Vulnerability · Published Jun 11, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-44490Axios: DoS & Header Injection via Prototype Pollution Read-Side Gadgets in axios merge functions
Medium 4.8
In plain English
A medium-severity prototype pollution in axios from axios. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 27% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
Axios is a promise based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js. Prior to 0.32.0 and 1.16.0, axios exposes two read-side prototype-pollution gadgets. When Object.prototype is polluted by an upstream dependency in the same process (e.g. lodash _.merge / CVE-2018-16487), axios silently picks up the polluted values. (1) lib/utils.js line 406 builds merge()'s accumulator as result = {}, so result[targetKey] (line 414) walks Object.prototype and the polluted bucket's own keys are copied into the merged headers and ride out on the wire. (2) lib/core/mergeConfig.js line 26 builds the hasOwnProperty descriptor as a plain-object literal. Object.defineProperty reads descriptor.get/descriptor.set via the prototype chain, so a polluted Object.prototype.get or Object.prototype.set makes the call throw TypeError synchronously on every axios request. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.32.0 and 1.16.0.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | node-axios | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-44490 |
| Debian:13 | node-axios | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-44490 |
| Debian:14 | node-axios | 1.16.0-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-44490 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | node-axios | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-44490 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | node-axios | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-44490 |
| npm | axios | 0.32.0 | GHSA-898c-q2cr-xwhg |
| npm | axios | 1.16.0 | GHSA-898c-q2cr-xwhg |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-1321 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
References
- https://github.com/axios/axios/security/advisories/GHSA-898c-q2cr-xwhg x_refsource_CONFIRM