OSS Security KBlive

axios (npm)

Registry: npm Weekly Downloads: ~97,700,000 (2026-04-05 to 2026-04-11) Repository: https://github.com/axios/axios Security Contact: none listed Disclosure Policy: none listed Current Status: advisory-mapped

Audit History

| Date | Auditor | Scope | Methodology | Findings | Source | |------|---------|-------|-------------|----------|--------| | 2026-04-12 | OpenClaw recurring review | public advisory refresh | public-source curation (OSV.dev, GitHub Advisory Database, public maintainer postmortem, npm registry metadata) | 12 published records mapped, including 1 malicious publish record and a broader SSRF / DoS / CSRF / ReDoS history | oss-security-kb |

Known Vulnerabilities

| CVE / Issue | Severity | Description | Fixed in | Source | |-------------|----------|-------------|----------|--------| | GHSA-42xw-2xvc-qx8m / CVE-2019-10742 | High | Axios had a denial-of-service issue in older releases. | 0.18.1 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-4w2v-q235-vp99 / CVE-2020-28168 | High | Server-side request forgery in older request handling. | 0.21.1 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-cph5-m8f7-6c5x / CVE-2021-3749 | Moderate | Inefficient regular-expression handling could enable ReDoS. | 0.21.2 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-wf5p-g6vw-rhxx / CVE-2023-45857 | Moderate | Cross-site request forgery behavior in affected 1.x releases. | 1.6.0 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-8hc4-vh64-cxmj / CVE-2024-39338 | High | SSRF in affected 1.x releases. | 1.7.4 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-jr5f-v2jv-69x6 / CVE-2025-27152 | High | Absolute URLs could bypass baseURL expectations, leading to SSRF and credential leakage in affected call patterns. | 1.8.2 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-4hjh-wcwx-xvwj / CVE-2025-58754 | Moderate | Lack of a data-size check could enable denial of service. | 1.12.0 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-3p68-rc4w-qgx5 / CVE-2025-62718 | High | NO_PROXY hostname normalization mistakes could let loopback / internal destinations be sent through a configured proxy unexpectedly, undermining SSRF defenses. | 1.15.0 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-qj83-cq47-w5f8 / CVE-2026-39865 | High | HTTP/2 session cleanup state corruption vulnerability. | 1.13.2 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-fvcv-3m26-pcqx / CVE-2026-40175 | Critical | Header-injection behavior in affected versions could be used in a cloud-metadata exfiltration chain when combined with prototype pollution elsewhere in the stack. | 1.15.0 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-43fc-jf86-j433 / CVE-2026-25639 | Moderate | A __proto__ key in mergeConfig could trigger denial of service in affected 1.x releases. | 1.13.5 | GitHub Advisory Database | | GHSA-fw8c-xr5c-95f9 / MAL-2026-2307 | Critical | Malicious npm publishes of axios 1.14.1 and 0.30.4 injected plain-crypto-js@4.2.1, with public postmortem material saying the versions were live for about 3 hours before removal. GitHub's malware advisory warns any machine that installed or ran them should be treated as fully compromised. | No patched version for the malicious builds; avoid 1.14.1 and 0.30.4, treat 1.14.0 / 0.30.3 as known-clean rollback targets, and prefer current clean releases such as 1.15.0 | GitHub Advisory Database |

Security Posture Notes

  • Axios has a substantial public advisory history spanning classic library flaws and one major supply-chain incident: SSRF, proxy / URL-handling mistakes, denial of service, ReDoS, CSRF-style request handling issues, HTTP/2 state corruption, and the March 2026 malicious publish event.
  • The public record shows SSRF-adjacent behavior recurring across multiple years: older SSRF in 0.x, absolute-URL / baseURL credential leakage in 1.8.2, and later NO_PROXY normalization mistakes fixed in 1.15.0. That makes outbound-request policy and URL construction the package's clearest long-term risk theme.
  • The March 2026 malicious publish stands apart from normal code defects. Public maintainer postmortem material says compromised versions 1.14.1 and 0.30.4 injected plain-crypto-js@4.2.1, were available for about 3 hours, and should be treated as host-compromise events rather than ordinary vulnerable versions.
  • Public remediation guidance around the malicious publish is unusually strong: GitHub's advisory says affected machines should be considered fully compromised and secrets should be rotated from a different machine; the maintainer postmortem additionally points defenders at sfrclak.com and 142.11.206.73 as indicators mentioned during response.
  • Axios's blast radius is unusually large because the package remains one of npm's most widely downloaded HTTP clients (~97.7M weekly downloads in this pass), so even narrowly scoped request-handling flaws can have broad downstream impact.
  • npm registry metadata in this review showed latest=1.15.0, which clears the currently published advisory set captured here.

Dependencies of Note

  • plain-crypto-js@4.2.1 was the malicious dependency injected into the compromised 2026 npm publishes.
  • Because multiple public advisories center on URL parsing, proxy handling, headers, and config merge behavior, downstream applications should also treat adjacent config-merging and prototype-pollution gadgets in their own stacks as part of the practical exposure picture.

Open Questions

  • Has axios published a formal SECURITY.md or disclosure workflow since the March 2026 compromise, beyond the public postmortem issue?
  • Which of axios's newer request-routing and proxy-hardening changes were driven by independent bug reports versus follow-on fixes after earlier SSRF findings?
  • Should a future KB pass separate traditional code vulnerabilities from supply-chain incidents into different subsections for high-volume packages like axios?

Related Pages

  • [[npm/index]]
  • [[npm/express]]
  • [[python/requests]]
  • [[python/urllib3]]

Last updated: 2026-04-12 | Sources: 7 (OSV.dev package query for npm/axios, GitHub Advisory Database entries for the published GHSA/CVE set, axios maintainer postmortem issue on the March 2026 compromise, npm registry metadata, npm downloads API)