Reference page — cumulative record through Monday, October 19, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2018-7166

CVE-2018-7166HIGH

The Node.js Project Node.js — In all versions of Node.js 10 prior to 10.9.0, an argument processing flaw can cause `Buffer.alloc()` to return uninitialized memory.

  AV  AC  PR  UI  S  C  I  A   CVSS    EPSS   %ile   KEV
   N   L   N   N  U  H  N  N    7.5   .0279   86.2     —

AFFECTED
  Product  Versions                                      Fixed
  Node.js  All versions of Node.js 10 prior to 10.9.0 –  —

TIMELINE
  Feb 15  Reserved by nodejs
  Aug 21  Published (CNA: nodejs)
  Oct 8   ENRICHED — CVE-2018-7166 (The Node.js Project Node.js). Received CVSS 7.5 and CPE data from NVD.

CWE-908, CWE-226 · CNA: nodejs · CVSS v3.1 · 2 references · NVD status: Modified

Description

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.

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
Date	Event	Detail
February 15, 2018	Reserved	Reserved by nodejs
August 21, 2018	Published	Published (CNA: nodejs)
October 8, 2026	ENRICHED	ENRICHED — CVE-2018-7166 (The Node.js Project Node.js). Received CVSS 7.5 and CPE data from NVD.

Affected

Affected products and packages — 1 row
Vendor	Product / Package	Ecosystem	Version introduced	Fixed
The Node.js Project	Node.js	—	All versions of Node.js 10 prior to 10.9.0	—

Weaknesses

CWE-908 · CWE-226

References (2)

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2553 [Third Party Advisory]
https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/august-2018-security-releases/ [Vendor Advisory]

Authoritative record: CVE-2018-7166 at cve.org

Vendors: the node.js project

Weaknesses: CWE-908 · CWE-226

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2018-7166 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Monday, October 19, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.