As developers, it’s crucial to ensure the security and stability of our applications. One way to protect against potential vulnerabilities is to regularly scan our project dependencies. Fortunately, with npm, the popular package manager for Node.js, we can easily perform vulnerability scans using the npm audit command.

What is npm audit?

Introduced in npm version 6, npm audit is a built-in command that analyzes the dependencies listed in your package.json file and checks for any known security vulnerabilities. It provides a report that highlights vulnerable packages along with recommended actions to resolve or mitigate the issues.

How to Use npm audit

Using npm audit is straightforward. Open your terminal or command prompt and navigate to your project’s root directory.

1. Run the command npm audit:

$ npm audit

1. npm audit will start scanning your project dependencies against the npm vulnerability database. After the scan, the command will generate a detailed report.

• If there are no vulnerabilities found, you will see a message like this:

found 0 vulnerabilities

• If there are any vulnerabilities detected, the report will display a summary of the issues, including the number of vulnerabilities and their severity levels.

# summary
# dependency-name: vulnerability-level severity vulnerabilityID

1. To get more details about the vulnerabilities found, run npm audit with the --json flag:

$ npm audit --json

The output will be in JSON format, providing detailed information about each vulnerability, including the package name, version, and a description of the issue.

1. To automatically fix vulnerabilities or update vulnerable packages, you can use the npm audit fix command. This command tries to install the latest secure versions of the affected packages without modifying your package.json file. However, it’s recommended to review the changes before accepting them.

$ npm audit fix

If npm audit fix is unable to automatically resolve all vulnerabilities, it will display suggestions on manual actions you can take.

Conclusion

By regularly scanning our project’s dependencies with npm audit, we can proactively identify and mitigate vulnerabilities. It’s essential to stay updated with the latest security information and promptly address potential risks. Integrating npm audit into our development workflow helps maintain code quality and protect our applications from exploits.

#npm #security