Reference page — cumulative record through Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.
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 .0081 55.4 —
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).
Aug 24 EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-42041 (axios). Public exploit reference added.
Aug 25 EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-42041 (axios). Public exploit reference added.
Aug 26 EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-42041 (axios). Public exploit reference added.
Sep 7 EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-42041 (axios). Public exploit reference added.
Sep 9 EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-42041 (axios). Public exploit reference added.
Sep 10 EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-42041 (axios). Public exploit reference added.
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.
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 Sunday, October 4, 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.
