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Comment by junon

Ignore anything coming from npm you didn't expect. Don't click links, go to the website directly and address it there. That's what I should have done, and didn't because I was in a rush.

Don't do security things when you're not fully awake, too. Lesson learned.

The email was a "2FA update" email telling me it's been 12 months since I updated 2FA. That should have been a red flag but I've seen similarly dumb things coming from well-intentioned sites before. Since npm has historically been in contact about new security enhancements, this didn't smell particularly unbelievable to my nose.

The email went to the npm-specific inbox, which is another way I can verify them. That address can be queried publicly but I don't generally count on spammers to find that one but instead look at git addresses etc

The domain name was `npmjs dot help` which obviously should have caught my eye, and would have if I was a bit more awake.

The actual in-email link matched what I'd expect on npm's actual site, too.

I'm still trying to work out exactly how they got access. They didn't technically get a real 2FA code from the actual, I don't believe. EDIT: Yeah they did, nevermind. Was a TOTP proxy attack, or whatever you'd call it.

Will post a post-mortem when everything is said and done.

parent junon 1 year ago

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