CVSS 3.1
10.0 criticalCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HCVE-2025-20281
Critical (10.0) in Cisco Identity Services Engine. In CISA KEV since 2025-07-28. EPSS 98% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.
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.
Severity
- EPSS
- 98% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days; higher than 99% of CVEs (scores of 2026-10-31)
- CISA KEV
- listed 2025-07-28, due 2025-08-18
- CWE
- CWE-74
- Published
- Modified
- Record from
- the NVD, synced
Affected
- cisco:identity_services_engine
- cisco:identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector
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