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Stop using the affected environment for sensitive access, preserve evidence, identify exactly where the package and version exist, revoke credentials it could read, then remove the dependency and rebuild from a known-clean state. Installing a package is not the same as executing its code, so do not assume that every machine or repository is compromised. Your response should be based on what ran, where it ran, what it could access, and what activity you can verify.

If the package may still be running, or the environment handles production, deployment, customer or other sensitive data, notify your security or incident-response team immediately. Avoid broad shutdowns or destructive cleanup until you have captured the evidence needed to understand scope, unless active harm requires urgent containment.

1. Contain the risk without destroying evidence

Use a credible malware alert as an incident signal. First decide whether execution may be active and whether the affected environment has access to important accounts or data. GitHub recommends quickly assessing whether a security signal is real and active, then scaling the response to the evidence and scope; disruptive containment should be proportionate to the threat. See GitHub’s incident-response guidance.

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When to stop access immediately

  • Stop using the workstation, runner, build host or production environment for sensitive logins and deployments if the package could still be executing.
  • Pause the specific workflow, job or application that invokes the package when that can be done without creating a larger outage.
  • Escalate to security, engineering and incident-response contacts when organizational assets, customer information or regulated data may be involved.

Do not automatically disconnect an entire organization, rotate every credential or delete every copy of a repository. Those actions can break recovery and make the timeline harder to establish. Choose a targeted host, runner, repository, account or credential action when the evidence supports it; expand containment if investigation shows broader activity.

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Capture a timeline before cleanup

Write down the package name, exact version, installation time, execution time if known, affected repositories and machines, the alert or advisory that triggered the investigation, and each action you take. Export relevant npm, source-control, cloud, CI and system logs before their retention period expires. Preserve suspicious files, scripts and code in a safe location and record hashes or file paths if your incident process supports that. Keeping findings and decisions in a time-ordered record helps distinguish an observed fact from an assumption.

2. Establish whether the package actually ran

The key distinction is between a package being downloaded or present in node_modules and its code executing. A dependency can be installed without its application code ever being invoked; an install script, build step, CI workflow or running service can execute code during or after installation. Determine which event occurred in each environment.

Check the execution paths

  1. Identify whether the package was a direct dependency or arrived transitively through another package.
  2. Review installation output, package-manager logs and CI job logs for install or lifecycle activity associated with the package.
  3. Check application, build and workflow definitions to see whether the package was imported, called, bundled or run as a command.
  4. Compare the recorded install and execution times with process, network, authentication and file-access logs.
  5. Record the environment in which each event occurred: personal workstation, shared CI runner, build or release system, or production.

If you cannot prove execution, describe the status as “installed; execution not established,” not as a confirmed host compromise. Conversely, evidence that code ran does not by itself prove data theft; you still need to determine what the process could read and what activity occurred.

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3. Find every affected copy and exact version

Malware investigations fail when teams examine only the repository where the alert appeared. Build an inventory across source, development, automation and deployed systems.

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Repository and dependency inventory

  • Search package.json files and lockfiles such as package-lock.json for the exact package name and version.
  • Inspect dependency trees to find transitive copies, including multiple versions resolved in one project.
  • Use repository dependency graphs, organization-wide code search, recent manifest and lockfile changes, commits and pull requests to locate introductions and updates.
  • Review CI workflow files, build definitions and job logs; a package may have run on a runner even if it was never used by a developer locally.
  • Check deployment and production manifests or artifacts to determine whether the affected version was shipped.

GitHub’s investigation guidance identifies code search, dependency graphs, activity and commit history, workflows and alerts as important investigation surfaces. Its common security incident investigation areas page provides the relevant categories.

Record scope per environment

For each repository or machine, record the package version, how it arrived, whether installation or application code executed, available credentials and data, and the current status. This prevents a clean development laptop from being treated as proof that a production runner was safe, or a compromised runner from being treated as proof that every repository was affected.

4. Revoke and rotate credentials the process could access

Assume credentials may be exposed when the package executed in an environment that could read them. Identify what was available to that process, not merely what the project owner remembers using. Include npm, source-control, cloud, deployment, service-account, CI and personal credentials as applicable.

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Handle npm tokens

List npm tokens with npm token list. Delete a compromised token by ID with npm token delete <id>. npm notes that revocation can take up to one hour in some cases, so do not treat a successful deletion command as proof that every previously issued token is already unusable. The current procedure is documented in npm’s Revoking access tokens guide, last edited November 5, 2025.

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Rotate other secrets according to exposure

  • Revoke credentials believed exposed or used without authorization, then issue replacements through the normal owner or administrator.
  • Rotate repository, cloud, deployment, service and CI secrets when they were readable by the affected process or stored in its environment.
  • Check whether personal credentials were present on a developer workstation and rotate them when the package could access them.
  • After rotation, update approved secret stores and automation references so jobs do not continue using the old values.

Use npm, GitHub, cloud-provider, CI and other relevant audit logs to look for token use you do not recognize. GitHub’s incident-response documentation recommends revoking credentials believed exposed or exploited and checking audit records for suspicious activity.

5. Investigate for unauthorized activity

Look for evidence that connects the package to an action, rather than relying on the package’s reputation alone. Review authentication and token events around the installation and execution times, unexpected repository commits or pull requests, changed workflow files, new releases, unusual network connections, unexpected file access and data movement. Include activity from transitive dependencies and from every environment in which the version was present.

Real incidents can involve more than one attack path. A package may have been one entry point while a stolen token was later used from another location. Correlate npm, source-control, cloud, CI and host logs, and record both positive findings and the searches that found nothing. If logs are unavailable, state that limitation rather than treating the absence of evidence as evidence of no activity.

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6. Interpret Dependabot malware alerts correctly

Dependabot malware alerts can identify affected files, package versions, patched versions when available and remediation steps. They are based on known malicious packages represented in the GitHub Advisory Database. Use the alert to prioritize exact versions and repositories, then verify the package and scope independently.

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An alert is not a complete safety test. New malware can take time to appear in the database, alerts do not catch every malicious package, and only GitHub-reviewed advisories trigger these notifications. Therefore, an absent alert does not establish that a dependency is safe. Review manifests, lockfiles, dependency graphs, workflow history and execution evidence even when Dependabot has not reported the package. Details are in GitHub’s Dependabot malware alerts documentation.

7. Remove the dependency and recover from a known-clean state

Make a reviewed dependency change

  1. Choose whether to remove the package or update it to a version identified as clean by the maintainer and trusted security advisories.
  2. Change the manifest and lockfile together in a reviewed commit; do not edit only node_modules and leave the vulnerable resolution recorded.
  3. Verify that no transitive dependency still resolves the affected version.
  4. Rebuild from a clean source checkout and clean build environment, then validate the resulting artifact before deployment.
  5. Document the selected version, the evidence supporting it and the repositories or systems rebuilt.

Deleting node_modules alone cannot undo stolen secrets, explain unauthorized activity or prove that a host is clean. Whether to isolate, wipe or rebuild a workstation, runner or server depends on whether the package executed and what the evidence shows. If execution occurred on a system with sensitive access and you cannot establish its integrity, involve incident responders before returning it to service.

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8. Choose containment by execution, environment and scope

There is no universal cleanup action. Use the following decision framework to match disruption to evidence.

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Situation Immediate focus Escalate or expand when
Package only downloaded; execution not established Preserve logs, inventory versions and review manifests, lockfiles and history. Remove or update the dependency through a reviewed change. Logs show an install script, application import, workflow invocation or suspicious credential activity.
Install script or application code ran on a personal workstation Stop sensitive use, preserve evidence, identify readable credentials and investigate host and account logs. Credentials, source code or personal accounts were accessible, or unauthorized activity appears.
Code ran on a shared CI runner or build/release system Pause the affected job or runner as practical, inspect workflow and artifact history, and rotate secrets available to the job. The runner was shared, artifacts were published, workflows changed or tokens were used unexpectedly.
Code ran in production Engage the incident-response team, contain the specific service or release path, preserve production telemetry and assess data access. Customer or regulated data, deployment credentials or persistent unauthorized activity may be involved.

Broad actions can break automations and should follow evidence and scope. A targeted credential revocation or runner isolation is often more informative and less disruptive than shutting down unrelated systems, but active harm can justify faster and wider containment.

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9. Report suspected malware to npm

Report a package you believe is intentionally malicious through the package page’s Report malware flow. npm asks for the package name, all affected versions and a description supported by references, commits or code examples that help validate the report.

npm validates malware reports. When it confirms the claim, it removes the package, publishes a security placeholder and issues an advisory. Include your timeline and relevant evidence, but do not publish secrets or sensitive incident data in the report. The process is described in npm’s Reporting malware in an npm package documentation, accessed October 13, 2026.

Malware is different from a normal vulnerability

npm distinguishes deliberate malware from a security vulnerability in otherwise legitimate package code. Report a vulnerability privately to the maintainer rather than using the malware channel. npm’s security policy is available at npm Security Policy.

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10. Coordinate communication and close the incident carefully

Notify the security lead and the engineering or incident-response team when organizational assets may be involved. Include legal or privacy contacts if sensitive information may have been exposed. Share a factual scope statement: affected package and versions, environments checked, execution evidence, credentials revoked, suspicious activity found, remaining uncertainty and current containment.

Keep the evidence record, dependency-change commits, token-rotation confirmations, log exports and npm report together. Update stakeholders as the scope changes, and preserve the distinction between confirmed impact, plausible exposure and questions that could not be answered because telemetry had expired. This record supports recovery decisions and prevents the same package version from being reintroduced through another repository or build path.

Practical completion checklist

  • Execution status is recorded separately for each workstation, runner, build system and production service.
  • Every direct and transitive occurrence of the exact package version has been located or explicitly marked unresolved.
  • Relevant logs and suspicious files were preserved before destructive cleanup.
  • Credentials available to an executing process were revoked or rotated, and audit trails were reviewed.
  • The manifest and lockfile now resolve to a reviewed clean version or no longer include the package.
  • Clean rebuilds replaced affected artifacts, and any host-integrity decision is documented.
  • The npm malware report contains the package name, all affected versions and supporting evidence, or the issue was routed privately to the maintainer as a vulnerability.
  • Security, engineering and privacy stakeholders have a current, evidence-based scope statement.

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