Why Empty NPM Package Has Over 700,000 Downloads

August 3, 2021

An NPM package with the tag “-” has had almost 720,000 downloads since its release in the npm register at the beginning of 2020.

This is because the packet is fed whenever someone makes a typo while executing npm commands.

There is only one version of the package and this version “0.0.1” contains three files, but the contents of the files have nothing groundbreaking and mainly contain skeleton code.

The obviously useless package “-” serves as a dependency for over 50 npm packages.

But it is still something to worry about. Although the package does not contain much at the moment, it may have a newer version that is more malicious.

For more information, read the original story in Bleeping Computer.

Top Stories

Related Articles

December 30, 2025 A fast-moving cyberattack has compromised more than 59,000 internet-facing Next.js servers in less than two days after more...

December 29, 2025 The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has warned that several of its Internet Time more...

December 29, 2025 A critical security flaw has been found in LangChain, one of the most widely used frameworks for more...

December 23, 2025 South Korea will require facial recognition scans to open new mobile phone accounts. The new rule is more...

Jim Love

Jim is an author and podcast host with over 40 years in technology.

Share:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn