CVE-2026-101909

Axios is a widely used tool that lets apps and websites send data back and forth to servers, similar to a mail courier handling packages. This flaw lets someone who has already slipped a tampered 'settings label' onto a package change how the courier reads the address or contents, potentially misdirecting data or, in the worst case, making the courier run an unauthorized errand.

This matters to you if any website, app, or backend service you run or had built uses the axios library for making web requests — which is extremely common in modern web and Node.js applications. It is only exploitable if an attacker has already found a separate way to pollute the application's internal settings, so standalone use of axios without that other weakness is not directly at risk.

There is no confirmed active exploitation and no public exploit code for this specific issue, and it requires chaining with another flaw first, so it is not an emergency in isolation — but axios is used almost everywhere, press attention on it is rising, and this verdict is being treated as high-priority because any companion prototype-pollution bug in your stack turns this into a serious, code-execution-capable chain. Treat this as something to fix now rather than defer.

Identify every application and service with axios as a dependency and determine the installed version via your package manifest/lockfile (package.json/package-lock.json, yarn.lock, or equivalent). Versions 0.28.0–0.33.x and 1.15.1–1.19.x are vulnerable; upgrade to 0.34.0 (0.x line) or 1.20.0 (1.x line) respectively. No KEV listing and no public PoC exist, so there is no CISA remediation deadline. As a temporary mitigation if upgrading is delayed, audit the application for any separate object-prototype-pollution vulnerability (e.g., in merge/clone/deep-assignment utilities) that could supply attacker-controlled toFormData options (dots, indexes, metaTokens, maxDepth, visitor, Blob) — closing that entry point neutralizes this gadget even on an unpatched axios. Monitor for new exploit code or KEV additions given rising press attention tied to the actor ShinyHunters, and re-prioritize to emergency if either appears.

Weakness: CWE-1321 (prototype pollution gadget) in axios's toFormData serialization path, affecting 0.28.0–<0.34.0 and 1.15.1–<1.20.0, fixed in 0.34.0 and 1.20.0. Attack vector is local/same-process — exploitation requires the attacker to first achieve a separate prototype-pollution primitive capable of injecting arbitrary values/functions into Object.prototype within the same application instance; no network-only path exists on its own. No user interaction is required once the precondition is met. EPSS places predicted exploitation likelihood low and flat; not listed in CISA KEV; no public exploit code identified. Exploit maturity: theoretical/gadget-stage, dependent on a chainable primitive not provided by this CVE itself. Press attention is rising (roundup coverage referencing actor ShinyHunters) but does not constitute confirmed in-the-wild exploitation of this specific CVE.