CVE-2026-44494 Axios: Full Man-in-the-Middle via Prototype Pollution Gadget in `config.proxy`
Prototype pollution in Axios allows attackers to inject a malicious proxy, enabling full Man-in-the-Middle attacks on HTTP traffic.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-44494?
CVE-2026-44494 is a high-severity vulnerability in axios, published on 11 Jun 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. From 1.0.0 to before 1.16.0, the Axios library is vulnerable to a Prototype Pollution "Gadget" attack that allows any Object.prototype pollution in the application's dependency tree to be escalated into a full Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack — intercepting, reading, and modifying all HTTP traffic including authentication credentials. The HTTP adapter at lib/adapters/http.js:670 reads config.proxy via standard property access, which traverses the prototype chain. Because proxy is not present in Axios defaults, the merged config object has no own proxy property, making it trivially injectable via prototype pollution. Once injected, setProxy() routes all HTTP requests through the attacker's proxy server. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.16.0.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-44494?
2 open source packages ship an affected version, including axios. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
axios npm | From 1.0.0 | 1.16.0 |
axios npm | From 1.0.0 | 1.16.0 |
Products include Axios Axios.
How do I fix CVE-2026-44494?
Upgrade axios to 1.16.0 or later.
Is CVE-2026-44494 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-44494 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in axios
- 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
- CVE-2026-44486 Axios: Proxy-Authorization header leaks to redirect target when proxy is re-evaluated to direct connection
Sources
Also known as CLEANSTART-2026-MB49894, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-44494, ECHO-a885-7d09-dc48, GHSA-35jp-ww65-95wh, MINI-27f7-p6r6-4q2p, MINI-32wf-rx86-653h and 25 more.