CVE-2026-42041 (GCVE-0-2026-42041)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-04-24 17:55 – Updated: 2026-04-24 18:32
VLAI
Title
Axios: Authentication Bypass via Prototype Pollution Gadget in `validateStatus` Merge Strategy
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.
Severity
4.8 (Medium)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
SSVC
Exploitation: poc Automatable: no Technical Impact: partial
CISA Coordinator (v2.0.3)
CWE
  • CWE-287 - Improper Authentication
  • CWE-1321 - Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes ('Prototype Pollution')
Assigner
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
axios axios Affected: >= 1.0.0, < 1.15.1
Affected: < 0.31.1
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Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

Author Source Type Date Other

Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.


Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.