> But the fact that at least on npm it was possible that someone else grabs a package ID after an author pulled its packages is kind of alarming.
Since your comment starts with commentary on crates.io, I'll note that this has never been possible crates.io.
> Dependency confusion attacks are still possible on cargo because the whole - vs _ as delimiter wasn’t settled in the beginning.
I don't think this has ever been true. AFAIK crates.io has always prevented registering two different crates whose names differ only in the use of dashes vs underscores.
Since your comment starts with commentary on crates.io, I'll note that this has never been possible crates.io.
> Dependency confusion attacks are still possible on cargo because the whole - vs _ as delimiter wasn’t settled in the beginning.
I don't think this has ever been true. AFAIK crates.io has always prevented registering two different crates whose names differ only in the use of dashes vs underscores.
> package namespaces
See https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/122349
> proof of ownership
See https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/3724 and https://blog.rust-lang.org/2025/07/11/crates-io-development-...