Cooldown policies - Block malicious packages at the index

Every dependency pull is a trust decision. Public registries don't vet what they serve.

Cooldown policies give you a gate at the moment that matters most: when a package first enters your environment. Dan McKinney (Solutions Engineering Manager) walks through how Cloudsmith's cooldown policies work and how to configure one in under five minutes.

What Dan covers:

  • Why new packages represent the highest-risk window in your supply chain
  • How cooldown policies hold packages until threat intelligence catches up
  • How to configure a cooldown policy using the built-in template
  • How to set your cooldown period, scope it to specific repos, and handle existing cached packages
  • What compliant and non-compliant package installs look like in practice

Cooldown policies close a specific gap: the time between when a bad package is published and when your other tools catch up. Cloudsmith gives you pre-ingestion control, continuous reevaluation as new threat data comes in, and a clear record of what entered your environment, under what policy, and when.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Why public registries lack admission controls

1:09 - How cooldown policies work

1:25 - Creating a cooldown policy in Cloudsmith

2:00 - Setting the cooldown period and scoping repositories

2:34 - Enabling the policy

2:41 - Live demo: package install with cooldown active

3:45 - What cooldown policies protect against

Ready to see how cooldown policies fit your team's setup? Book a demo or start a free trial today. https://cloudsmith.com/book-a-demo

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