yarn-audit-fix

The missing yarn audit fix

• Digest
  • Problem
  • Solution
  • Key features
• Getting started
  • Requirements
  • Install
  • CLI
  • ENV
  • JS API
• Migration notes
  • ^10.0.0
  • ^9.0.0
  • ^8.0.0
  • ^7.0.0
  • ^6.0.0
  • ^4.0.0
• ⚠️ Troubleshooting
• Contributing
• License

Digest

Problem

1. yarn audit detects vulnerabilities, but cannot fix them. Authors suggest using Dependabot or Snyk for security patches. Well, it is very inconvenient in some situations, to say the least of it. The discussion: yarn/issues/7075.
2. yarn audit does not support custom (in-house, internal) registries. Here are the issue & PR which have not yet received the green light.

Solution

Fortunately, there are several workarounds:

1. Compose npm audit fix with lockfile converter (thanks to Gianfranco P., stackoverflow/60878037). yarn-audit-fix --flow=convert just reproduces these steps with minimal changes. More details: dev.to/yarn-audit-fix-workaround
2. Fetch yarn/npm audit --json advisories and patch lockfile inners (kudos to G. Kosev, code reference). yarn-audit-fix --flow=patch. Full description: dev.to/yarn-audit-fix-for-yarn-2-berry

Key features

• Works with Yarn 1 Classic & Yarn v2+ lockfiles (⚠️ experimental)
• A couple of strategies to fix security issues
• macOS / Linux / Windows support
• CLI / JS API
• TS and flow typings

Getting started

Requirements

Node.js: >=16.0.0

Install

1$ yarn add yarn-audit-fix -D

or even better

npm_config_yes=true npx yarn-audit-fix

CLI

$ yarn-audit-fix [--opts]

Preparing temp assets...
Generating package-lock.json from yarn.lock...
Applying npm audit fix...
invoke npm audit fix --package-lock-only
added 14 packages, removed 195 packages and updated 1245 packages in 4.795s
fixed 3 of 26 vulnerabilities in 1370 scanned packages
  23 vulnerabilities required manual review and could not be updated
Updating yarn.lock from package-lock.json...
invoke yarn import
info found npm package-lock.json, converting to yarn.lock
warning synp > request@2.88.2: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142
warning tslint-config-qiwi > tslint-react@5.0.0: tslint-react is deprecated along with TSLint
warning @qiwi/libdefkit > @types/read-pkg@5.1.0: This is a stub types definition. read-pkg provides its own type definitions, so you do not need this installed.
...
success Saved lockfile.
invoke yarn
[1/4] 🔍  Resolving packages...
success Already up-to-date.
Done

Option	Description	Default	with --flow=convert only
--flow	Define how yarn.lock is modified. convert — to compose npm audit fix with two-way lockfile conversion (legacy flow). patch — to directly inject audit json data	patch
--audit-level	Include a vulnerability with a level as defined or higher. Supported values: low, moderate, high, critical	low
--cwd	Current working dir	process.cwd()
--dry-run	Get an idea of what audit fix will do
--force	Have audit fix install semver-major updates to toplevel dependencies, not just semver-compatible ones	false
--help/-h	Print help message
--legacy-peer-deps	Accept an incorrect (potentially broken) deps resolution		✔
--loglevel	Set custom log level		✔
--npm-path	Switch to project's local npm version instead of system default. Or provide a custom path. system / local / <custom path>	system
--only	Set package update scope: dev/prod
--package-lock-only	Run audit fix without modifying node_modules. Highly recommended to enable.	true	✔
--registry	Custom registry url		✔
--silent	Disable log output	false
--symlink	Symlink type for node_modules ref	junction for Windows, dir otherwise
--temp	Directory for temporary assets	<cwd>/node_modules/.cache/yarn-audit-fix
--verbose	Switch log level to verbose/debug	false
--exclude	Array of glob patterns of packages to exclude from audit
--ignore	Array of glob patterns of advisory IDs to ignore in the audit report

ENV

All mentioned above CLI options can be replaced with the corresponding env variables with leading YAF prefix. For example:

• YAF_FORCE equals --force
• YAF_ONLY=prod — --only=prod

JS API

yarn-audit-fix is a naive and optimistic workaround, so it exposes all of its inners to give anybody a chance to tweak up and find a better steps combination. Typedoc: https://antongolub.github.io/yarn-audit-fix/modules/

1import { run, runSync } from 'yarn-audit-fix'
2
3// NOTE actually it's promisified `run.sync`
4await run({
5   flow: 'patch',
6   verbose: true
7})
8
9// `runSync` is an alias for `run.sync`
10await runSync({
11  flow: 'patch',
12  verbose: true
13})

Build and run custom flows.

1import {
2   clear,
3   exit,
4   patchLockfile,
5   yarnInstall
6} from 'yarn-audit-fix'
7
8export const flow: TFlow = {
9  main: [
10    [
11      'Patching yarn.lock with audit data...',
12      patchLockfile,
13      (...args) => {console.log('Smth interesting:', ...args)},
14      yarnInstall,
15    ],
16    ['Done'],
17  ],
18  fallback: [['Failure!', exit]],
19}
20
21await run({}, flow)

Migration notes

^10.0.0

v10 bumps the pkg deps and requires NodeJS v14.

^9.0.0

v9 brings experimental Yarn 2+ lockfiles support, so the previous behaviour (when yaf parsing failure may be used to detect them) has been changed.

^8.0.0

From v8 the library does not contain npm dependency, so the system default is used instead. If necessary you can:

• Install the required npm version and provide a custom path via CLI / ENV / JS API
• Use a pinch of npx magic: npm_config_yes=true YAF_NPM_PATH=local npx -p yarn-audit-fix -p npm@8 -c yarn-audit-fix

^7.0.0

Following the deps, converted to ESM. So legacy require API has been dropped since v7.0.0. Use the shiny new import instead or try your luck with esm-hook. CLI works as before.

1// const {run} = require('yarn-audit-fix') turns into
2import {run} from 'yarn-audit-fix'

^6.0.0

Default fix strategy has been changed to direct lockfile patching with yarn audit --json data. To use the previous legacy flow, pass --flow=convert option to CLI.

^4.0.0

--npm-v7 flag is redundant. From v4.0.0 package's own version of npm is used by default. But you're still able to invoke system default with --npm-path=system or define any custom --npm-path=/another/npm/bin.

Troubleshooting

DoS vulnerability for colors 1.4.x

If you have installed yaf between 7...11 of Jan 2022 and ran it with --flow=convert option, you might see an endless garbage loop in stdout. The problem was caused by the transitive dep: yarn-audit-fix → synp → colors@^1.4.0. Reasons and details: issues/218, snykvuln/2331906.
How to fix? There are 3 ways:

• Update yarn-audit-fix to >=9.0.5
• Pin colors version in your lockfile to 1.4.0
• Reinstall yarn-audit-fix. It looks like npm has already removed the vulnerable versions of colors from the registry, 2022-01-11.

yarn-audit-fix version x.x.x is out of date

npm_config_yes=true npx yarn-audit-fix --audit-level=moderate
Runtime digest
yarn-audit-fix version 4.3.6 is out of date. Install the latest 6.0.0 for better results

npx caches previously loaded packages, so you need one of:

1. Define version to load: npm yarn-audit-fix@6.0.0
2. Reset npx cache. For Mac/Linux: rm -rf ~/.npm/_npx

yarn-audit-fix command not found

After installation, the package may not be found. This is probably an issue with $PATH finding node_modules/.bin contents or smth like that (npm/issues/957). A bit annoying, but it's easy to handle in several ways.

• You're able to run the cmd through yarn: yarn yarn-audit-fix.
• Simply invoke node_modules/.bin/yarn-audit-fix script.

enoent: no such file or directory

In some cases npm audit fix makes node_modules to become inconsistent. This is expected. yarn and npm organize the directory space slightly differently.

npm WARN rm not removing /Users/antongolub/projects/queuefy/node_modules/.cache/yarn-audit-fix/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/node-gyp as it wasn't installed by /Users/antongolub/projects/queuefy/node_modules/.cache/yarn-audit-fix/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp
npm WARN rm not removing /Users/antongolub/projects/queuefy/node_modules/.cache/yarn-audit-fix/node_modules/npm/node_modules/.bin/uuid as it wasn't installed by /Users/antongolub/projects/queuefy/node_modules/.cache/yarn-audit-fix/node_modules/npm/node_modules/uuid
npm ERR! code ENOENT
npm ERR! syscall chmod
npm ERR! path /Users/antongolub/projects/queuefy/node_modules/.cache/yarn-audit-fix/node_modules/@qiwi/libdefkit/node_modules/flowgen/lib/cli/index.js
npm ERR! errno -2
npm ERR! enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, chmod '/Users/antongolub/projects/queuefy/node_modules/.cache/yarn-audit-fix/node_modules/@qiwi/libdefkit/node_modules/flowgen/lib/cli/index.js'
npm ERR! enoent This is related to npm not being able to find a file.
npm ERR! enoent 
npm ERR!     /Users/antongolub/.npm/_logs/2020-08-23T07_09_26_924Z-debug.log
{
  status: 254,
  signal: null,
  output: [ null, null, null ]

Let's try this workaround:

1. Restore the original node_modules state. yarn --force or rm-rf node_modules && yarn.
2. Apply npx yarn-audit-fix --package-lock-only. The last param should instruct npm not to modify node_modules contents.

--force did not force the update

The problem only concerns repositories with workspaces (monorepos). npm audit fix --force throws 1 status code and suggests running npm audit fix --force. This quite ironic behaviour is exactly what npm (arborist) does now.

$$ yarn-audit-fix --force          
 Preparing temp assets...
 Generating package-lock.json from yarn.lock...
 Applying npm audit fix...
 invoke /home/qwelias/.nvm/versions/node/v12.18.1/lib/node_modules/yarn-audit-fix/node_modules/.bin/npm audit fix --package-lock-only --force --prefix=/home/qwelias/prj/stuff/test-yarn-audit-fix/node_modules/.cache/yarn-audit-fix
 npm WARN using --force Recommended protections disabled.
 npm WARN audit Updating lodash to 4.17.20,which is outside your stated dependency range.
 npm WARN audit Manual fix required in linked project at ./packages/bar for lodash@<=4.17.18.
 npm WARN audit 'cd ./packages/bar' and run 'npm audit' for details.
 npm WARN audit Manual fix required in linked project at ./packages/foo for lodash@<=4.17.18.
 npm WARN audit 'cd ./packages/foo' and run 'npm audit' for details.
 
 up to date, audited 7 packages in 2s
 
 # npm audit report
 
 lodash  <=4.17.18
 Severity: high
 Prototype Pollution - https://npmjs.com/advisories/782
 Prototype Pollution - https://npmjs.com/advisories/1065
 fix available via `npm audit fix --force`
 Will install lodash@4.17.20, which is outside the stated dependency range
 packages/bar/node_modules/lodash
 packages/foo/node_modules/lodash
 
 1 high severity vulnerability
 
 To address all issues, run:
   npm audit fix --force
 {
   status: 1,
   signal: null,
   output: [ null, null, null ],
   pid: 176019,
   stdout: null,
   stderr: null
 }

So you need, as the message says, to manually change the dependency versions. npm@7 is still in beta, perhaps this logic will be changed later. In some cases npm@6 works better, so if you have such a version installed on your system, you may try:

1npx yarn-audit-fix --npm-path=system --flow=convert

You may also try to cast the optimistic flags combo

1npx yarn-audit-fix --package-lock-only=false --force --legacy-peer-deps --flow=convert

Unfortunately, even this invocation may return something like:

1# npm audit report
2
3hosted-git-info  <3.0.8
4Severity: moderate
5Regular Expression Deinal of Service - https://npmjs.com/advisories/1677
6No fix available
7node_modules/normalize-package-data/node_modules/hosted-git-info
8  normalize-package-data  2.0.0 - 2.5.0
9  Depends on vulnerable versions of hosted-git-info
10  node_modules/normalize-package-data
11    meow  3.4.0 - 9.0.0
12    Depends on vulnerable versions of normalize-package-data
13    Depends on vulnerable versions of read-pkg-up

No fix available just means that no fix available. If you still doubt the correctness of the output, you can check it by hand.

1npm i --package-lock-only
2npm audit fix --package-lock-only --force

Same response for alternative patching flow:

1npm_config_yes=true npx yarn-audit-fix --audit-level=moderate --flow=patch

1Patching yarn.lock with audit data...
2invoke yarn audit --json --level moderate
3Can't find patched version that satisfies postcss@^7.0.0 in >=8.2.10
4Can't find patched version that satisfies postcss@^7.0.1 in >=8.2.10
5Can't find patched version that satisfies postcss@^7.0.27 in >=8.2.10
6Can't find patched version that satisfies ws@^7.2.3 in >=6.2.2 <7.0.0 || >=7.4.6
7Upgraded deps: <none>
8invoke yarn --update-checksums

Not everything can be repaired, alack.

Cannot install package despite being on correct node version

yarn-audit-fix is compatible with any NodeJS version which supports ESM, but the nested packages can define their own engine requirements.

1pkg-dir@7.0.0: The engine "node" is incompatible with this module. Expected version ">=14.16". Got "14.15.1"

The recommended way is to update the runtime version. As a temporary workaround, you can simply pass --ignore-engines flag.

1yarn add yarn-audit-fix -D --ignore-engines

Response Code: 400 (Bad Request)

In some cases yarn npm audit fails because the yarn.lock file contains a transitive dependency in unreadable format:

  'example-dependency': 'npm:example-dependency@1.0.0'

This will results in:

1invoke yarn npm audit --all --json --recursive
2➤ YN0035: Bad Request
3➤ YN0035:   Response Code: 400 (Bad Request)
4➤ YN0035:   Request Method: POST
5➤ YN0035:   Request URL: https://registry.yarnpkg.com/-/npm/v1/security/audits/quick

https://github.com/yarnpkg/berry/issues/4117

A workaround is available using the exclude option:

1. Update project yarn to >=3.3.0 (lower version doesn't support this parameter for yarn npm audit).
2. Apply npx yarn-audit-fix --exclude example-dependency. This will cause yarn to ignore example-dependency while creating the audit report.

Contributing

Feel free to open any issues: bugs, feature requests or other questions. You're always welcome to suggest a PR. Just fork this repo, write some code, add some tests and push your changes. Any feedback is appreciated.

License

MIT