Snyk helps open-source maintainers keep their packages safe and up-to-date with security patches, which is crucial in reducing the risk of exploitation when vulnerabilities are discovered but not fixed immediately. Snyk's security patching mechanism applies fixes directly to affected npm packages, even if there's no official release available, and does so seamlessly during the npm installation process, protecting users from potential security threats. The mechanism works by integrating with npm's package.json script support for lifecycle events, such as prepublish, to apply patches before publishing or installing a package, ensuring that users are protected even when maintainers are unable to release new versions with fixes quickly enough. Snyk also provides a free security patching solution for all users, making it an essential tool in staying ahead of un-remediated security vulnerabilities.