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Critical · 10.0 Known exploited Scanner template Public exploit CVE-2025-20281 EUVD-2025-19167GHSA-rc4f-42xm-hvjw

Cisco ISE API Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Published Jun 25, 2025 · Updated Feb 26, 2026 · Assigned by cisco

Vendor: Cisco Product: Cisco Identity Services Engine Software Category: Network devices

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

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Cisco Cisco Identity Services Engine Software 3.3.0, 3.3 Patch 2, 3.3 Patch 1, 3.3 Patch 3, 3.4.0, 3.3 Patch 4, 3.4 Patch 1, 3.3 Patch 5, 3.3 Patch 6 —

Public exploits

Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.

Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.

GitHub 3 repositories

  • abrewer251/CVE-2025-20281-2-Cisco-ISE-RCE ★ 21 · Jun 27, 2025

    Unauthenticated Python PoC for CVE-2025-20281 RCE against ISE ERS API

  • grupooruss/CVE-2025-20281-Cisco ★ 8 · Jul 3, 2025

    This script checks for the presence of the **CVE-2025-20281** vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE-PIC, which allows **unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE)** as root d…

  • ill-deed/Cisco-CVE-2025-20281-illdeed ★ 5 · Jul 4, 2025

    Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution exploit for CVE-2025-20281 in Cisco ISE ERS API. Execute commands or launch reverse shells as root — no authentication required.

Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.

Automated scanner template

A ready-made Nuclei template detects this vulnerability automatically. Vulnerabilities with public scanner templates are typically probed across the internet soon after the template appears — exposed systems should be patched first.

Source: projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates (MIT) — updated daily. Only links are listed.

Advisories 2

References