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Supply-chain security research
Incident write-ups, timelines and original data from scanning open-source dependencies across npm, PyPI, crates.io, Go, RubyGems and Packagist.
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Supply chain attacks in 2026: incidents, types, defenses
A software supply chain attack compromises something developers already trust, such as an open-source package, a CI action, a build pipeline or a vendor update, so malicious code reaches every downstream user without attacking them directly.
- In 2025 and 2026 most large supply chain attacks hijacked real packages instead of publishing fake ones: through a maintainer's infected PC (axios, 31 March 2026), a publish credential LiteLLM believes was stolen through its CI (24 March 2026) or the project's own release pipeline (TanStack, 11 May 2026).
- Hijacked versions of popular packages were usually live for hours: about 40 minutes for LiteLLM 1.82.x, about 3 hours for axios, and 1 hour 43 minutes for LiteLLM 1.107.0 on 21 October 2026.
- Valid provenance proves where a package was built, not that the build was honest: AsyncAPI (July 2026) and keyv in the ChainDrop worm (August 2026) shipped malware from their own release workflows with valid provenance.
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