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Axios patched several high-severity vulnerabilities affecting its Node.js HTTP adapter, including CVE-2026-40175, a critical flaw in versions below 1.13.2 that Singapore's CSA said could enable unauthenticated SSRF, potential remote code execution, and full cloud compromise. Separate disclosures also detailed CVE-2026-42264, which affects Axios 1.0.0 through 1.15.1 and allows attacker-controlled values inherited from a polluted Object.prototype to alter request behavior, enabling credential injection, request redirection, SSRF to Unix sockets, arbitrary code execution during redirects, and weaker HTTP parsing. Axios fixed that issue in 1.15.2 after merging hardening changes into the main branch.
A later advisory described CVE-2026-44494, another prototype-pollution gadget in Axios's handling of config.proxy that affects versions from 1.0.0 up to but not including 1.16.0, with the 0.x branch also tracked as affected below 0.32.0. If an application already contains a separate prototype-pollution source, the flaw can silently route outbound Axios traffic through an attacker-controlled proxy, exposing Authorization headers, cookies, and request bodies while allowing forged responses and full man-in-the-middle interception. Axios addressed the issue in 1.16.0, and a backport commit for the 0.x line added null-prototype object merging and other hardening measures to reduce prototype-pollution risk.
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ZeroPath published technical analysis of CVE-2026-44494, including proof-of-concept and detection guidance. The write-up described how the Axios Node.js HTTP adapter could turn existing prototype pollution elsewhere in an application's dependency tree into a full man-in-the-middle attack.
Axios addressed CVE-2026-44494 in version 1.16.0. The vulnerability let a polluted `Object.prototype.proxy` value be treated as valid proxy configuration, enabling attacker-controlled interception of outbound requests in affected Node.js applications.
GitLab's Advisory Database published an entry for CVE-2026-44494 affecting Axios. The advisory identified the issue as a full man-in-the-middle risk via a prototype pollution gadget in `config.proxy`.
ZeroPath published details for CVE-2026-42264, describing prototype pollution gadget chains in Axios versions 1.0.0 through 1.15.1 and noting impacts such as request hijacking, credential injection, SSRF to Unix sockets, and possible code execution during redirects.
Axios fixed CVE-2026-42264 in version 1.15.2 after merging PR #10779 and commit 47915144662f2733e6c051bdcb895a8c8f0586aa in April 2026. The flaw allowed multiple inherited configuration properties in the Node.js HTTP adapter to be influenced through prototype pollution gadgets.
A GitHub commit backported security and hardening changes from the v1.x branch into Axios's v0.x line around version 0.33.0. The changes included null-prototype object merging and other mitigations aimed at reducing prototype-pollution and related risks.
Axios disclosed and patched CVE-2026-40175 on 2026-04-16. The vulnerability affected Axios npm versions below 1.13.2 and was described as enabling SSRF that could lead to remote code execution and full cloud compromise.
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Axios released fixes for two newly disclosed vulnerabilities, **CVE-2026-44492** and **CVE-2026-44494**, affecting its widely used HTTP client for Node.js. The first bug stems from improper normalization of IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses in `shouldBypassProxy`, allowing crafted URLs to evade local proxy exclusion logic and potentially reach sensitive targets such as cloud instance metadata services. The second issue is a prototype pollution gadget in Axios’s backend file adapter that can turn existing `Object.prototype` pollution elsewhere in an application into a man-in-the-middle condition on outbound HTTP requests, exposing or altering traffic and potentially leaking cleartext authentication cookies. Maintainers urged users to upgrade to **Axios 1.16.0** or **0.32.0**. The fixes follow earlier Axios proxy-handling problems, including **CVE-2026-42043**, which bypassed a prior SSRF-related patch by exploiting Axios’s incomplete loopback validation. Researchers showed that Axios treated only `localhost`, `127.0.0.1`, and `::1` as loopback, even though the full `127.0.0.0/8` range is reserved for loopback under RFC 1122, allowing addresses such as `127.0.0.2` to be forwarded through attacker-controlled proxies. That flaw, which could expose internal services, admin interfaces, Docker-bound endpoints, and cloud credential services, was previously fixed in **Axios 1.15.1** and **0.31.1**, underscoring continuing security concerns around proxy bypass and request-handling logic in the library.
Jun 29, 2026
A critical vulnerability in the Axios HTTP client library, tracked as **`CVE-2026-40175`**, allows attackers to turn polluted JavaScript object properties into malicious HTTP headers and abuse outbound requests for **SSRF**, **request smuggling**, and potential **remote code execution**. Researchers said the flaw stems from improper header handling in Axios’s HTTP adapter and unsafe config merging, which can let `Object.prototype` values containing CRLF characters be injected into requests. The issue can be chained with prototype pollution in other npm packages to target internal services, including the AWS EC2 metadata endpoint at `169.254.169.254`, potentially bypassing **IMDSv2** and exposing cloud credentials or broader infrastructure. A public proof-of-concept was released alongside disclosure, raising urgency for defenders even though active exploitation had not been confirmed at the time of reporting. The flaw affects Axios versions before **`1.13.2`**, while maintainers said **`1.15.0`** introduces strict header validation that blocks CRLF-based header injection; organizations were urged to upgrade and audit dependencies such as **`body-parser`**, **`qs`**, and **`minimist`** for prototype pollution paths. One report cited internet-wide estimates of more than **48,000** potentially exposed instances, underscoring the risk of unauthorized internal access and possible full cloud compromise.
Jun 29, 2026
Two high-severity flaws affecting widely used JavaScript packages were disclosed and patched, exposing Node.js applications to file-system escape and HTTP traffic interception risks. In `tmp` **0.2.6**, `CVE-2026-49982` allows path traversal through type confusion in the internal `_assertPath` guard: non-string values such as arrays, buffers, or crafted objects can bypass checks for `..` and later stringify into traversal paths, letting files or directories be created outside the intended temporary directory. The issue affects applications that pass untrusted data into APIs including `tmp.file`, `tmp.dir`, and related synchronous and temporary-name functions, and it is fixed in **tmp 0.2.7**. A separate flaw in Axios, tracked as `CVE-2026-44494`, affects versions **1.0.0** through **before 1.16.0** and turns existing `Object.prototype` pollution elsewhere in an application into a full man-in-the-middle condition. Because Axios reads `config.proxy` through normal prototype-chain property access and does not define `proxy` as an own property by default, an attacker who can poison the prototype can force requests through an attacker-controlled proxy, exposing and altering HTTP traffic and credentials. Axios fixed the issue in **1.16.0**, while reporting on the `tmp` bug noted a `CVSS:3.1` vector of `AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L` and warned that raw JSON bodies or complex query objects passed directly into library options increase exposure.
Jun 29, 2026