CVE-2018-7166

In all versions of Node.js 10 prior to 10.9.0, an argument processing flaw can cause `Buffer.alloc()` to return uninitialized memory. This method is intended to be safe and only return initialized, or cleared, memory. The third argument specifying `encoding` can be passed as a number, this is misinterpreted by `Buffer's` internal "fill" method as the `start` to a fill operation. This flaw may be abused where `Buffer.alloc()` arguments are derived from user input to return uncleared memory blocks that may contain sensitive information.

CVSS 3.1

7.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

EPSS

3.3% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days; higher than 88% of CVEs (scores of 2026-10-25)

CWEs

CWE-908, CWE-226

Published

2018-08-21

Modified

2026-10-08

Record from

the NVD, synced 2026-10-19

Affected

• nodejs:node.js

References

• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2553
• https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/august-2018-security-releases/
• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2553
• https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/august-2018-security-releases/

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