CVE-2025-20281

10.0

CRITICAL CVSS 3.1

Cisco Identity Services Engine Injection Vulnerability - [Actively Exploited]

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.

INFO

Published Date :

June 25, 2025, 4:15 p.m.

Last Modified :

July 30, 2025, 7:24 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !

Source :

[email protected]

CISA Notification

CISA KEV (Known Exploited Vulnerabilities)

For the benefit of the cybersecurity community and network defenders—and to help every organization better manage vulnerabilities and keep pace with threat activity—CISA maintains the authoritative source of vulnerabilities that have been exploited in the wild.

Due Date: Aug 18, 2025

Alert Date: Jul 28, 2025 | 30 days ago

Description :

Cisco Identity Services Engine contains an injection vulnerability in a specific API of Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE-PIC due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input allowing an attacker to exploit this vulnerability by submitting a crafted API request. Successful exploitation could allow an attacker to perform remote code execution and obtaining root privileges on an affected device.

Required Action :

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Notes :

https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ise-unauth-rce-ZAd2GnJ6 ; https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-20281

Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2025-20281 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

ID	Vendor	Product	Action
1	Cisco	identity_services_engine
2	Cisco	identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector

: Total Affected Vendor : 1 | Products : 2

CVSS Scores

The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.

Score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability Score	Impact Score	Source
	CVSS 3.1	CRITICAL				[email protected]

Solution

Address insufficient input validation by updating the affected software.

Update Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE-PIC to a fixed version.
Review and restrict access to the affected API.
Implement input validation for all API requests.

Public PoC/Exploit Available at Github

CVE-2025-20281 has a 8 public PoC/Exploit available at Github. Go to the Public Exploits tab to see the list.

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to CVE-2025-20281.

URL	Resource
https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ise-unauth-rce-ZAd2GnJ6	Vendor Advisory
https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2025/7/24/cve-2025-20281-cisco-ise-api-unauthenticated-remote-code-execution-vulnerability	Exploit Third Party Advisory

CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2025-20281 is associated with the following CWEs:

CWE-74: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component ('Injection')

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2025-20281 weaknesses.

CAPEC-3: Using Leading 'Ghost' Character Sequences to Bypass Input Filters Using Leading 'Ghost' Character Sequences to Bypass Input Filters CAPEC-6: Argument Injection Argument Injection CAPEC-7: Blind SQL Injection Blind SQL Injection CAPEC-8: Buffer Overflow in an API Call Buffer Overflow in an API Call CAPEC-9: Buffer Overflow in Local Command-Line Utilities Buffer Overflow in Local Command-Line Utilities CAPEC-10: Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables CAPEC-13: Subverting Environment Variable Values Subverting Environment Variable Values CAPEC-14: Client-side Injection-induced Buffer Overflow Client-side Injection-induced Buffer Overflow CAPEC-24: Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow CAPEC-28: Fuzzing Fuzzing CAPEC-34: HTTP Response Splitting HTTP Response Splitting CAPEC-42: MIME Conversion MIME Conversion CAPEC-43: Exploiting Multiple Input Interpretation Layers Exploiting Multiple Input Interpretation Layers CAPEC-45: Buffer Overflow via Symbolic Links Buffer Overflow via Symbolic Links CAPEC-46: Overflow Variables and Tags Overflow Variables and Tags CAPEC-47: Buffer Overflow via Parameter Expansion Buffer Overflow via Parameter Expansion CAPEC-51: Poison Web Service Registry Poison Web Service Registry CAPEC-52: Embedding NULL Bytes Embedding NULL Bytes CAPEC-53: Postfix, Null Terminate, and Backslash Postfix, Null Terminate, and Backslash CAPEC-64: Using Slashes and URL Encoding Combined to Bypass Validation Logic Using Slashes and URL Encoding Combined to Bypass Validation Logic CAPEC-67: String Format Overflow in syslog() String Format Overflow in syslog() CAPEC-71: Using Unicode Encoding to Bypass Validation Logic Using Unicode Encoding to Bypass Validation Logic CAPEC-72: URL Encoding URL Encoding CAPEC-76: Manipulating Web Input to File System Calls Manipulating Web Input to File System Calls CAPEC-78: Using Escaped Slashes in Alternate Encoding Using Escaped Slashes in Alternate Encoding CAPEC-79: Using Slashes in Alternate Encoding Using Slashes in Alternate Encoding CAPEC-80: Using UTF-8 Encoding to Bypass Validation Logic Using UTF-8 Encoding to Bypass Validation Logic CAPEC-83: XPath Injection XPath Injection CAPEC-84: XQuery Injection XQuery Injection CAPEC-101: Server Side Include (SSI) Injection Server Side Include (SSI) Injection CAPEC-105: HTTP Request Splitting HTTP Request Splitting CAPEC-108: Command Line Execution through SQL Injection Command Line Execution through SQL Injection CAPEC-120: Double Encoding Double Encoding CAPEC-135: Format String Injection Format String Injection CAPEC-250: XML Injection XML Injection CAPEC-267: Leverage Alternate Encoding Leverage Alternate Encoding CAPEC-273: HTTP Response Smuggling HTTP Response Smuggling

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

B1ack4sh/Blackash-CVE-2025-20281

CVE-2025-20281

Python

Updated: 1 month ago

1 stars 0 fork 0 watcher

Born at : July 6, 2025, 1:20 p.m. This repo has been linked 1 different CVEs too.

ill-deed/Cisco-CVE-2025-20281-illdeed

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.

Python

Updated: 1 month ago

2 stars 2 fork 2 watcher

Born at : July 4, 2025, 2:59 p.m. This repo has been linked 1 different CVEs too.

grupooruss/CVE-2025-20281-Cisco

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 due to insufficient input validation in a specific API.

Python

Updated: 1 month ago

1 stars 0 fork 0 watcher

Born at : July 3, 2025, 2:10 a.m. This repo has been linked 1 different CVEs too.

abrewer251/CVE-2025-20281-2-Cisco-ISE-RCE

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

Python

Updated: 4 weeks, 1 day ago

18 stars 5 fork 5 watcher

Born at : June 27, 2025, 9:07 p.m. This repo has been linked 1 different CVEs too.

zzyss-marker/actions

None

Updated: 2 weeks, 6 days ago

0 stars 0 fork 0 watcher

Born at : March 21, 2025, 1:11 p.m. This repo has been linked 1 different CVEs too.

plzheheplztrying/cve_monitor

None

HTML Python Shell

Updated: 1 month, 3 weeks ago

0 stars 0 fork 0 watcher

Born at : Feb. 13, 2025, 8:50 a.m. This repo has been linked 891 different CVEs too.

ums91/CISA_BOT

CISA Bot is a GitHub bot that automatically monitors the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog. When new vulnerabilities are published in the KEV, the bot creates GitHub issues in this repository with detailed information about each vulnerability.

Python

Updated: 7 hours, 2 minutes ago

2 stars 1 fork 1 watcher

Born at : Oct. 29, 2024, 10:19 a.m. This repo has been linked 205 different CVEs too.

nomi-sec/PoC-in-GitHub

📡 PoC auto collect from GitHub. ⚠️ Be careful Malware.

security cve exploit poc vulnerability

Updated: 2 hours, 25 minutes ago

7221 stars 1200 fork 1200 watcher

Born at : Dec. 8, 2019, 1:03 p.m. This repo has been linked 804 different CVEs too.

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2025-20281 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The Register

Cisco's Secure Firewall Management Center now not-so secure, springs a CVSS 10 RCE hole

Cisco has issued a patch for a maximum-severity bug in its Secure Firewall Management Center (FMC) software that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to inject arbitrary shell commands on v ...

Published Date: Aug 15, 2025 (1 week, 4 days ago)

europa.eu

Cyber Brief 25-08 - July 2025

Cyber Brief (July 2025)August 4, 2025 - Version: 1TLP:CLEARExecutive summaryWe analysed 287 open source reports for this Cyber Brief1.Relating to cyber policy and law enforcement, the EU, UK, and US h ...

Published Date: Aug 04, 2025 (3 weeks, 1 day ago)

The Cyber Express

CISA Adds Cisco ISE and PaperCut Vulnerabilities to Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued a critical alert, adding three high-impact vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog. These inclu ...

Published Date: Jul 29, 2025 (4 weeks ago)

CybersecurityNews

CISA Warns of Cisco Identity Services Engine Vulnerability Exploited in Attacks

CISA has issued an urgent warning regarding two critical injection vulnerabilities in Cisco’s Identity Services Engine (ISE) that threat actors are actively exploiting. The vulnerabilities, tracked as ...

Published Date: Jul 29, 2025 (4 weeks, 1 day ago)

TheCyberThrone

CISA adds CISCO ISE and PaperCut MF flaws to KEV Catalog

Skip to content July 29, 2025The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added three significant vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on July 2 ...

Published Date: Jul 29, 2025 (4 weeks, 1 day ago)

BleepingComputer

Exploit available for critical Cisco ISE bug exploited in attacks

Security researcher Bobby Gould has published a blog post demonstrating a complete exploit chain for CVE-2025-20281, an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services E ...

Published Date: Jul 28, 2025 (4 weeks, 1 day ago)

Zero Day Initiative

CVE-2025-20281: Cisco ISE API Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

On January 25th, 2025, the Trend Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) received a report from Kentaro Kawane of GMO Cybersecurity by Ierae regarding a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability in Cisco Iden ...

Published Date: Jul 25, 2025 (1 month ago)

security.nl

Shadowserver: kritiek Cisco ISE-lek sinds 5 juli misbruik bij aanvallen

Een kritieke kwetsbaarheid in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) en Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) is sinds 5 juli misbruikt bij aanvallen, zo stelt The Shadowserver Foundation, een ...

Published Date: Jul 25, 2025 (1 month ago)

The Register

No login? No problem: Cisco ISE flaw gave root access before fix arrived, say researchers

Threat actors have actively exploited a newly patched vulnerability in Cisco's Identity Services Engine (ISE) software since early July, weeks before the networking giant got around to issuing a fix. ...

Published Date: Jul 24, 2025 (1 month ago)

Help Net Security

Maximum severity Cisco ISE vulnerabilities exploited by attackers

One or more vulnerabilities affecting Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) are being exploited in the wild, Cisco has confirmed by updating the security advisory for the flaws. About the vulnerabiliti ...

Published Date: Jul 23, 2025 (1 month ago)

security.nl

Cisco waarschuwt voor actief misbruik van kritieke ISE-kwetsbaarheden

Aanvallers maken actief misbruik van kritieke kwetsbaarheden in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) en Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) waardoor kwetsbare servers volledig op afstand zi ...