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

Critical severity, CVSS 10.0. Actively exploited: in CISA KEV since 2025-07-28. EPSS: 97.6% 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.

Affected products

• Cisco Identity Services Engine: version 3.3.0 only; version 3.4.0 only
• Cisco Identity Services Engine Passive Identity Connector: version 3.3.0 only; version 3.4.0 only

Published 2025-06-25. Last modified 2026-06-17.