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Developer · Credibility 94/100 · · 4 min read

Developer Briefing — October 1, 2024

Node.js 18 exits maintenance and reaches end of life on 30 April 2025; migrate production services to Node.js 20 or 22 with dual CI matrices before the security window closes.

Executive briefing: The Node.js release plan lists 30 April 2025 as the end-of-life date for Node.js 18 (currently in maintenance). Security fixes cease after that date, and OpenSSL bundles will no longer be patched. Production runtimes should converge on Node.js 20 LTS now and start Node.js 22 testing ahead of its October 2024 LTS promotion.

Risk timeline

  • October 2024: Begin dual CI matrices (Node 18 + 20/22) and run npm audit --production with the Node 20 toolchain to uncover native module rebuilds.
  • December 2024: Freeze new Node 18 releases; move container base images and serverless runtimes (AWS Lambda, Cloud Functions) to Node 20.
  • March 2025: Complete dependency upgrades that rely on OpenSSL 3, QUIC, and Fetch API defaults present in Node 20/22; rehearse blue/green cutovers.
  • 30 April 2025: Remove Node 18 from production and CI runners; SBOMs should reflect Node 20/22 and accompanying npm/yarn lockfiles.

Migration moves

  • Runtime targets: Set engines fields to >=20 and rebuild native modules (bcrypt, canvas, sharp) with Node 20 toolchains to ensure ABI stability.
  • HTTP/crypto parity: Validate Fetch, WebStreams, and crypto defaults under Node 20/22, especially TLS minimum versions and undici-backed HTTP clients.
  • Platform alignment: Update container images to node:20-bullseye or node:20-alpine; refresh AWS Lambda layers or Cloudflare Workers bundles to supported runtimes.
  • Observability and security agents: Upgrade APM agents (New Relic, Datadog), OpenTelemetry SDKs, and SAST/DAST hooks that pin Node 18 to versions explicitly validated on Node 20/22.

Compliance guardrails

  • Record decommission plans for any Node 18 services that cannot migrate before April 2025 and seek risk sign-off where patch SLAs cannot be met.
  • Refresh penetration testing and performance benchmarks on Node 20/22 to document equivalence for change-advisory boards.
  • Update dependency governance to enforce signed npm provenance (npm install --verify-signatures) and lockfile regeneration during the runtime uplift.

Sources

Zeph Tech provides Node.js 18-to-20 remediation kits covering native module rebuilds, observability agent validation, and supply-chain controls.

  • Node.js 18
  • Node.js 20
  • Runtime lifecycle
  • Supply chain
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