CVE-2026-42041

Summary

Axios is a promise based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js. Prior to 1.15.1 and 0.31.1, the Axios library is vulnerable to a Prototype Pollution "Gadget" attack that allows any Object.prototype pollution to silently suppress all HTTP error responses (401, 403, 500, etc.), causing them to be treated as successful responses. This completely bypasses application-level authentication and error handling. The root cause is that validateStatus is the only config property using the mergeDirectKeys merge strategy, which uses JavaScript's in operator — an operator that inherently traverses the prototype chain. When Object.prototype.validateStatus is polluted with () => true, all HTTP status codes are accepted as success. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.15.1 and 0.31.1.

Affected Software

VendorProductVersion RangeStatus
axiosaxios>= 1.0.0, < 1.15.1affected
axiosaxios< 0.31.1affected

Weaknesses

  • CWE-287: CWE-287: Improper Authentication
  • CWE-1321: CWE-1321: Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes ('Prototype Pollution')

ADP Enrichment

CISA ADP Vulnrichment

  • SSVC:
  • Exploitation: poc
    • Automatable: no
    • Technical Impact: partial

Additional References

axios: Axios: Authentication bypass due to prototype pollution of HTTP error handling

Additional References

References