I'll put the two blog posts that people have been linking to in the top text there, so people can read them if they want.
* we'll re-up the post so that it goes to roughly the same place on the frontpage that this submission was at before merging. that relativizes the timestamp (here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...), but I believe longcat's submission was first.
Sorry neuroo - I know it sucks to have a post doing well on HN's frontpage and them plummet. But users are disagreeing about which URL is best so it seems safest to pick the original/official source, and to give the 'credit' to the first submitter.
> Run semgrep --config [...]
> Alternatively, you can run nx –version [...]
Have we not learned, yet? The number of points this submission has already earned says we have not.
People, do not trust security advisors who tell you to do such things, especially ones who also remove the original instructions entirely and replace them with instructions to run their tools instead.
The original security advisory is at https://github.com/nrwl/nx/security/advisories/GHSA-cxm3-wv7... and at no point does it tell you to run the compromised programs in order to determine whether they are compromised versions. Or to run semgrep for that matter.
Good callout. Evidence so far points to `nx --version` itself being safe because this was in a post-install script but we changed the rec in our post.
We took the versions in the Github security advisory and compiled it into a Semgrep rule which is MIT-licensed: https://semgrep.dev/c/r/oqUk5lJ/semgrep.ssc-mal-resp-2025-08.... Semgrep rules can be overkill for these use cases but it can be convenient to have a single command to check for all affected versions across multiple packages, especially for our users who already have Semgrep installed. That's basically what I did on all our internal repos.
We updated the blog post to note the Semgrep rule is MIT licensed. And you can run locally with Semgrep (which is LGPL: https://github.com/returntocorp/semgrep) if you curl it and run `semgrep --config=rule.yaml`
Create a blog post about a security issue. Post it on HN and get upvotes. Find people who believe they might be affected. Let them run the affected program. Boom.
https://semgrep.dev/solutions/secure-vibe-coding/
if software development is turning into their demo:
- does this code I've written have any vulnerabilities?
- also what does the code do
It only did run affected programs of course but it's so stupid to even talk about vscode in that case. if you used the affected nx versions you are affected no matter if you used vscode,webstorm, whatever ide of your liking. if you used a not affected nx version nothing happend no matter which vscode version you used.
I found the first submission on the story (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45034496), which used a github url, and merged the thread into it - more explanation at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45042727.
Still, why does the payload only upload the paths to files without their actual contents?
Why would they not have the full attack ready before publishing it? Was it really just meant as a data gathering operation, a proof of concept, or are they just a bit stupid?
https://github.com/nrwl/nx/security/advisories/GHSA-cxm3-wv7...
Especially: given the .bashrc editing to cause shutdown. This thing is obviously trying to be as loud as possible, without being overly destructive.