Mitigating supply chain attacks with package cooldowns

2026-08-25 / tags: guides, quick reads, security, technical

Software developers and the libraries and applications they write are prime targets for attackers seeking to grab all sorts of valuable prizes: cloud service credentials, downstream users, cryptocurrency wallet keys, networks of all kinds... the list goes on and on. As such, software supply chain attacks have been ramping up for the past several years, and they're now reaching a fever pitch. I can't recall a month of this year I didn't read about a popular software library getting compromised, leading to downstream libraries and applications being accessed by the attacker in turn.

Fear not, though! Waiting to use new versions of software packages for a time after they are published can help avoid getting pwned by a supply chain attack. Updates to dependency management tools for a variety of programming languages allow this to happen automatically as part of regular dependency updates, meaning this protection doesn't come at the expense of a smooth workflow.

Cooldowns.dev is a cool^[1] reference website that details how to configure various package managers to include cooldowns. As of writing, it's got instructions for over a dozen package managers supporting six language ecosystems, and because its source is hosted on GitHub and open to pull requests, it can get updates for new functionality quickly.

That's all for this post. Check out Cooldowns.dev when you want to add a quick, easy, and effective mitigation to protect yourself and your projects from supply chain attacks!