Top issues
Detected presence of software components that were removed from the public package repository.
Causes risk: components prone to hijacking
hunting
Problem
Software developers use programming and design knowledge to build reusable software components. Software components are the basic building blocks for modern applications. Software consumed by an enterprise consists of hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of open source components. Software developers publish components they have authored to public repositories. Open source projects are the intellectual property of their respective authors. At any time, the authors may choose to completely remove the software component from a public repository. This often occurs when a software project reaches its end-of-life stage, or when the software authors lose interest in maintaining the project. This kind of removal frees up the software package name, its unique software identifier in the public repository, for other developers to use. However, new software project owners might have malicious intent. Threat actors are continuously monitoring popular package names in case their unique identifiers suddenly become available for hijacking. Once the software projects falls under new ownership, the new maintainers may opt to use the project popularity to spread malware to unsuspecting users.Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
1 packages
found in
Top 100
42 packages
found in
Top 1k
375 packages
found in
Top 10k
34.8k packages
in community
Next steps
Inspect behaviors exhibited by the detected software components.
If the software behaviors differ from expected, investigate the build and release environment for software supply chain compromise.
Revise the use of components that raise these alarms. If you can't deprecate those components, make sure that their versions are pinned.
Avoid using this software package until it is vetted as safe.
Top behaviors
Might contain potentially obfuscated code or data.
anomaly
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
Behavior often found in this community (Common)
84 packages
found in
Top 100
679 packages
found in
Top 1k
4393 packages
found in
Top 10k
30.42k packages
in community
Executes files during installation or upon launch.
execution
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
Behavior often found in this community (Common)
94 packages
found in
Top 100
837 packages
found in
Top 1k
6746 packages
found in
Top 10k
87.76k packages
in community
Contains unusually long strings.
anomaly
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
Behavior often found in this community (Common)
90 packages
found in
Top 100
731 packages
found in
Top 1k
4953 packages
found in
Top 10k
34.9k packages
in community
Converts binary data to its string representation, commonly used in obfuscation.
packer
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
Behavior often found in this community (Common)
89 packages
found in
Top 100
771 packages
found in
Top 1k
5560 packages
found in
Top 10k
43.56k packages
in community
Registers a VS Code command which can later be executed.
execution
Prevalence in Visual Studio Code community
Behavior often found in this community (Common)
90 packages
found in
Top 100
716 packages
found in
Top 1k
5445 packages
found in
Top 10k
75.73k packages
in community
Top vulnerabilities
No vulnerabilities found.