Axios <1.15.1 Prototype Pollution via validateStatus
CVE-2026-42041 Published on April 24, 2026

Axios: Authentication Bypass via Prototype Pollution Gadget in `validateStatus` Merge Strategy
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.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-42041 can be exploited with network access, and does not require authorization privileges or user interaction. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. Public availability of a proof of concept (POC) exploit exists for CVE-2026-42041. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have a small impact on confidentiality, a high impact on integrity, and no impact on availability.

Attack Vector:
NETWORK
Attack Complexity:
LOW
Privileges Required:
NONE
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
LOW
Integrity Impact:
HIGH
Availability Impact:
NONE

Weakness Types

What is an authentification Vulnerability?

When an actor claims to have a given identity, the software does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct.

CVE-2026-42041 has been classified to as an authentification vulnerability or weakness.

What is a Prototype Pollution Vulnerability?

The software receives input from an upstream component that specifies attributes that are to be initialized or updated in an object, but it does not properly control modifications of attributes of the object prototype.

CVE-2026-42041 has been classified to as a Prototype Pollution vulnerability or weakness.

What is a Mass Assignment Vulnerability?

The software receives input from an upstream component that specifies multiple attributes, properties, or fields that are to be initialized or updated in an object, but it does not properly control which attributes can be modified.

CVE-2026-42041 has been classified to as a Mass Assignment vulnerability or weakness.


Products Associated with CVE-2026-42041

You can be notified by email with stack.watch whenever vulnerabilities like CVE-2026-42041 are published in these products:

Axios
 
Red Hat Apache Camel Hawtio
 
Red Hat Network Observ Optr
 
Red Hat Acm
 
Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security
 
Red Hat Jboss Data Grid
 
Red Hat Rhdh
 
Red Hat Discovery
 
Red Hat Rhmt
 
Red Hat Openshift Ai
 
Red Hat Openshift
 
Red Hat Openshift Devspaces
 
Red Hat Service Mesh
 
Red Hat Quay
 
Red Hat Satellite
 
Red Hat Multicluster Engine
 
Red Hat Migration Toolkit Applications
 
Red Hat Openshift Pipelines
 
Red Hat 3scale Amp
 
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
 
Red Hat Service Registry
 
Red Hat Apicurio Registry
 
Red Hat Podman Desktop
 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Ai
 
Red Hat Ansible Portal
 
Red Hat Cryostat
 
Red Hat Gatekeeper
 
Red Hat Jboss Fuse
 
Red Hat Hummingbird
 
Red Hat Container Native Virtualization
 
Red Hat Jboss Enterprise Bpms Platform
 
Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer
 
Red Hat Trusted Profile Analyzer
 
Red Hat Amq Streams
 

Affected Versions

axios: Red Hat HawtIO HawtIO 4.4.0: Red Hat Network Observability (NETOBSERV) 1.11.2: Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.15: Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.16: Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes 4.10: Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes 4.9: Red Hat Data Grid 8.6.1: Red Hat Developer Hub 1.8: Red Hat Developer Hub 1.9: Red Hat Discovery 2: Red Hat Migration Toolkit 1.8: Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.25: Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.20: Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.21: Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces 3.28: Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.6: Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 3.0: Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 3.1: Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 3.2: Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 3.3: Red Hat Quay 3.12: Red Hat Quay 3.14: Red Hat Quay 3.15: Red Hat Quay 3.16: Red Hat Quay 3.17: Red Hat Quay 3.1: Red Hat Quay 3.9: Red Hat Satellite 6.18: Red Hat multicluster engine for Kubernetes 2.10: Red Hat multicluster engine for Kubernetes 2.11: Red Hat multicluster engine for Kubernetes 2.6: Red Hat multicluster engine for Kubernetes 2.8: Red Hat multicluster engine for Kubernetes 2.9: Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Applications 8: Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines: Red Hat 3scale API Management Platform 2: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2: Red Hat build of Apicurio Registry 2: Red Hat build of Apicurio Registry 3: Red Hat Build of Podman Desktop - Tech Preview: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8: Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3: Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI): Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4: Red Hat Self-service automation portal 2: Red Hat Cryostat 4: Red Hat Gatekeeper 3: Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 3: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9: Red Hat Fuse 7: Red Hat Hardened Images: Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4: Red Hat Process Automation 7: Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer: Red Hat Trusted Profile Analyzer: Red Hat streams for Apache Kafka 2: Red Hat streams for Apache Kafka 3:

Exploit Probability

EPSS
0.29%
Percentile
20.37%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.