🛡️ Fixing Vulnerabilities in Your Angular Project: A Practical Guide

When working with Angular (or any Node.js-based project), vulnerability scans often reveal issues that trace back to dependencies. Sometimes the fixes are straightforward — other times, you’re wrestling with a stubborn package-lock.json that’s out of sync with your package.json.

In this post, let’s walk through how to identify, fix, and prevent package-related vulnerabilities in Angular projects.

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🔍 Step 1: Run a Vulnerability Scan

Start with:

npm audit

or, if you use Yarn:

yarn audit

For more advanced scanning, tools like Snyk or OWASP Dependency-Check provide deeper reports.

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🛠️ Step 2: Fix What You Can Automatically

Many issues can be resolved with:

npm audit fix

If that doesn’t fix everything:

npm audit fix --force

⚠️ Note: --force may update packages to breaking versions. Always test your app after running it.

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🔄 Step 3: Align package.json and package-lock.json

Sometimes vulnerabilities remain because your lock file is pulling old versions of dependencies.

1. Clean install with fresh lock file:

rm -rf node_modules package-lock.json
npm install

1. This regenerates package-lock.json to match package.json.

2. Update direct dependencies:

npm outdated
npm install <package>@latest

1. This ensures your key Angular and library versions are up to date.

2. For nested/transitive dependencies (not listed in package.json):

   • Use npm-force-resolutions to override specific versions.

   • Add a “resolutions” field in package.json (works with Yarn and via npm-force-resolutions).

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🧹 Step 4: Remove Orphaned Dependencies

Sometimes vulnerabilities come from packages you don’t even use anymore. Run:

npm prune

to remove unused packages.

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📦 Step 5: Keep Angular CLI & Core Updated

Angular provides regular updates that patch security issues. Run:

ng update @angular/cli @angular/core

This ensures the framework itself stays secure.

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🚀 Pro Tips for Long-Term Security

• Add npm audit to your CI/CD pipeline.

• Review dependency changes in PRs carefully.

• Prefer actively maintained packages.

• Subscribe to Angular’s official security advisories.

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✨ Wrapping Up

Vulnerability scans are not just noise — they’re early warning systems. By cleaning up lock files, keeping dependencies aligned, and updating regularly, you can drastically reduce risk in your Angular projects.

Next time you see that intimidating audit report, don’t panic — follow the steps above, and you’ll get things back on track.