Node.js v24.15.0: native crash (exit code 57005/0xDEAD) during npm ci on Windows

Summary

node.exe v24.15.0 intermittently crashes with a native fault during npm ci tarball extraction on Windows. The crash produces exit code 57005 (0xDEAD). v24.14.1 is not affected.

Environment

OS: Windows Server 2025 (10.0.26100) — Azure DevOps CI agents (windows.vs2026preview.scout.amd64.open)
Node: v24.15.0 (crashes), v24.14.1 (no crashes)
npm: 11.12.1 (bundled with 24.15.0)
CPU: AMD64, Standard_D4a_v4 (4 vCPU, 16GB RAM)
Disk: ~147GB free (not a space issue)

Reproduction

The crash occurs during npm ci in the dotnet/aspnetcore repository, which has ~1400 npm dependencies. The crash happens during the tarball extraction phase (after all packages are downloaded from the registry).

Frequency: ~43% of Windows CI builds over a 10-day period
Linux/macOS: Never observed — Windows only
First occurrence: Build 1381847, queued 2026-04-16T11:37:14Z — approximately 4 hours after v24.15.0 was published
Zero crashes on v24.14.1 across hundreds of builds

Crash Evidence

Windows Event Log (Application Error, ID 1000)

Faulting application name: node.exe, version: 24.15.0.0
Faulting module name: (empty)
Exception code: 0x...
Faulting process id: 2e0c
Faulting application path: C:\ToolCache\node\24.15.0\x64\node.exe
Report Id: d4db47fc-5298-47bc-a98f-13aebaa4d464

This confirms a native-level crash in node.exe, not a JavaScript exception.

npm debug log analysis

Across multiple independent crashes, the npm debug log is truncated at exactly the same file size (518,908 bytes with maxsockets=15, 868,502 bytes with maxsockets=10). The log ends mid-extraction at the silly tarball phase — different packages each time, but identical byte count. This suggests the process hits a deterministic resource threshold before being killed.

What we ruled out

Disk space: 147GB free on all crashed agents
Windows Defender: RealTimeProtectionEnabled is disabled on CI agents
JavaScript-level crash: NODE_OPTIONS=--report-uncaught-exception produced no report — the crash bypasses JS error handling
npm-level error: No npm error output, no .npmrc issues
Network: All packages downloaded successfully (cache hits), crash happens during extraction

Suspected changes in v24.15.0

The crash is in the native layer during buffer-heavy tarball extraction. Potentially relevant changes between v24.14.1 and v24.15.0:

buffer: disallow ArrayBuffer transfer on pooled buffer — buffer: disallow ArrayBuffer transfer on pooled buffer #61372 — Changes buffer transfer lifecycle; npm extraction is extremely buffer-intensive
V8 cherry-pick related to the buffer change — [v24.x] deps: V8: cherry-pick 33e7739c134d #62567
npm 11.11.0 → 11.12.1 upgrade — deps: upgrade npm to 11.12.1 #62448 — Though the crash is in node.exe, not npm JS code

Workaround

We pinned to Node.js v24.14.1 in our CI pipeline (dotnet/aspnetcore#66465). Zero crashes since the pin.

Example CI builds

Crash (v24.15.0): https://dev.azure.com/dnceng-public/public/_build/results?buildId=1396126 — Event Log captured
Pass (v24.14.1): https://dev.azure.com/dnceng-public/public/_build/results?buildId=1396309 — same codebase, pinned version

Tried to reproduce by running many iterations of npm ci --workspaces --include-workspace-root in the aspnetcore repo on a Windows desktop, but no dice. Unless anyone can identify a standalone reproduction to test with, we might need help debugging.

Pin Antora's Node version to 24.14.1

[release/10.0] Pin Node.js to 24.14.1 to avoid v24.15.0 native crash (#…

Seeing this at about 5% repro rate on my pipelines running an azure hosted ADO agent pool with agent version v4.273.0

fix(ci): pin Windows Node to 24.16.0; fix SonarQube issues

HI team, We're seeing this crash (0xDEAD / 0xC0000409) on Azure DevOps hosted Windows agents across all regions — ~15K crashes/day in EU,~130/day in US. Reproduces on Node v24.15.0+ and v25.8.0+, impacting tasks like AzureCLI, AzureKeyVault, PowerShell.
Related bugs filed against us:

[BUG]: AzureCLI Task Failing with Exit Code -1073740791 microsoft/azure-pipelines-tasks#22201
[BUG]: AzureKeyVaultV2 exits with 57005 (0xDEAD) and no diagnostic output microsoft/azure-pipelines-tasks#22195

Is there an ETA for a permanent fix?

Is there an ETA for a permanent fix?

The root cause has not yet been identified. No-one has reported seeing this outside of Azure DO, which makes debugging rather challenging.

@MattIPv4

Also interested to see when this will be solved as large enterprise implementations are being affected by this. Do you, @MattIPv4 , perhaps have an idea whether this is something that could be prioritized?

👀 This is outside my wheelhouse, sorry, I only help look after the web side of things for Node.js.

👀 This is outside my wheelhouse, sorry, I only help look after the web side of things for Node.js.

Aha my bad mate! Do you perhaps have an idea who could be pinged?

Realistically, we are going to need more error information and/or a standalone reproduction. I could not reproduce with a simple Azure pipeline on windows-2025-vs2026 npm ciing 1500+ packages.

@Renegade334

@Renegade334 I can get a repro from the aspnetcore repo - what error information would be helpful? I can get event logs, etc

@wtgodbe

@wtgodbe Would be useful if there were some kind of stack trace available, What's the source of the offending pipeline?

Come to think of it, it would be worth re-checking your pipelines with v24.16.0. There was a non-deterministic Windows-only stack buffer overrun in the TCP machinery that was fixed in this release, which does kinda fit with the issue description.

I've re-run 5 times without hitting the issue on 24.16, so I suspect the underlying is fixed! It was a lot more persistent than that previously

fix(dev-stack): identify the dev-server deaths as a Node v24.15.0 bug (…

Require the Node that does not crash mid-suite on Windows (#247)

test(runner): name the child-process crash behind a file-level failure

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

Node.js v24.15.0: native crash (exit code 57005/0xDEAD) during npm ci on Windows #62991

Summary

Environment

Reproduction

Crash Evidence

Windows Event Log (Application Error, ID 1000)

npm debug log analysis

What we ruled out

Suspected changes in v24.15.0

Workaround

Example CI builds

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Node.js v24.15.0: native crash (exit code 57005/0xDEAD) during npm ci on Windows #62991

Description

Summary

Environment

Reproduction

Crash Evidence

Windows Event Log (Application Error, ID 1000)

npm debug log analysis

What we ruled out

Suspected changes in v24.15.0

Workaround

Example CI builds

Activity

Renegade334 commented on Apr 30, 2026

MurrayMicrosoft commented on May 15, 2026

v-dko commented on May 27, 2026

Renegade334 commented on May 27, 2026

Maxkrvo commented on May 27, 2026

MattIPv4 commented on May 27, 2026

Maxkrvo commented on May 27, 2026

Renegade334 commented on May 28, 2026

wtgodbe commented on Jun 1, 2026

Renegade334 commented on Jun 2, 2026

Renegade334 commented on Jun 2, 2026

wtgodbe commented on Jun 3, 2026

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions