boxscore/security
CVE · referencelatest edition

Reference page — cumulative record through Wednesday, August 19, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2026-42041MEDIUM
Axios: Authentication Bypass via Prototype Pollution Gadget in `validateStatus` Merge Strategy
  AV  AC  PR  UI  S  C  I  A   CVSS    EPSS   %ile   KEV
   N   L   N   N  U  L  L  N    6.5   .0061   46.6     —
AFFECTED
  Product  Versions              Fixed
  axios    >= 1.0.0, < 1.15.1 –  —
TIMELINE
  Apr 23  Reserved by GitHub_M
  Apr 24  Published (CNA: GitHub_M)
  Aug 17  EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-42041 (axios). Public exploit reference added.
  Aug 17  RESCORED — CVE-2026-42041 (axios). CVSS 4.8 → 6.5 (NVD).
CWE-287, CWE-1321 · CNA: GitHub_M · CVSS v3.1 · 41 references · NVD status: Modified

Description

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.

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 4 events, chronological
DateEventDetail
April 23, 2026ReservedReserved by GitHub_M
April 24, 2026PublishedPublished (CNA: GitHub_M)
August 17, 2026EXPLOIT PUBLISHEDEXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-42041 (axios). Public exploit reference added.
August 17, 2026RESCOREDRESCORED — CVE-2026-42041 (axios). CVSS 4.8 → 6.5 (NVD).

Affected

Affected products and packages — 1 row
VendorProduct / PackageEcosystemVersion introducedFixed
axiosaxios—>= 1.0.0, < 1.15.1—

Weaknesses

CWE-287 · CWE-1321

References (41)

Related

Authoritative record: CVE-2026-42041 at cve.org

Vendors: axios

Weaknesses: CWE-287 · CWE-1321

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2026-42041 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Wednesday, August 19, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.