{"ID":2859702,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.04495","arxiv_id":"2510.04495","title":"Detecting and Characterizing Low and No Functionality Packages in the NPM Ecosystem","abstract":"Trivial packages, small modules with low functionality, are common in the npm ecosystem and can pose security risks despite their simplicity. This paper refines existing definitions and introduce data-only packages that contain no executable logic. A rule-based static analysis method is developed to detect trivial and data-only packages and evaluate their prevalence and associated risks in the 2025 npm ecosystem. The analysis shows that 17.92% of packages are trivial, with vulnerability levels comparable to non-trivial ones, and data-only packages, though rare, also contain risks. The proposed detection tool achieves 94% accuracy (macro-F1 0.87), enabling effective large-scale analysis to reduce security exposure. This findings suggest that trivial and data-only packages warrant greater attention in dependency management to reduce potential technical debt and security exposure.","short_abstract":"Trivial packages, small modules with low functionality, are common in the npm ecosystem and can pose security risks despite their simplicity. This paper refines existing definitions and introduce data-only packages that contain no executable logic. A rule-based static analysis method is developed to detect trivial and...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.04495","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.04495v1","authors":"[\"Napasorn Tevarut\",\"Brittany Reid\",\"Yutaro Kashiwa\",\"Pattara Leelaprute\",\"Arnon Rungsawang\",\"Bundit Manaskasemsak\",\"Hajimu Iida\"]","published":"2025-10-06T05:11:49Z","proceeding":"cs.SE","tasks":"[\"cs.SE\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}