node-gyp Supply Chain Compromise: A Self-Propagating npm Worm That Hides in binding.gyp
Written by A supply chain attack is actively spreading through the npm registry by abusing a file most security tooling never looks at: binding.gyp. Instead of relying on the well-monitored preinstall or postinstall lifecycle scripts, the malware ships a weaponized binding.gyp that triggers node-gyp to execute attacker-controlled code automatically during npm install.
The AntV Supply Chain Campaign Expands: Microsoft's `durabletask` PyPI Package Compromised
The ink was barely dry on our coverage of the AntV Shai Hulud supply chain attack when a new compromise surfaced in the Python ecosystem. The target this time is durabletask, an open source Python package associated with Microsoft, used for building durable, fault-tolerant workflow orchestration on top of the Durable Task Framework. The latest safe version of durabletask is 1.4.0, and three known versions have been yanked from the PyPI registry.
Mini Shai-Hulud Hits AntV: 300+ Malicious npm Packages Published via Compromised Maintainer Account
Written by A supply chain attack affecting the @antv data visualization ecosystem and related npm packages is actively spreading through the npm registry. The attack, attributed to a threat group called TeamPCP and branded as another wave of the Mini Shai-Hulud campaign, published more than 300 malicious package versions across 323 packages in a 22-minute automated burst on May 19, 2026. The packages collectively represent approximately 16 million weekly downloads.
Malicious Release of elementary-data PyPI Package Steals Cloud Credentials from Data Engineers
A Python package on PyPI called elementary-data, with over 1 million downloads per month, has suffered a supply chain security attack sourced through a GitHub Actions attack vector.
Axios npm Package Compromised: Supply Chain Attack Delivers Cross-Platform RAT
Written by March 30, 2026 0 mins read On March 31, 2026, two malicious versions of axios, the enormously popular JavaScript HTTP client with over 300 million weekly downloads, were briefly published to npm via a compromised maintainer account. The packages contained a hidden dependency that deployed a cross-platform remote access trojan (RAT) to any machine that ran npm install (or equivalent in other package managers like Bun) during a two-hour window.
The 89% Problem: How LLMs Are Resurrecting the "Dormant Majority" of Open Source
Written by March 4, 2026 0 mins read AI coding assistants are quietly resurrecting millions of abandoned open source packages. For the last decade, developers relied on a simple heuristic for open source security: Prevalence \= Trust. If a package was downloaded millions of times a week (lodash, react, requests), we assumed it was "safe enough" because thousands of eyes were on it. If it was obscure, we approached with caution.
Why Your “Skill Scanner” Is Just False Security (and Maybe Malware Original
Maybe you’re an AI builder, or maybe you’re a CISO. You've just authorized the use of AI agents for your dev team. You know the risks, including data exfiltration, prompt injection, and unvetted code execution. So when your lead engineer comes to you and says, "Don't worry, we're using Skill Defender from ClawHub to scan every new Skill," you breathe a sigh of relief. You checked the box. But have you checked this Skills scanner?
How a Malicious Google Skill on ClawHub Tricks Users Into Installing Malware
Written by February 10, 2026 0 mins read You ask your OpenClaw agent to "check my Gmail." It replies, "I need to install the Google Services Action skill first. Shall I proceed?" You say yes. The agent downloads the skill from ClawHub. It reads the instructions. Then, it pauses. "This skill requires the 'openclaw-core' utility to function," the agent reports, displaying a helpful download link from the skill's README. "Please run this installer to continue." You copy the command.
280+ Leaky Skills: How OpenClaw & ClawHub Are Exposing API Keys and PII
Written by February 5, 2026 0 mins read On Monday, February 3rd, Snyk Staff Senior Engineer Luca Beurer-Kellner and Senior Incubation Engineer Hemang Sarkar uncovered a massive systemic vulnerability in the ClawHub ecosystem (clawhub.ai). Unlike the malware campaign we reported yesterday involving specific malicious actors, this new finding reveals a broader, perhaps more dangerous trend: widespread insecurity by design.
Snyk Finds Prompt Injection in 36%, 1467 Malicious Payloads in a ToxicSkills Study of Agent Skills Supply Chain Compromise
The first comprehensive security audit of the Agent Skills ecosystem reveals malware, credential theft, and prompt injection attacks targeting OpenClaw, Claude Code, and Cursor users Agent skills are reusable capability packages that instruct AI agents how to interact with tools, APIs, or system resources—and they're rapidly becoming standard in AI-powered development.
Beyond Detection: Building a Resilient Software Supply Chain (Lessons from the Shai-Hulud Post-Mortem)
The Shai-Hulud npm supply chain incident was a wake-up call for the industry. The attack involved malicious packages containing hidden exfiltration scripts that targeted developers’ machines and CI environments. At Snyk, we watched this incident unfold in real-time, observing how quickly attackers can pivot from one compromised credential to a full-scale ecosystem infection.
Run AutoMCP To Supercharge Your AI Agent with Libraries MCP Servers
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming software development with agentic coding tools like GitHub Copilot and Cursor, leading the charge. These tools use AI to assist developers in writing code, automate repetitive tasks, and expedite the development process.
Snyk Log Sniffer: AI-Powered Audit Log Insights for Security Leaders
Written by November 26, 2025 0 mins read Snyk empowers organizations to build fast and stay secure. As security and engineering teams scale their use of Snyk across the enterprise, understanding what's happening across your group and organizations becomes critical–from API integrations and user access patterns to policy changes and security events. However, raw audit logs alone can be overwhelming and difficult to interpret.
Phishing Campaign Leveraging the NPM Ecosystem
Primary: Any user who opens one of the campaign’s HTML lures in a browser that then fetches script from unpkg.com. The victim segment is enterprise employees rather than developers. Package inventory: redirect-* family (≈175 packages) acting as CDN hosts for beamglea.js and HTML files.
Malicious MCP Server on npm postmark-mcp Harvests Emails
Remove & quarantine Uninstallpostmark-mcp from all environments. Block giftshop[.]club at egress until fully triaged. Credential hygiene Rotate Postmark API tokens/SMTP credentials used by any affected agent. Rotate downstream credentials that may appear in emails (reset links, access tokens, API keys). Vet other npm packages from the author Check whether you have other packages from the author phanpak, and highly consider removing them in case they become the next target of a backdoor.
Weaponizing AI Coding Agents for Malware in the Nx Malicious Package Security Incident
On August 26–27, 2025 (UTC), eight malicious Nx and Nx Powerpack releases were pushed to npm across two version lines and were live for ~5 hours 20 minutes before removal. The attack also impacts the Nx Console VS Code extension.
Agentic Container Security with Snyk MCP Serve
Written by August 13, 2025 0 mins read Did developers steal the spotlight of agentic workflows with the wave of AI coding assistants sweeping the media, startups, and tech? What about DevOps workflows, container security, and operating system vulnerability scanning? One of the most time consuming tasks of application security engineers and those responsible for production artifacts is tracking Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) and in what way they impact a bundled application.
Secure at Inception | Snyk at Black Hat | Snyk
Written by August 4, 2025 0 mins read At Snyk, we believe you should never have to choose between speed and security. As the age of AI transforms software development, our goal is to extend our developer-first security approach to this new era, providing the essential tools your teams need to build with confidence. Today at Black Hat, we are delivering on that vision with three tangible innovations that offer a comprehensive solution to secure the entire code lifecycle with AI.
Maintainers of ESLint Prettier Plugin Attacked via npm Supply Chain Malware
Written by July 22, 2025 0 mins read Starting on July 19th, 2025, an npm supply chain security incident has been attacking maintainers of popular open-source npm packages on the npm registry The TL;DR on the npm malware Adversarial attackers have registered the domain npnjs.com (typosquatting a look-alike over the official npmjs.com registry) Maintainers were victim for email phishing campaign that hijacked their npm registry credentials Impacted packages: eslint-config-prettier,...
Cursor IDE Malware Extension Compromise in $500k Crypto Heist
Written by July 21, 2025 0 mins read Cursor IDE, as many are aware, is a fork of the open source and popular VS Code IDE project from Microsoft. Similarly to VS Code, Cursor has support for IDE extensions, which prompts many developers to migrate over with their favorite extensions and long-lived workflows, shortcuts, themes, and other configurations. Back in May 2021, Snyk’s Security Labs conducted research that uncovered VS Code extensions vulnerable to insecure code patterns.
Beat Vulnerability Fatigue: Focus on New Risks with Snyk Original
Written by: March 18, 2025 0 mins read Developers are trapped in a loop: constantly chasing dependency upgrades to mitigate security risks or chasing down security reports of vulnerable code or findings in the CI pipeline. Developers often refer to this as “vulnerability fatigue,” a term commonly referenced in npm package install logs that list the newly introduced security vulnerabilities for third-party dependencies.
JWT Security Risk: Prevention & Best Practices Original
JWTs are often used by developers who seek to implement authentication over traditional cookie-based sessions. However, what happens when developers misunderstand JWT security and risk a severe broken authentication vulnerability? What is a JWT? JSON Web Tokens (JWT) are a compact and self-contained way of securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object. Because it is digitally signed, often using certificates, this information can be verified and trusted.
Symbolic AI in Cybersecurity | Fixing Security Issues with Snyk Symbolic AI | Snyk
Written by: February 27, 2025 0 mins read How good is Symbolic AI as an automated expert system for analyzing code paths and detecting security vulnerabilities? Snyk Code is tested and demonstrates the benefits of rule-based, algorithmic systems. What is Snyk’s Symbolic AI Security Engine? Snyk’s SAST engine, which performs static security analysis on codebases, is based on a Symbolic AI system, providing better accuracy and faster execution.
Find Weak Cryptographic Algorithms: Bye Bye MD5
Written by: February 25, 2025 0 mins read Using strong cryptography is essential for data protection and application security, such as tasks required for hashing passwords (which, technically, isn’t classic cryptography for the sake of encryption). However, some legacy code may still be deployed to production using weak and outdated cryptographic algorithms that weren’t found. How can Snyk Code help you find these vulnerable applications?
Docker のセキュリティに関するベストプラクティス 10 項目
著者: Docker コンテナのセキュリティ Docker コンテナのセキュリティのトピックにおいては、Docker のベースイメージと潜在的なセキュリティ構成ミスに関連する Dockerfile のセキュリティから、ネットワークポート、ユーザー権限、Docker にマウントされたファイルシステムのアクセスなどに関連するランタイムの Docker コンテナのセキュリティに至るまで、セキュリティに対する懸念が生じています。この記事では、Docker イメージのビルド構築に関連する Docker コンテナのセキュリティに関する側面、Dockeｒ のベースイメージがもたらすセキュリティの脆弱性の数の削減、ならびに Dockerfile のベストプラクティスに焦点を当てていきます。 Docker のセキュリティとは、Docker コンテナのビルド、ランタイム、オーケストレーションに関する側面を指します。これには、Docker ベースイメージの Dockerfile のセキュリティに関すること、ならびにユーザー権限、Docker のデーモン、コンテナに対する適切な CPU 制御などの...
mitigating SSRF vulnerabilities in Go
Securing HTTP requests is crucial when developing Go applications to prevent vulnerabilities like Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF). SSRF occurs when an attacker manipulates a server to make unintended requests, potentially accessing internal services or sensitive data. We will explore how to secure HTTP requests by employing URL parsing and validation techniques, and provide example code to fortify the http.Get HTTP GET request handler.
Understanding command injection vulnerabilities in Go
Written by: November 14, 2024 0 mins read Go developers might need to use system commands for various scenarios, such as image manipulation, where they need to process or resize images or execute system commands to manage resources or gather metrics or logs. At other times, perhaps you are building a new system in Go that needs to interface with existing legacy systems. This interface leans on executing system commands and processing their output.
Lottie Player npm package compromised for crypto wallet theft
On October 31st, 2024, another package compromise and cryptocurrency hijack story unfolded for a popular npm package. The TL;DR for Lottie Player npm package compromise The popular npm library @lottiefiles/lottie-player was found to contain malicious code that prompts for connecting to users' crypto wallets. The malicious code was added to npm releases 2.0.5, 2.0.6, and 2.0.7 after an npm registry account token used for publishing npm packages was compromised.
Best Practices for Continuous Vulnerability Management
Continuous vulnerability management is not just a best practice—it's a necessity. With so many open-source dependencies to choose from (almost 3 million on the npm registry!), it’s no wonder supply chain security incidents are the focus of malicious actors. Let’s not forget the rise of ChatGPT, LLM chatbots, and AI-assisted code generation.
Vulnerability-Free C and C++ Development in Automotive Manufacturing and Software Defined Vehicles (SDV)
The automotive industry is at a unique inflection point in its history with the advent of the Software Defined Vehicle (SDV). During the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) World Congress held in Detroit April 16th - 18th, 2024, it was explicitly stated there is more than a $500 billion market that will see investment in R&D and technological advancements for the automotive industry.
Analyze Taint Analysis Faster with Improved Contextual Dataflow in Snyk Code
Snyk Code is a powerful tool designed to help developers identify and automatically fix vulnerabilities in their source code. It eliminates flow interruptions and repeated work by detecting and resolving security issues in real time with over 80% autofixing accuracy. It integrates seamlessly with your development workflow, providing real-time feedback on security issues directly within your IDE, CLI, or SCM.
Do not use secrets in environment variables and here's how to do it better
We developers are well too fond of using environment variables to set application configuration and often use it to store secrets and other sensitive information. You already use an environment variable to set the port Nuxt runs on, or the BASE_API_URL for the Fastify Node.js web API you’re building, so why not use it to store the OPENAI_API_KEY or that serverless PostgreSQL DB_PASSWORD? We all do it, right? Right. Why do we do it though? why do we store secrets in environment variables?
The mysterious supply chain concern of string-width-cjs npm package
This story starts when Sébastien Lorber, maintainer of Docusaurus, the React-based open-source documentation project, notices a Pull Request change to the package manifest.
Proactive AppSec continuous vulnerability management for developers and security teams
What are some of the growing cybersecurity risks in the modern software development landscape that keep CISOs busy? Developers and security teams face an ever-increasing array of threats, from sophisticated open source and vendor-controlled supply chain attacks to vulnerabilities introduced by AI-generated code like prompt injection and poor code security by GitHub Copilot.
How to prevent log injection vulnerability in JavaScript and Node.js applications
In many standard enterprise applications, consistent logging serves a multitude of purposes. It helps businesses identify and rectify errors, provides valuable analytical insights, and lets you test new solutions. However, this also makes log injections one of the most common ways hackers can hijack or even gain access to sensitive user information.
Promise queues and batching concurrent tasks in Deno
Written by: September 25, 2024 0 mins read What is Deno? Deno is a secure runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript, built on the same V8 JavaScript engine as Node.js, but with significant improvements. It was created by Ryan Dahl, the original creator of Node.js, to address some of the key issues and limitations he identified in Node.js over time. Deno is designed to enhance security, simplify module management, and support TypeScript out of the box.
Identifying Insecure C Code with Valgrind and Fixing with Snyk Code
C and C++ remain foundational in critical software development. These languages power a wide array of systems, from embedded devices to high-performance applications in manufacturing, operational technology (OT), and the industrial market. Their efficiency, control over system resources, and performance make them indispensable for developers working on mission-critical projects. C and C++ are particularly prevalent in Japan, where manufacturing and industrial sectors are key economic drivers.
Want to avoid a data breach? Employ secrets detection
As a software developer, ensuring the security of your applications is paramount. A crucial part of this task involves managing secrets and employing a secrets detection tool. In this context, secrets refer to sensitive data such as API keys, database credentials, encryption keys, and other confidential information. Their unauthorized access or exposure can lead to catastrophic consequences, including data breaches and severe business losses. Hardcoded secrets are a common occurrence in development.
How to mitigate security issues in GenAI code and LLM integrations
GitHub Copilot and other AI coding tools have transformed how we write code and promise a leap in developer productivity. But they also introduce new security risks. If your codebase has existing security issues, AI-generated code can replicate and amplify these vulnerabilities. Research from Stanford University has shown that developers using AI coding tools write significantly less secure code, and this logically increases the likelihood of such developers producing insecure applications.
What you should know about PHP security vulnerabilities
Written by: September 4, 2024 0 mins read When it comes to web development, PHP is a widely used scripting language. With its popularity, it is crucial to understand the potential security risks associated with PHP and the measures to mitigate them.
A denial of service Regex breaks FastAPI security
Welcome, fellow developers! In this blog post, we are going to delve deep into the world of application security, specifically focusing on a vulnerability that can deteriorate FastAPI security: Denial of service (DoS) caused by insecure regular expressions (regex).
Zero Dependency JavaScript is the Future?
The JavaScript ecosystem is well known for its use of small packages (left-pad anyone?) and being a huge repository spanning more than 3 million open-source packages but what if we could build our JavaScript applications without any dependencies? Are we seeing a trend towards zero dependency JavaScript? what does it mean for the future of the JavaScript development, its impact on security, and the overall developer experience?
How to setup Deno Dev Container on GitHub Codespaces?
Written by: July 18, 2024 0 mins read If you’ve been searching for guides and tutorials on getting started with Deno web development in a cloud IDE such as GitHub Codespaces, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we will be exploring the world of Deno, GitHub Codespaces, and Dev Containers, providing you with the knowledge you need to set up your development environment effectively and efficiently in the cloud.
10 dimensions of Python static analysis
Python static analysis, also known as "linting", is a crucial aspect of software development. It involves inspecting your Python code without running it to identify potential bugs, programming errors, stylistic issues, or non-adhering patterns to predefined coding standards. It also helps identify vulnerabilities early in the development process, reducing the chances of deploying insecure code into production.
How to secure a REST API?
As developers, we often have to work with REST APIs when we integrate with third-party systems or connect between frontend and backend systems at work. APIs, and REST APIs in particular, are a fundamental part of modern web applications, allowing us to create, read, update, and delete data over HTTP. However, as with any technology, they come with their own set of security challenges. Let's break these challenges down and understand how to secure REST API applications. What is a REST API?
Polyfill supply chain attack embeds malware in JavaScript CDN assets
On June 25, 2024, the Sansec security research and malware team announced that a popular JavaScript polyfill project had been taken over by a foreign actor identified as a Chinese-originated company, embedding malicious code in JavaScript assets fetched from their CDN source at: cdn.polyfill.io. Sansec claims more than 100,000 websites were impacted due to this polyfill attack, including publicly traded companies such as Intuit and others. What happened with the malicious polyfill library?
Essential Node.js backend examples for developers in 2024
Node.js backend development continues to stand out in 2024 as a powerful and flexible runtime for building scalable and efficient applications, even more so with the rise of other runtimes such as Bun. In this article, I wanted to provide a lightweight introduction to essential Node.js backend examples that demonstrate the effective use of advanced JavaScript and Node.js features.
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