
Guarding the JavaScript Supply Chain: Preventing NPM Attacks with Feross Aboukhadijeh - JSJ 695
JavaScript JabberShow Notes
Hey everyone—it’s Steve Edwards here, and in this episode of JavaScript Jabber, I’m joined by returning guest Feross Aboukhadijeh, founder of Socket.dev, for a deep dive into the dark and fascinating world of open source supply chain security. From phishing campaigns targeting top NPM maintainers to the now-infamous Chalk library compromise, we unpack the latest wave of JavaScript package attacks and what developers can learn from them.
Feross explains how some hackers are even using AI tools like Claude and Gemini as part of their payloads—and how defenders like Socket are fighting back with AI-powered analysis of their own. We also dive into GitHub Actions vulnerabilities, the role of two-factor authentication, and the growing need for “phishing-resistant 2FA.” Whether you’re an open source maintainer or just someone who runs npm install a little too often, this episode will open your eyes to how much happens behind the scenes to keep your code safe.
🔗 Links & ResourcesSocket.dev – Protect your open source dependencies Feross Aboukhadijeh on X (Twitter) GitHub Actions Security Best Practices TruffleHog Blog – On secrets exposure in Git repos
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/javascript-jabber--6102064/support.
More from JavaScript Jabber
This week on JavaScript Jabber, we’re joined (again!) by Val Karpov — the maintainer of Mongoose — to talk about what’s new in Mongoose 9, how async stack traces are changing the debugging game, and why AI is quietly reshaping the way we build developer tools.
In this episode of JavaScript Jabber, I sat down with Matteo Collina—chair of the Node.js project and founder of Platformatic—for a deep, no-fluff conversation about Node.js performance in the real world. We dug into what actually happens when you run Node at scale, especially with server-side rendering, Kubernetes, and modern frameworks like Next.js.
It’s great to be back behind the mic! In this episode of JavaScript Jabber, I’m joined by Dan Shapir and our guest Jack Harrington from Netlify and TanStack for a wide-ranging, high-energy conversation that covers everything from modern frontend architecture to AI tooling—and a few entertaining detours along the way.
In this episode of JavaScript Jabber, I sat down with Shruti Kapoor, independent content creator and longtime React educator, to dig into what’s actually new — and worth getting excited about — in React 19.2. While it may sound like a “minor” release on paper, this update delivers some genuinely powerful improvements that can change how we build and reason about React apps.
AI is writing more of our code than ever before—but should we actually trust it? In this episode of JavaScript Jabber, I sat down with Itamar Friedman from Qodo (formerly Quoto) to dig into one of the biggest questions developers are wrestling with right now: What happens when AI is generating code, reviewing code, and shaping how we ship software?