Cisco has launched security patches to handle a crucial security flaw impacting the Id Companies Engine (ISE) that, if efficiently exploited, might enable unauthenticated actors to hold out malicious actions on prone methods.
The security defect, tracked as CVE-2025-20286, carries a CVSS rating of 9.9 out of 10.0. It has been described as a static credential vulnerability.
“A vulnerability in Amazon Net Companies (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) cloud deployments of Cisco Id Companies Engine (ISE) might enable an unauthenticated, distant attacker to entry delicate information, execute restricted administrative operations, modify system configurations, or disrupt companies inside the impacted methods,” the corporate stated in an advisory.
The networking tools maker, which credited Kentaro Kawane of GMO Cybersecurity for reporting the flaw, famous it is conscious of the existence of a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit. There isn’t a proof that it has been maliciously exploited within the wild.
Cisco stated the difficulty stems from the truth that credentials are improperly generated when Cisco ISE is being deployed on cloud platforms, inflicting totally different deployments to share the identical credentials so long as the software program launch and cloud platform are the identical.
Put in another way, the static credentials are particular to every launch and platform, however should not legitimate throughout platforms. As the corporate highlights, all situations of Cisco ISE launch 3.1 on AWS may have the identical static credentials.
Nevertheless, credentials which can be legitimate for entry to a launch 3.1 deployment wouldn’t be legitimate to entry a launch 3.2 deployment on the identical platform. Moreover, Launch 3.2 on AWS wouldn’t have the identical credentials as Launch 3.2 on Azure.
Profitable exploitation of the vulnerability might allow an attacker to extract the person credentials from the Cisco ISE cloud deployment after which use it to entry Cisco ISE deployed in different cloud environments by unsecured ports.
This might finally enable unauthorized entry to delicate information, execution of restricted administrative operations, modifications to system configurations, or service disruptions. That stated, Cisco ISE is simply affected in circumstances the place the Major Administration node is deployed within the cloud. Major Administration nodes which can be on-premises should not impacted.
The next variations are affected –
- AWS – Cisco ISE 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and three.4
- Azure – Cisco ISE 3.2, 3.3, and three.4
- OCI – Cisco ISE 3.2, 3.3, and three.4
Whereas there are not any workarounds to handle CVE-2025-20286, Cisco is recommending that customers limit visitors to licensed directors or run the “utility reset-config ise” command to reset person passwords to a brand new worth. Nevertheless, it bears noting that operating the command will reset Cisco ISE to the manufacturing facility configuration.
