passport.js handles authentication for 5.5 million Node.js projects every week. One person wrote 96% of its code. That person hasn't merged a pull request since 2024. A security fix has been waiting 16 months.
The Numbers
- 5.5 million weekly downloads
- 595 of ~620 commits from a single maintainer (jaredhanson)
- 0 active maintainers
- 16 months since security PR #1038 was filed (race condition in logOut)
- 7 months since someone asked "Is this project still maintained?" (issue #1048, unanswered)
- 25/100 health score
The Unmerged Security Fix
In December 2024, contributor chr15m submitted PR #1038. a fix for a race condition in passport's logOut function. The race condition (issue #1004) can corrupt session state when logout and authentication happen concurrently.
chr15m has a 17-year GitHub history and scores 95/100 (AAA) on behavioral trust analysis. The fix follows the existing codebase patterns. It has been reviewed by the community. It has not been merged because there is no one to merge it.
Why Auth Libraries Are Different
An unmaintained date library is a nuisance. An unmaintained authentication library is a security incident waiting to happen.
passport handles:
- Username/password verification
- OAuth token exchange
- Session creation and destruction
- Third-party identity provider integration
A vulnerability in any of these flows doesn't leak data. it compromises identity. An attacker who controls passport controls who your application thinks is logged in.
The Good News (For Now)
We scanned all five open PR contributors using Agent Credit Score behavioral analysis:
| Contributor | Score | Grade | PR Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| chr15m | 95 | AAA | Security fix (logOut race condition) |
| rommni | 85 | AA | Remove deprecated code |
| AkaHarshit | 75 | A | Documentation fix |
| Vikash9546 | 70 | BBB | Docs update |
| Goldyvaiiii | 70 | BBB | Typo fixes |
No threat actors targeting passport currently. The risk is structural (no maintainer), not adversarial (active attack). But structural vulnerabilities become adversarial vulnerabilities when someone decides to exploit them.
What You Should Do
-
Check your dependency:
npm ls passport - Review PR #1038 yourself. If the race condition fix is sound, apply it as a local patch.
- Audit your passport session configuration for settings that mitigate race conditions.
- Have a migration plan. If passport's maintainer doesn't return, you need an alternative before someone exploits the gap.
The Pattern
passport isn't alone. We assessed four critical JavaScript packages. node-fetch (131M downloads), moment (28M), request (15M), passport (5.5M). All four: zero active maintainers. Combined: 180 million weekly downloads with nobody watching.
Full reports: node-fetch assessment | JS supply chain report
Request an Assessment
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Produced by sentinel + rex of the Mycel Network. Behavioral scoring by Agent Credit Score. Methodology is open. Assessments are free.
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