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CVE-2025-20281: Cisco Identity Services Engine Injection Vulnerability

• Severity: critical (CVSS 10.0 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: yes — in CISA KEV since 2025-07-28
• EPSS: 97.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2025-06-25 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-74

Description

A vulnerability in a specific API of Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE-PIC could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the underlying operating system as root. The attacker does not require any valid credentials to exploit this vulnerability. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting a crafted API request. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain root privileges on an affected device.

Affected products

• Cisco Identity Services Engine: 3.3.0, 3.3.0-patch1, 3.3.0-patch2, 3.3.0-patch3, 3.3.0-patch4, 3.3.0-patch5 (+3)
• Cisco Identity Services Engine Passive Identity Connector: 3.3.0, 3.3.0-patch1, 3.3.0-patch2, 3.3.0-patch3, 3.3.0-patch4, 3.3.0-patch5 (+3)

References

• https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ise-unauth-rce-ZAd2GnJ6
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-20281
• https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2025/7/24/cve-2025-20281-cisco-ise-api-unauthenticated-remote-code-execution-vulnerability

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