Every package node points down at the other packages it depends on. Compromising one package doesn't just hit projects that chose it directly — the infection climbs back up every "depends on me" edge, package by package, until it reaches every package that transitively relies on it, and from there every project that pulled in any of those packages.
- Deeply-embedded leaf — a small, rarely-noticed package (like the real 2016
left-pad) that many popular packages quietly depend on. Compromising it can cascade through several hops and hit a large share of projects at once.
- Isolated leaf — a package almost nothing else depends on. Compromising it stays contained to the handful of projects that use it directly.
- SBOM scan — a Software Bill of Materials lists every package (direct and transitive) inside every project. Once a compromised package's signature is published, scanning every project's SBOM for it is near-instant — the real bottleneck is how long it takes anyone to notice the compromise in the first place.