CVE-2026-42041 Axios: Authentication Bypass via Prototype Pollution Gadget in `validateStatus` Merge Strategy
Prototype pollution in Axios allows attackers to bypass authentication by suppressing HTTP error responses, treating failures as successes.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-42041?
CVE-2026-42041 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in axios, published on 24 Apr 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official 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.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-42041?
4 open source packages ship an affected version, including axios. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
axios npm | All versions | 0.31.1 |
axios npm | All versions | 0.31.1 |
axios npm | From 1.0.0 | 1.15.1 |
axios npm | From 1.0.0 | 1.15.1 |
Products include Axios Axios.
How do I fix CVE-2026-42041?
Upgrade axios to a fixed version for your release line: 0.31.1 or 1.15.1.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2026-42041 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-42041 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in axios
- CVE-2026-44494 Axios: Full Man-in-the-Middle via Prototype Pollution Gadget in `config.proxy`
- CVE-2026-44492 axios's shouldBypassProxy does not recognize IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses, allowing NO_PROXY bypass (incomplete fix for CVE-2025-62718)
- CVE-2026-67320 axios before 0.33.0 Prototype Pollution via Node HTTP adapter
- CVE-2026-44487 Axios: Proxy-Authorization Credential Leak to Origin Server Across HTTP-to-HTTPS Redirect in Axios Node.js HTTP Adapter
- CVE-2025-27152 Possible SSRF and Credential Leakage via Absolute URL in axios Requests
Sources
Also known as CLEANSTART-2026-CN08649, CLEANSTART-2026-IW47152, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42041, ECHO-3a30-297d-811b, GHSA-w9j2-pvgh-6h63, MINI-23wx-x6q5-6wmj and 20 more.