Debugger causes memory to leak in node.js

Question

I am debugging a large node.js app that crashes very infrequently with an out of memory error.

Monitoring the process with OS tools does not show any worrisome trend in rss over long periods of time, but as soon as I attach either Chrome Inspector for Node.js or the VSCode JS debugger, I see memory going up steeply and fairly constantly. Many of the leaked objects seem to be under system, but the rss size increase seems to not be covered by the size of the objects in the heap. I see rss > 1GB, yet the heap only accounts for tens of MB, not 600+ MB increase in rss.

When I detach the debugger the rss goes back to almost the preattach state.

Also, a strange behavior of this app is that under single threaded perpetual load (sending continuously a new request as soon as one was serviced) speed is rather inconsistent. Identical requests are handled fast for a few seconds, then comes a minute of lower CPU usage and extreme slowness and the cycle repeats itself.

When I try to profile the app with Chrome Inspector, node.js crashes promptly.

I stubbed out much of the application. Now the app no longer crashes when profiled, but the debugger induced leak persists. The retention tree looks like this:

[13]in(GC roots)@3
 107 / DevTools console in (Global handles) @29 
  map in Object @381033
   back_pointer in system / Map @382907
    back_pointer in system / Map @387465
     back_pointer in system / Map @387463
      back_pointer in system / Map@387461
...

many long chains like this. Looking at the Object in this chain, it looks like an HTTP socket

I am new to node.js anyone has any hints as to where to look for problems?