CVE-2026-42041 PUBLISHED

Axios: Authentication Bypass via Prototype Pollution Gadget in `validateStatus` Merge Strategy

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 23.04.2026 Published: 24.04.2026 Updated: 24.04.2026

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.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
CVSS Score: 4.8

Product Status

Vendor axios
Product axios
Versions
  • Version >= 1.0.0, < 1.15.1 is affected
  • Version < 0.31.1 is affected

References

Problem Types

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