Defending the Core: A Centrality-Based Protection Strategy for Supply Chain Security in npm Dependency Network

Computer Science > Cryptography and Security [Submitted on 12 Jun 2026] Defending the Core: A Centrality-Based Protection Strategy for Supply Chain Security in npm Dependency Network Zixin Wang The modern software supply chain, taking Node Package Manager (npm) dependency network for example, relies heavily on shared open-source dependencies. While this promotes rapid development, it introduces systemic vulnerabilities as well. Concerning this potential risk, we analyze the npm dependency network by modeling 53,481 packages and 78,520 dependency edges, and classify the network as a scale-free topology. Thus, we demonstrate its inherent vulnerability to targeted attacks on high-degree hubs. To mitigate this, we propose and evaluate a dual-pronged defense strategy consisting of Centrality-Based Node-Hardening and Dependency Weight Warning system. Moreover, by simulating the network under various attack scenarios, we prove that applying strict security protocols to just the top 1% of nodes, combined with pruning 30% of structurally trivial edges, prevents catastrophic network collapse and neutralizes cascading malware infections. The source code can be found at this https URL. Subjects: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR); Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) Cite as: arXiv:2606.14036 [cs.CR]   (or arXiv:2606.14036v1 [cs.CR] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.14036 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Zixin Wang [view email] [v1] Fri, 12 Jun 2026 02:22:44 UTC (5,005 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: cs.CR < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-06 Change to browse by: cs cs.NI References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)