diff --git a/src/wrappers/themis/jsthemis/install_centos7_specific_deps.sh b/src/wrappers/themis/jsthemis/install_centos7_specific_deps.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..ccf6561be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/wrappers/themis/jsthemis/install_centos7_specific_deps.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# centos:7 has pretty old Node (v8) which is not supported by many packages,
+# including mocha - test framework that we use. Therefore, we need to downgrade
+# it for testing. The addon itself works fine, we just cannot test it without
+# this patch.
+
+
+set -e -o pipefail
+
+OS=$(cat /etc/*-release | grep '^NAME' | tr -d 'NAME="' || true)
+VERSION=$(cat /etc/*-release | grep '^VERSION_ID' | tr -d 'VERSION_ID="' || true)
+
+if [[ "$OS" == "CentOS Linux" && "$VERSION" == "7" ]]; then
+	npm install mocha@7 --save-dev
+fi
diff --git a/src/wrappers/themis/jsthemis/package.json b/src/wrappers/themis/jsthemis/package.json
index 2510c2bdc..4f968edc0 100644
--- a/src/wrappers/themis/jsthemis/package.json
+++ b/src/wrappers/themis/jsthemis/package.json
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
   "main": "build/Release/jsthemis.node",
   "scripts": {
     "test": "mocha",
-    "preuninstall": "rm -rf build/*"
+    "preuninstall": "rm -rf build/*",
+    "install_centos7_specific_deps": "./install_centos7_specific_deps.sh"
   },
   "repository": {
     "type": "git",
diff --git a/tests/test.mk b/tests/test.mk
index a3485bcc1..ca5bfe22a 100644
--- a/tests/test.mk
+++ b/tests/test.mk
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ ifdef NPM_VERSION
 	@echo "Running jsthemis tests."
 	@echo "In case of errors, see https://docs.cossacklabs.com/themis/languages/nodejs/"
 	@echo "------------------------------------------------------------"
-	cd $(JSTHEMIS_SRC) && npm install && npm test
+	cd $(JSTHEMIS_SRC) && npm run install_centos7_specific_deps && npm install && npm test
 	@echo "------------------------------------------------------------"
 endif