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High

Security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVCVE: 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.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2018-7166
Confirmed fixed CVEs
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Updated in this feed
1 Nov 2026, 07:12 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

CVE-2018-7166

core-osv · Original source

Published 21 Aug 2018, 12:29 UTC

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.

osv:CVE-2018-7166
Complete source record
{
  "id": "7581c021cb04a670b8f398ff2e6acec2f53eae236c3c7a1b114c8d05b355c0aa",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-7166",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "CVE-2018-7166",
    "summary": "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.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2018-7166",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2018-7166",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2018-7166"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/nodejs/node",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "cf41627411886000429bde058a6594fb7f6d6d47"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "03b825811ed4af0addcdf6e75bacb3dc1c4c5940"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:nodejs:node.js:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "10.0.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "10.9.0"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "v10.8.0",
            "v10.7.0",
            "v10.6.0",
            "v10.5.0",
            "v10.4.1",
            "v10.4.0",
            "v10.3.0",
            "v10.2.1",
            "v10.2.0",
            "v10.1.0",
            "v10.0.0"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2018-7166.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-24T10:30:50.142826200Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2553",
        "https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/august-2018-security-releases/"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {}
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2018-7166",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 437157,
  "published_at": "2018-08-21T12:29:00.32+00:00"
}