react-native-loading-spinner-overlay is a small, dependency-free React Native component for showing a full-screen loading spinner, and its main security consideration today is not a known exploit but the fact that it is effectively unmaintained. The package solves a genuinely useful problem and has no runtime dependencies, which limits its attack surface, but its last release was version 3.0.1 in July 2022. That combination shapes how you should evaluate the react native loading spinner overlay component before adding it to a production app.
What the package does
The component renders a modal overlay with an activity indicator on top of your screen, blocking interaction while an async operation runs. You control visibility with a single visible prop and can pass a custom spinner, text, or color. The typical usage looks like this:
import Spinner from 'react-native-loading-spinner-overlay';
function Screen() {
const [loading, setLoading] = useState(false);
return (
<View>
<Spinner visible={loading} textContent="Loading..." />
</View>
);
}
There is nothing exotic here. It wraps React Native's Modal and ActivityIndicator, which is exactly why it has stayed useful and why so many apps pulled it in years ago.
Maintenance status is the real signal
According to npm, the latest published version is 3.0.1, released on 28 July 2022. That means the package has gone several years without an update. It is MIT licensed, has no dependencies of its own, and reports no known vulnerabilities at the time of writing.
A package with zero dependencies and no open advisories is lower risk than a sprawling one with a deep tree. But "no known vulnerabilities" is not the same as "safe forever." An unmaintained package will not get a fix if a flaw is discovered, and it will not track breaking changes in React Native itself. As the framework moves forward, an old component can quietly stop working or start emitting deprecation warnings you cannot silence at the source.
One concrete example of drift: the separately published @types/react-native-loading-spinner-overlay TypeScript definitions were deprecated because the package began shipping its own types. If you copied an old setup that installs both, you can end up with conflicting declarations.
How to assess an unmaintained UI dependency
Not every stale package is a liability. Use a short checklist to decide whether react-native-loading-spinner-overlay belongs in your build.
First, check the dependency footprint. This one has none, so a supply chain compromise through a transitive package is not a concern here. That is a meaningful point in its favor. Contrast it with utility libraries that drag in a dozen indirect dependencies, any of which can be the weak link.
Second, look at what the component touches. A pure UI overlay does not read secrets, make network calls, or handle serialization. Its blast radius if something went wrong is small compared to an auth or crypto library. The severity ceiling for a spinner is low.
Third, weigh replaceability. Because the component is thin, you can reproduce it in a few lines with React Native's built-in Modal and ActivityIndicator if you ever need to. A dependency you can drop in an afternoon is a dependency you can afford to keep on a short leash.
Reproducing it without the dependency
If your policy discourages unmaintained packages, the native replacement is straightforward:
import { Modal, View, ActivityIndicator, Text } from 'react-native';
export function SpinnerOverlay({ visible, text }) {
return (
<Modal visible={visible} transparent animationType="fade">
<View style={{ flex: 1, alignItems: 'center', justifyContent: 'center',
backgroundColor: 'rgba(0,0,0,0.5)' }}>
<ActivityIndicator size="large" color="#fff" />
{text ? <Text style={{ color: '#fff', marginTop: 12 }}>{text}</Text> : null}
</View>
</Modal>
);
}
This removes a third-party dependency entirely and gives you full control over the styling and future maintenance. For a component this small, owning the code is often cleaner than owning the risk of a dormant package.
Keeping tabs on packages like this
Whether you keep the dependency or replace it, the discipline is the same: know what is in your package.json and get told when its risk changes. A single low-risk package is easy to reason about, but real apps have hundreds of transitive dependencies, and the unmaintained ones are exactly where problems accumulate unnoticed. An SCA tool such as Safeguard can inventory those packages and surface newly disclosed advisories against versions you actually ship, so a future CVE against a dependency does not sit undetected.
For UI components specifically, prefer packages with recent releases, an active issue tracker, and a small dependency tree. When a package fails those tests but still does the job, decide deliberately: pin the version, document why, and keep a replacement plan ready. That is a much healthier position than discovering an abandoned dependency during an incident.
FAQ
Is react-native-loading-spinner-overlay safe to use?
It has no known vulnerabilities and no runtime dependencies, so it is low risk today. The caveat is that its last release was 3.0.1 in July 2022, so it is effectively unmaintained and will not receive fixes or React Native compatibility updates going forward.
Does react-native-loading-spinner-overlay have dependencies?
No. The package ships with zero runtime dependencies, which keeps its supply chain attack surface minimal. It relies only on React Native primitives that you already have installed.
Should I still install the @types package?
No. The @types/react-native-loading-spinner-overlay definitions were deprecated because the package now provides its own TypeScript types. Installing both can cause conflicting declarations.
What is a good alternative?
Because the component is thin, the simplest alternative is to build your own overlay with React Native's built-in Modal and ActivityIndicator. That removes the dependency and gives you long-term control over the code.