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VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2026-42036: Axios · HTTP adapter streamed responses bypass maxContentLength

Affects axiosSource GCVE Database

0

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.3 Medium : upgrade to 1.15.1 when convenient.

Data as of 27 Oct 2026, 00:07 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
5.3Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
Patch
Available – fixed in 1.15.1, 0.31.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 5 May 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponised: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

What to do

Upgrade axios to 1.15.1; axios to 0.31.1.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
npmaxiosAffected
  • >=1.0.0 <1.15.1
Fixed in
  • 1.15.1
npmaxiosAffected
  • <0.31.1
Fixed in
  • 0.31.1

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

Description

### Summary When responseType: 'stream' is used, Axios returns the response stream without enforcing maxContentLength. This bypasses configured response-size limits and allows unbounded downstream consumption. ### Details In lib/adapters/http.js: - 786-789: for responseType === 'stream', Axios immediately settles with the stream. - 797-810: maxContentLength enforcement exists only in the non-stream buffering branch. So callers may set maxContentLength and still receive/read arbitrarily large streamed responses. ### PoC Environment: - Axios main at commit f7a4ee2 - Node v24.2.0 Steps: 1. Start an HTTP server that returns a 2 MiB response body. 2. Call Axios with: - adapter: 'http' - responseType: 'stream' - maxContentLength: 1024 3. Read the returned stream fully. Observed: - Success; full 2097152 bytes readable. Control check: - Same endpoint with responseType: 'text' and same maxContentLength: rejected with maxContentLength size of 1024 exceeded. ### Impact Type: DoS / unbounded response processing. Impacted: Node.js applications relying on maxContentLength as a safety boundary while using streamed Axios responses.

References

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