{"id":"CVE-2018-7166","url":"https://www.cyber-defence.io/tools/cve/CVE-2018-7166","generatedAt":"2026-10-29T00:33:27.451Z","title":"In all versions of Node.js 10 prior to 10.9.0, an argument processing flaw can cause `Buffer.alloc()` to return uninitialized memory.","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.","published":"2018-08-21T12:29:00.000Z","lastModified":"2026-10-08T22:16:48.000Z","status":"Modified","sourceIdentifier":"cve-request@iojs.org","cvss":{"version":"3.1","score":7.5,"severity":"HIGH","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N"},"cwe":["CWE-226","CWE-908"],"affected":["nodejs/node.js"],"epss":{"score":0.03289,"percentile":0.88416,"date":"2026-10-27","history":[]},"kev":{"listed":false},"exploits":{"count":0,"verified":false,"firstPublished":null,"source":"Exploit-DB (https://gitlab.com/exploit-database/exploitdb)","entries":[]},"verdict":{"level":"high","text":"High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (3.29%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit."},"changes":[],"references":[{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2553","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"cve-request@iojs.org"},{"url":"https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/august-2018-security-releases/","tags":["Vendor Advisory"],"source":"cve-request@iojs.org"},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2553","tags":["Third Party Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"https://nodejs.org/en/blog/vulnerability/august-2018-security-releases/","tags":["Vendor Advisory"],"source":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"}],"sources":{"nvd":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-7166","epss":"https://www.first.org/epss/","kev":"https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","exploitdb":"https://www.exploit-db.com/"},"licence":"CC BY 4.0 — link back to the CVE Explorer if you publish the results; upstream data remains subject to its own terms."}