VulnerabilityModified

CVE-2026-44494

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 —…

HIGH 8.7EPSS 1.02%

Does this matter?

High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (1.02%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.

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.

CVSS 3.1: 8.7 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
EPSS: 1.02% probability · 61th percentile
CISA KEV: Not listed
Weakness: CWE-441, CWE-1321, CWE-915
Affected: axios/axios
Source: security-advisories@github.com

References

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.