What the Fork? Finding Hidden Code Clones in npm

Abstract

This work presents findings and mitigations on an understudied issue, which we term shrinkwrapped clones, that is endemic to the npm software package ecosystem. A shrink-wrapped clone is a package which duplicates, or near-duplicates, the code of another package without any indication or reference to the original package. This phenomenon represents a challenge to the hygiene of package ecosystems, as a clone package may siphon interest from the package being cloned, or create hidden duplicates of vulnerable, insecure code which can fly under the radar of audit processes.