> This creates a secondary deception layer. After infection, running npm list in the project directory will report [email protected] — because npm list reads the version field from the installed package.json, which now says 4.2.0. An incident responder checking installed packages would see a version number that does not match the malicious 4.2.1 version they were told to look for, potentially leading them to conclude the system was not compromised.

WTF!!!! gaslighting your victims into believing they are not victims. the ingenuity of this is truly mindblowing. I am shocked at such thing is even allowed. like packages should not be able to modify their contents while they are being instaleld.