CVE-2026-42041 | Axios: Authentication Bypass via Prototype Pollution Gadget in `validateStatus` Merge Strategy

Exp

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.

Published: 2026-04-24 Last update: 2026-04-27 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-42041 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.20%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-42041

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-42041

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-05 0.07% 0.20% +0.13%
2 2026-04-28 0.04% 0.07% +0.03%
3 2026-04-25 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-42041

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.8 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.2 2.5 [email protected]
6.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.9 2.5 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-42041

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-42041

GHSA-w9j2-pvgh-6h63 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: npm — Axios: Authentication Bypass via Prototype Pollution Gadget in `validateStatus` Merge Strategy

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-42041

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-42041 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (node-axios), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 3, resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-42041
suse medium CVE-2026-42041 severity moderate: SUSE including 40 source package names (cockpit, cockpit-bridge, …), 166 product×package rows across 19 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, … (19 product lines)): Known Not Affected 166. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42041/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-42041 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (node-axios), 6 status rows across 6 suites (focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, upstream): needs-triage 5, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-42041

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-42041

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
axios axios < 0.31.1 cpe:2.3:a:axios:axios:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*
axios axios >= 1.0.0, < 1.15.1 cpe:2.3:a:axios:axios:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:*

References for CVE-2026-42041

cvelogic Threat Intelligence