Quick answers
- Is This vulnerability exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of This vulnerability being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is This vulnerability?
- Low severity, with a CVSS score of 3.1, published 2 September 2020.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- reqquest (npm) SEMVER:introduced=0.
- Is there a fix for This vulnerability?
- No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.
- How is This vulnerability attacked?
- It is attacked over the network, in a software library.
- Am I affected?
- Check whether you run reqquest (npm) or request (npm) at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
This is a malicious package vulnerability (CWE-506: Embedded Malicious Code) delivered via typosquatting—registering a package with a name visually similar to a popular legitimate package ("request" vs "reqquest"). The attack vector is network-based, triggered at installation time with no authentication or user interaction required beyond the npm install command. The malicious payload executes automatically during package installation and establishes outbound communication to exfiltrate metadata about the target environment (package name, Node version, process privileges). The vulnerability affects all versions of reqquest and cannot be patched; the only mitigation is removal of the package from dependencies and verification of correct package names during installation.
Affected products
- npm reqquest all versions
Timeline
- 2020-09-02: disclosed: Malicious typosquatting package discovered and published in security advisory
- 2020-08-31: other: GitHub security review completed