npm audit and ways to resolve it other than npm audit fix
05:32 09 Feb 2026

I'm creating an electron app, and these are the dependencies installed:

  "devDependencies": {
    "@electron-forge/cli": "^7.11.1",
    "@electron-forge/maker-deb": "^7.11.1",
    "@electron-forge/maker-rpm": "^7.11.1",
    "@electron-forge/maker-squirrel": "^7.11.1",
    "@electron-forge/maker-zip": "^7.11.1",
    "@electron-forge/plugin-auto-unpack-natives": "^7.11.1",
    "@electron-forge/plugin-fuses": "^7.11.1",
    "@electron/fuses": "^1.8.0",
    "electron": "^40.1.0",
    "prettier": "^3.8.1"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "electron-squirrel-startup": "^1.0.1"
  }

When I did npm install I get these high risk vulnerabilities issues listed:

# npm audit report

tar  <=7.5.6
Severity: high
node-tar is Vulnerable to Arbitrary File Overwrite and Symlink Poisoning via Insufficient Path Sanitization - https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8qq5-rm4j-mr97
Race Condition in node-tar Path Reservations via Unicode Ligature Collisions on macOS APFS - https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-r6q2-hw4h-h46w
node-tar Vulnerable to Arbitrary File Creation/Overwrite via Hardlink Path Traversal - https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-34x7-hfp2-rc4v
No fix available
node_modules/tar
  @electron/node-gyp  *
  Depends on vulnerable versions of make-fetch-happen
  Depends on vulnerable versions of tar
  node_modules/@electron/node-gyp
    @electron/rebuild  3.2.10 - 4.0.2
    Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron/node-gyp
    Depends on vulnerable versions of tar
    node_modules/@electron/rebuild
      @electron-forge/core  *
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/core-utils
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/maker-base
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/plugin-base
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/publisher-base
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/template-base
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/template-vite
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/template-vite-typescript
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/template-webpack
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/template-webpack-typescript
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron/rebuild
      node_modules/@electron-forge/core
      @electron-forge/core-utils  *
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron/rebuild
      node_modules/@electron-forge/core-utils
        @electron-forge/cli  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/core
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/core-utils
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @inquirer/prompts
        node_modules/@electron-forge/cli
        @electron-forge/template-base  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/core-utils
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        node_modules/@electron-forge/template-base
      @electron-forge/shared-types  *
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron/rebuild
      node_modules/@electron-forge/shared-types
        @electron-forge/maker-base  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        node_modules/@electron-forge/maker-base
        @electron-forge/maker-deb  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/maker-base
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        node_modules/@electron-forge/maker-deb
        @electron-forge/maker-rpm  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/maker-base
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        node_modules/@electron-forge/maker-rpm
        @electron-forge/maker-squirrel  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/maker-base
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        node_modules/@electron-forge/maker-squirrel
        @electron-forge/maker-zip  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/maker-base
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        node_modules/@electron-forge/maker-zip
        @electron-forge/plugin-auto-unpack-natives  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/plugin-base
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        node_modules/@electron-forge/plugin-auto-unpack-natives
        @electron-forge/plugin-base  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        node_modules/@electron-forge/plugin-base
        @electron-forge/plugin-fuses  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/plugin-base
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        node_modules/@electron-forge/plugin-fuses
        @electron-forge/publisher-base  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        node_modules/@electron-forge/publisher-base
        @electron-forge/template-vite  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/template-base
        node_modules/@electron-forge/template-vite
        @electron-forge/template-vite-typescript  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/template-base
        node_modules/@electron-forge/template-vite-typescript
        @electron-forge/template-webpack  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/template-base
        node_modules/@electron-forge/template-webpack
        @electron-forge/template-webpack-typescript  *
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/shared-types
        Depends on vulnerable versions of @electron-forge/template-base
        node_modules/@electron-forge/template-webpack-typescript
  cacache  14.0.0 - 18.0.4
  Depends on vulnerable versions of tar
  node_modules/cacache
    make-fetch-happen  7.1.1 - 14.0.0
    Depends on vulnerable versions of cacache
    node_modules/make-fetch-happen

tmp  <=0.2.3
tmp allows arbitrary temporary file / directory write via symbolic link `dir` parameter - https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-52f5-9888-hmc6
No fix available
node_modules/tmp
  external-editor  >=1.1.1
  Depends on vulnerable versions of tmp
  node_modules/external-editor
    @inquirer/editor  <=4.2.15
    Depends on vulnerable versions of external-editor
    node_modules/@inquirer/editor
      @inquirer/prompts  <=6.0.1
      Depends on vulnerable versions of @inquirer/editor
      node_modules/@inquirer/prompts

27 vulnerabilities (4 low, 23 high)

To address issues that do not require attention, run:
  npm audit fix

Some issues need review, and may require choosing
a different dependency.

I did npm audit fix, and it doesn't resolve anything. And, I usually avoid doing npm audit fix --force as it ends up breaking up stuff a lot.

However, I do a yarn instead, and it outputs something like this:

╰─ yarn                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ─╯
➤ YN0088: A new stable version of Yarn is available: 4.12.0!
➤ YN0088: Upgrade now by running yarn set version 4.12.0

➤ YN0000: · Yarn 4.10.3
➤ YN0000: ┌ Resolution step
➤ YN0085: │ + @electron-forge/cli@npm:7.11.1, @electron-forge/maker-deb@npm:7.11.1, @electron-forge/maker-rpm@npm:7.11.1, @electron-forge/maker-squirrel@npm:7.11.1, @electron-forge/maker-zip@npm:7.11.1, and 513 more.
➤ YN0000: └ Completed in 5s 328ms
➤ YN0000: ┌ Fetch step
➤ YN0013: │ 4 packages were added to the project (+ 7.08 MiB).
➤ YN0000: └ Completed in 0s 460ms
➤ YN0000: ┌ Link step
➤ YN0031: │ One or more node_modules have been detected and will be removed. This operation may take some time.
➤ YN0000: │ ESM support for PnP uses the experimental loader API and is therefore experimental
➤ YN0007: │ electron-winstaller@npm:5.4.0 must be built because it never has been before or the last one failed
➤ YN0007: │ electron@npm:40.2.1 must be built because it never has been before or the last one failed
➤ YN0000: └ Completed in 0s 638ms
➤ YN0000: · Done with warnings in 6s 499ms


Now, I do know yarn has some automatic dependency resolving stuffs, but, I don't know if it's actually not printing any errors or has it resolved. `yarn audit` doesn't seem to be exist.

How can I make sure that **the vulnerabilities have been resolved?** Or, if there is another way to fix the `npm audit` issues, would love to know. Thanks in advance.
node.js npm electron yarn