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MEDIUM

CVE-2026-44490

CVE-2026-44490 — Axios: DoS & Header Injection via Prototype Pollution Read-Side Gadgets in axios merge functions

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.

Published Updated Sources: cvelistV5, GitHub_M

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the scoring sources call it.

Exploitation

Unreported

no source claims exploitation

EPSS

0%

chance of exploitation in 30 days

Affects

axios

axios

CVSS base

4.8

MEDIUM

CISA SSVC assessment

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses · SSVC 2.0.3. A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

CISA

Exploitation

PoC

none · proof-of-concept · active

Automatable

No

can an attacker script all four kill-chain steps

Technical impact

Partial

partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Affected scope

The catalog records vendors and products as separate lists, not pairs, so which product belongs to which vendor is not something this page can say.

Vendors (1)

axios

Products (1)

axios

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactSource
4.8CVSS 3.1MEDIUM——cvelistV5

Weakness & attack patterns

  • CWE-1321

Attack patterns reported against this CVE. The ATT&CK techniques below are inferred from its weakness class.

  • T1574.010Hijack Execution Flow: ServicesFile Permissions Weakness

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not rules we have tested.

  • Search application, proxy, and WAF logs for requests touching /utils.js, /core/mergeConfig.js, /descriptor.set.

References

1 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

  • axiosevery CVE for this vendor
  • CWE-1321other pages naming this weakness

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.