express 5.0.0

Express v5.0.0

🎉 Express v5 is finally here! 🎉

After years of development, the long-awaited Express v5 has been officially released. This version focuses on simplifying the codebase, improving security, and dropping support for older Node.js versions to enable better performance and maintainability.

For detailed information, please check out the official Express v5 release blog post.

Most relevant details

Major Changes in v5

Node.js version support: Dropped support for Node.js versions before v18.
Routing changes: Updated to path-to-regexp@8.x, removing sub-expression regex patterns for security reasons (ReDoS mitigation).
Promise support: Middleware can now return rejected promises, caught by the router as errors.
body-parser changes: Several improvements including the ability to customize urlencoded body depth and defaulting extended to false.
Deprecated API methods removed: Removed old, deprecated API method signatures from Express v3/v4.

For a complete list of breaking changes and API deprecations, see the migration guide.

Security Updates

This release includes important security fixes, including improvements to prevent ReDoS attacks and mitigation for CVE-2024-45590. Full details can be found in the security release notes.

Migration

Be sure to check out our migration guide for instructions on how to update your applications from Express v4 to v5.

Security Guidance

For best practices, we recommend reviewing the Threat Model which outlines Express' approach to securing your applications, including tips for user input validation and other critical aspects.

What's Changed

4.19.2 Staging by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5561
remove duplicate location test for data uri by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5562
feat: document beta releases expectations by @marco-ippolito in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5565
Cut down on duplicated CI runs by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5564
Add a Threat Model by @UlisesGascon in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5526
Assign captain of encodeurl by @blakeembrey in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5579
Nominate jonchurch as repo captain for http-errors, expressjs.com, morgan, cors, body-parser by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5587
docs: update Security.md by @inigomarquinez in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5590
docs: update triage nomination policy by @UlisesGascon in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5600
Add CodeQL (SAST) by @UlisesGascon in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5433
docs: add UlisesGascon as triage initiative captain by @UlisesGascon in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5605
Use object with null prototype for various app properties by @EvanHahn in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/4861
deps: encodeurl@~2.0.0 by @blakeembrey in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5569
skip QUERY method test by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5628
ignore ETAG query test on 21 and 22, reuse skip util by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5639
add support Node.js@22 in the CI by @mertcanaltin in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5627
doc: add table of contents, tc/triager lists to readme by @mertcanaltin in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5619
List and sort all projects, add captains by @blakeembrey in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5653
Call callback once on listen error by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/3216
docs: add @UlisesGascon as captain for cookie-parser by @UlisesGascon in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5666
✨ bring back query tests for node 21 by @ctcpip in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5690
[v4] Deprecate res.clearCookie accepting options.maxAge and options.expires by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5672
skip QUERY tests for Node 21 only, still not supported by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5695
📝 update people, add ctcpip to TC by @ctcpip in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5683
remove minor version pinning from ci by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5722
Fix link variable use in attribution section of CODE OF CONDUCT by @IamLizu in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5762
Replace Appveyor windows testing with GHA by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5599
Add OSSF Scorecard badge by @UlisesGascon in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5436
Throw on invalid status codes by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/4212
Use Array.flat instead of array-flatten by @almic in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5677
Adopt Node@18 as the minimum supported version by @UlisesGascon in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5803
Ignore expires and maxAge in res.clearCookie() by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5792
send@1.0.0 by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5786
chore: upgrade debug dep from 3.10 to 4.3.6 by @carpasse in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5829
refactor: replace 'path-is-absolute' dep with node:path isAbsolute method by @carpasse in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5830
update scorecard link by @bjohansebas in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5814
Nominate @IamLizu to the triage team by @UlisesGascon in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5836
deps: path-to-regexp@0.1.8 by @blakeembrey in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5603
docs: specify new instructions for question and discuss by @IamLizu in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5835
5.x: Upgrading merge-descriptors with allowing minors by @RobinTail in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5782
4.x: Upgrade merge-descriptors dependency by @RobinTail in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5781
WIP: serve-static@2 by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5790
chore: upgrade qs dp from 6.11.0 to 6.13.0 by @carpasse in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5847
Upgrade cookie signature by @IamLizu in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5833
accepts@2 by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5881
mime-types@3 by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5882
type-is@^2.0.0 by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5883
content-disposition@^1.0.0 by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5884
fix(deps): finalhandler@^2.0.0 by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5899
path-to-regexp@0.1.10 by @blakeembrey in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5902
update to fresh@^2.0.0 by @jonchurch in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5916
router@^2.0.0 by @wesleytodd in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5885
Adopt Node@18 as the minimum supported version by @UlisesGascon in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5595
master -> 5.0 by @ctcpip in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5785
🔧 update CI, remove unsupported versions, clean up by @ctcpip in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5931
Delete back as a magic string by @blakeembrey in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5933
Release 5.0 by @dougwilson in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/2237

New Contributors

@marco-ippolito made their first contribution in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5565
@inigomarquinez made their first contribution in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5590
@mertcanaltin made their first contribution in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5627
@ctcpip made their first contribution in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5690
@IamLizu made their first contribution in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5762
@almic made their first contribution in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5677
@carpasse made their first contribution in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5829
@bjohansebas made their first contribution in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5814
@RobinTail made their first contribution in https://github.com/expressjs/express/pull/5782

Full Changelog: https://github.com/expressjs/express/compare/v5.0.0-beta.3...v5.0.0