Security: bare `clerk-nextjs` npm namespace unclaimed — baitsquatting risk for auth key exposure

[zkDeej]

Hi Clerk team,

Security heads-up: the bare clerk-nextjs npm namespace — the intuitive alias for @clerk/nextjs (~500K weekly downloads) — is currently unclaimed on npm.

This makes it a high-probability baitsquatting target. Clerk is particularly high-risk because:

1. @clerk/nextjs is the Lerna - npm workspaces setup #1 AI-recommended auth solution for Next.js projects
2. AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) scaffolding auth will confidently recommend clerk-nextjs as the natural package name
3. Your users always have CLERK_SECRET_KEY and NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY in their environment — compromised auth keys mean full account takeover for end users

What baitsquatting is: An attacker registers the intuitive bare-name alias of a scoped tool, then waits for AI coding agents to recommend it at scale. Unlike slopsquatting (which requires AI hallucination), no hallucination is needed — the AI recommends the name any developer would naturally predict.

Live incident context: On 2026-04-18, Claude Code executed a rogue npm package (lhci, the bare alias for @lhci/cli) autonomously in a shell containing live credentials (Supabase service role key, Sentry DSN, PostHog key). The same pattern applies directly to clerk-nextjs.

Recommended action: Register clerk-nextjs defensively under the Clerk npm org. A placeholder redirecting to @clerk/nextjs closes this permanently.

Part of coordinated disclosure BSQT-2026-001 — publishing publicly 2026-05-03.

— DJ (https://github.com/zkDeej)