alt Hacker NewsIf one relies on the JS ecosystem to put food on the table and can't realistically make changes at their job to mitigate this, short of developing on a second airgapped work-only computer what can developers do to at least partially mitigate the risk? I've heard others mention doing all development in docker containers. Perhaps using a Linux VM?
Replies
But none of those would have helped in this case, where each dev/user intentionally installed the package specifically so it could retrieve data from the WhatsApp API.
What would have helped is if the dev/user had the ability for the dev/user to confirm before the code connected to a new domain or IP - api.WhatsApp.com? Approve. JoesServer.com or a random IP? Block. Such functionality could be at the OS or Docker level, etc.
I run incus os, which is an operating system that is made for spinning up containers and VMs. Whenever I have to work on a JS project I launch a new container for development and then ssh into it from my laptop. You can also run incus on your computer without installing it as an operating system.
Containers still have some risk since they share the host kernel, but they're a pretty good choice for protection against the types of attacks we see in the JS ecosystem. I'll switch to VM's when we start seeing container escape exploits being published as npm packages :)
When I first started doing development this way it felt like I was being a bit too paranoid, but honestly it's so fast and easy it's not at all noticeable. I often have to work on projects that use outdated package managers and have hundreds of top-level dependencies, so it's worth the setup in my opinion.
If you're distributing something that uses this package, it's not just your dev computer at risk, it's all the users.
Some companies mandate that npm packages have to be x months old. Which gives time for this stuff to be discovered.
I was responsible for dev-ops, ci, workstation security at my previous position.
Containerize all of your dev environments and lock dependency files to only resolve to a specific version of a dependency that is known safe.
Never do global installs directly, ideally don't even install node outside of a container.
Lag dependency updates by a couple weeks, and enable automated security scans like dependabot on GH. Do not allow automated updates, and verify every dependency prior to updating.
If you work on anything remotely sensitive, especially crypto adjacent, expect to be a target and use a dedicated workstation that you wipe regularly.
Sounds tedious, but thats the job.
Alternatively you could find a job outside the JS ecosystem, you'll likely get a pay bump too.