CVE-2026-44494
HighCVSS 8.7Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Elevated risk60th percentile - higher than 60% of all known CVEs
Summary
The Axios library versions 1.0.0 through 1.15.0 are vulnerable to a Prototype Pollution gadget attack that can escalate Object.prototype pollution into a full Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack. An attacker can intercept, read, and modify all HTTP traffic, including authentication credentials.
Risk Assessment
The organization risks exposure of sensitive data such as passwords and session tokens, as well as modification of transmitted information, potentially leading to system integrity breaches and identity theft.
Recommendation
Immediately update the Axios library to version 1.16.0 or later, which contains the fix. In the interim, limit trust in external dependencies and monitor network traffic.
Original NVD description (English source)
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.