detect-suspicious-dependencies

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Detect typosquatting attacks in npm package imports

This rule detects package imports that look like typosquatting attempts on popular npm packages

Rule Details

This rule detects package imports that look like typosquatting attempts on popular npm packages. Typosquatting is a supply chain attack where malicious actors publish packages with names similar to popular packages.

OWASP Mobile Top 10: M2 - Inadequate Supply Chain Security
CWE: CWE-506 - Embedded Malicious Code
Severity: error

Examples

❌ Incorrect

// Typosquatting on 'react'
import React from 'reakt';

// Typosquatting on 'lodash'
import _ from 'lodsh';

// Typosquatting on 'express'
import express from 'expres';

// Typosquatting on 'axios'
import axios from 'axois';

✅ Correct

// Official packages
import React from 'react';
import _ from 'lodash';
import express from 'express';
import axios from 'axios';

// Scoped packages are safe
import { something } from '@myorg/react-utils';

// Relative imports are safe
import { helper } from './utils';

How It Works

The rule uses Levenshtein distance to detect packages with names similar to popular packages:

react, lodash, express, axios, webpack

If a package name is within 2 edits of a popular package name, it's flagged as suspicious.

When Not To Use It

Your project uses legitimately named packages that happen to be similar to popular ones
You've verified the package is not malicious

Configuration

{
  rules: {
    'secure-coding/detect-suspicious-dependencies': 'error'
  }
}

Known False Negatives

The following patterns are not detected due to static analysis limitations:

Values from Variables

Why: Values stored in variables are not traced.

// ❌ NOT DETECTED - Value from variable
const value = userInput;
dangerousOperation(value);

Mitigation: Validate all user inputs.

Wrapper Functions

Why: Custom wrappers not recognized.

// ❌ NOT DETECTED - Wrapper
myWrapper(userInput); // Uses dangerous API internally

Mitigation: Apply rule to wrapper implementations.

Dynamic Invocation

Why: Dynamic calls not analyzed.

// ❌ NOT DETECTED - Dynamic
obj[method](userInput);

Mitigation: Avoid dynamic method invocation.