A critical security flaw has been uncovered in Axios, placing a vast number of web applications and cloud environments at risk of remote compromise. Tracked as CVE-2026-40175 and assigned a near-maximum CVSS score of 9.9, the vulnerability enables attackers to achieve Remote Code Execution (RCE) and potentially take full control of affected systems. The issue is particularly severe in cloud environments, where it can be exploited to bypass AWS metadata protections and extract sensitive credentials.
The vulnerability was initially discovered by security researcher Raulvdv and later published with a working proof-of-concept by Jasonsaayman. The release of a public exploit has significantly increased the urgency for organizations to respond, as it demonstrates how attackers can leverage the flaw in real-world scenarios with minimal effort.
At its core, the issue lies in how Axios processes HTTP headers. Due to insufficient input validation, particularly around carriage return and line feed (CRLF) characters, attackers can manipulate header data and inject malicious payloads. When combined with techniques like Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), HTTP Request Smuggling, and JavaScript prototype pollution, this flaw becomes part of a powerful “gadget attack chain” capable of bypassing traditional security controls.
What makes this vulnerability especially dangerous is that it does not require direct user interaction. Instead, attackers can exploit weaknesses in dependent packages such as body-parser or qs to pollute JavaScript object prototypes. Once polluted, Axios unknowingly incorporates malicious properties into outgoing HTTP requests. This allows attackers to craft hidden requests that target sensitive internal services, including the AWS EC2 metadata endpoint.
The published proof-of-concept demonstrates how attackers can inject a malicious request to access cloud metadata services, bypassing IMDSv2 protections and retrieving IAM credentials. With these credentials, attackers can escalate privileges, move laterally across cloud infrastructure, and potentially gain full administrative control. Beyond credential theft, the vulnerability also opens the door to authentication bypass, cache poisoning, and exploitation of containerized or serverless environments.
All Axios versions prior to 1.13.2 are affected, making this a widespread issue across modern JavaScript applications. Security experts strongly recommend upgrading to version 1.15.0 or later, where stricter header validation has been implemented to block malicious input. Additionally, organizations are urged to audit their dependencies for prototype pollution risks and adopt robust dependency monitoring tools to prevent similar vulnerabilities from being introduced.
This incident highlights the growing complexity of modern software supply chains, where a single flaw in a widely used library can cascade into large-scale security risks. As attackers continue to combine multiple techniques into sophisticated exploit chains, proactive patching and continuous monitoring remain critical to safeguarding applications and cloud environments.
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