Vulnerabilities can lay dormant and undetected throughout the application lifecycle, causing mayhem once an attacker discovers them. These attackers use rudimentary and sophisticated techniques to exploit the existing vulnerabilities within applications.
Developers usually pay attention to the vulnerabilities present within the application code. However, the most common threats to applications are the vulnerabilities that various libraries bring in.
Node.js implements the NPM audit function to address these issues when using third-party libraries within a project.
This post will discuss how to treat NPM audit findings to ensure application security.
NPM audit
NPM audit is a command within the NPM CLI that allows developers to run vulnerability audits on the dependencies configured in the project.
The NPM audit command can evaluate each version of the dependencies against known vulnerable versions to determine whether the current dependencies used within the project are vulnerable.
It also allows you to fix most findings from the NPM audit command automatically. However, it is essential to understand that updating specific libraries could break the application’s behavior.
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How to use the NPM audit command
Node.js makes it easy to use the NPM audit command by simplifying the operational and reporting aspects. As a result, developers don’t require prior security-related training to run vulnerability audits against their projects.
Use the following command to start the audit process.
npm audit
This command displays the results of the audit on the CLI in an easy-to-read format.
The following command allows you to switch the output format of the results to a JSON format quickly, which can be beneficial for programmatic visualizations.
npm audit --json
Use the following option to filter the findings by severity.
npm audit –audit-level=critical
Also remember that, by default, the NPM package installation invokes the NPM audit command to ensure that no vulnerabilities are introduced during the installation of a new package.
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NPM audit report components
The NPM audit report contains multiple components that allow you to obtain crucial information necessary to remediate the findings and understand each dependency’s location.
The following components make up a common finding:
- Severity
- Description
- Package
- Dependency Of
- Path
- More Info
Each of these components indicates a particular aspect of the finding. Therefore, understanding these components allows you to remediate vulnerabilities more effectively.
Severity
The severity of the finding takes into account the vulnerability’s impact and exploitability in most everyday use cases.
An NPM audit result can contain four levels of severity:
- Critical: Highest severity that requires immediate attention.
- High: These findings need developers to address them urgently.
- Moderate: These findings are of medium severity and developers have more time to address them.
- Low: These findings are of the lowest severity and developers can remediate them at their convenience.
Description
The vulnerability description indicates the vulnerability affecting the current library version, for example, Denial of Service.
Package
The package name mentioned with the audit finding indicates the specific package the vulnerability resides in. Thus, you can focus your efforts on this particular package to remediate the findings.
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Dependency Of
This dependency indicates the module of the package on which the vulnerability depends.
Path
The patch indicates the code that contains the specific vulnerability.
More Info
This field usually contains the link to a security report that has more information regarding the specific vulnerability.
Reading NPM audit results
Even though developers may not require specific security training to understand the NPM audit results, you do need to understand each component within the audit results to remediate each find effectively.
You need to read and understand the specific fields of the findings to determine the right course of action.
Focus on the findings with the highest severity and work their way down until they remediate all vulnerabilities within the project’s dependencies.
Remediate NPM audit findings
NPM audit is not only a feature that allows the audit of project dependencies to uncover vulnerabilities, but it is also capable of allowing you to fix each of the findings quickly.
Security best practices dictate that developers employ a severity-based remediation effort to streamline the remediation of multiple findings. This means that conclusions with higher severities require prompt actions to remediate since they carry the most impact on the application.
Use the following command to automate the remediation process, remediating all possible vulnerabilities within all compatible packages, thus saving time and effort.
npm audit fix
However, it is essential to note that this command only works when there are existing updates to the vulnerable packages identified during the audit.
One of the common flags that helps developers is the “dry-run” flag. It allows you to run the fix command without implementing any fixes. In addition, you can inspect the changes that NPM makes during the automatic remediation function before it makes the changes where the dependencies may break the application.
npm audit fix --dry-run --json
If the fix requires moving to a major version upgrade, you must add the force flag to the command. However, it is essential to understand that upgrading to a major version could break the application. Therefore, this approach is not recommended.
npm audit fix –force
To remediate vulnerabilities within packages manually, use the npm install command to upgrade each package. This is the most common approach, since you can define the package and specific version to which to upgrade.
npm install express@4.18.2
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Addressing exceptions
Exceptions that might stand out during a typical NPM audit would be findings that currently do not have any fixes available. There may be cases where NPM cannot automatically upgrade the packages and thus require manual intervention.
In these specific cases, the NPM audit results will show additional details on remediating the identified vulnerabilities.
Conclusion
In this article, I have discussed how developers can treat NPM audit findings to ensure their applications are secure. These practices ensure that dependencies do not introduce any vulnerabilities into the application that could jeopardize the security of the application.
I hope you have found this article helpful. Thank you for reading!
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FAQs
How to handle npm audit vulnerabilities? ›
To remediate vulnerabilities within packages manually, use the npm install command to upgrade each package. This is the most common approach, since you can define the package and specific version to which to upgrade. Syncfusion JavaScript controls allow you to build powerful line-of-business applications.
Should you use npm audit fix force? ›As suggested npm audit –force will upgrade dependencies with issues to major version. Hence, this may cause breaking changes in the code. Therefore, it is not advisable to apply this command without taking a closer look. Try running npm update command.
How do I fix high vulnerabilities in npm? ›- Check the "Path" field for the location of the vulnerability.
- On the npm public registry, find the package with the vulnerability. ...
- In the package repository, open a pull or merge request to make the fix on the package repository.
The first step to resolve audit issues is to assign clear and specific responsibilities to the relevant staff, managers, or departments. This means defining who is accountable for addressing each issue, what actions they need to take, and when they need to report on their progress.
How to resolve npm conflict? ›- Use npm install --save --legacy-peer-deps.
- Inspect the logs and upgrade NPM packages accordingly.
- Use the Yarn package manager.
- Downgrade your version of NPM.
- Clear the cache with npm cache clean --force and npm i --force.
- Manually install the required peer dependencies. If npm fails because it cannot resolve the version <version> of the peer dependency <package> , simply install it with: npm install <package>@<version> ...
- Upgrade the conflicting packages. ...
- Use the — legacy-peer-deps flag. ...
- Use Yarn instead of npm. ...
- Clean up npm.
- 1) Avoid publishing secrets to the npm registry.
- 2) Enforce the lockfile.
- 3) Minimize attack surfaces by ignoring run-scripts.
- 4) Assess npm project health. npm outdated command. ...
- 5) Audit for vulnerabilities in open source dependencies.
- 6) Use a local npm proxy.
- 7) Responsibly disclose security vulnerabilities.
- 8) Enable 2FA.
You can skip auditing at all by adding the --no-audit flag.
Should I worry about npm vulnerabilities? ›It is important for developers to be aware of npm security vulnerabilities and to take steps to mitigate their impact. This may involve regularly updating packages to the latest versions, which may include security patches, and being careful about which packages are installed in a project.
How to fix npm unmet dependency? ›- Manually need to install the top-level modules, containing unmet dependencies: npm install findup-sync@0.1.2.
- Re-structure your package. json. Place all the high-level modules (serves as a dependency for others modules) at the bottom.
- Re-run the npm install command.
How do you fix security vulnerability? ›
Fixing Vulnerabilities
The third step in the vulnerability remediation process is to fix the weakness. In many cases, removing vulnerable software involves deploying an upgrade or a patch, as recommended by the vendor of the affected software.
To clear a cache in npm, we need to run the npm cache clean --force command in our terminal. To clear the cache present in npm, you need to run the command. If it doesn't work, run the force clean method since the cache is not cleared simply.
What are the 7 steps in the audit process? ›- Preparing for an Audit. Have all requested materials/records ready when requested. ...
- Step 1: Planning. The auditor will review prior audits in your area and professional literature. ...
- Step 2: Notification. ...
- Step 3: Opening Meeting. ...
- Step 4: Fieldwork. ...
- Step 5: Report Drafting. ...
- Step 6: Management Response. ...
- Step 7: Closing Meeting.
- Need to define coordinator for the action plan (who is responsible to ensure completion).
- Need an expected date of completion that makes sense.
- Need to coordinate efforts, decide technical ownership vs. functional ownership of an issue.
Focus on areas of failure so you know what to fix
Start to explore the key factors that have contributed to poor internal controls and processes and what needs to be done to improve them in the future. Focus on highlighted weaknesses and work across your business to understand how they can be fixed.
One way to check for vulnerabilities in your NPM packages is to use a vulnerability scanner. There are several tools available for this, including Snyk, npm audit, and Node Security Platform. These tools can scan your package. json file and report any known vulnerabilities in your packages.
How to use npm securely? ›For the highest level of npm security, set up a private npm repository inside your firewall instead of depending on a public repo. Public repositories are convenient, allowing developers to get up and running quickly. However, you'll run the risk of your npm modules' security becoming compromised.
Is npm a security risk? ›Security vulnerabilities found in npm packages can impact your application in a way that exposes you to considerable risk. If you're using an unpatched version of the websocket-extensions npm package, then you are vulnerable to regular expression denial of service attacks.