covering the week's top tech stories with a slight linux bias three javascript packages have been removed from the npm portal for containing malicious code according to advisories from the mpm security team the three javascript libraries open shells on the computers of developers who imported the packages into their projects the shells allow threat actors to connect remotely to the infected computer and execute malicious operations the npm security team said that the shells don't depend on a particular operating system and could be used to compromise windows linux freebsd openbsd and other systems all three packages were uploaded to the npm portal in 2018 and each had hundreds of downloads since then the package's names are plutovs dash slack dash client nodetest199 and nodetest1010 npm security team said any computer that is that has this package installed or running should be considered fully compromised all secrets and keys stored on that computer should be rotated immediately from a different computer they warn the package should be removed but as full control of the computer may have been given to an outside entity there is no guarantee that removing the package will remove all malicious software resulting from installing it mpm security staff regularly scans its collection of javascript libraries considered the largest package repository for any programming language thanks for watching the category 5 tv newsroom don't forget to like and subscribe for all your tech news with a slight linux bias and if you appreciate what we do become a patron at patreon.com category 5. from the category 5 dot tv newsroom i'm becca ferguson [Music] you