NVD / CVE Program· CNA cisco

CVE-2025-20282: Cisco ISE API Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Plan (action score 52/100)

A ready-made attack module is public (Nuclei); exploiting it takes no special expertise.
Public proof-of-concept code exists (GitHub); there is no record of exploitation in the wild.
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 38.7% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 98.5% of all records.
Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
According to CISA the attack is automatable: targets can be found by mass scanning.
According to the record, no fixed version is available yet.
Mentioned 1 time in Turkish national cyber security advisories (siberguvenlik.gov.tr).

Add it to your regular patch cycle. Update when a fix is released; follow the vendor's advisory.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

A vulnerability in an internal API of Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE-PIC could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to upload arbitrary files to an affected device and then execute those files on the underlying operating system as root. This vulnerability is due a lack of file validation checks that would prevent uploaded files from being placed in privileged directories on an affected system. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by uploading a crafted file to the affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to store malicious files on the affected system and then execute arbitrary code or obtain root privileges on the system.

CriticalCVSS 10.0 · v3.1—Proof of concept No fix recorded

pre-auth RCE

BDU:2025-07648

Published: Jun 25, 2025
Updated: Jun 17, 2026
EPSS: 38.7% · 98th percentile
CWE: CWE-269

Report tools

JSON

Action score

Plan

Add it to your regular patch cycle.

CVSS: 40 / 40 · 10.0 / 10
CISA KEV: 0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS: 12 / 30 · 38.7%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation: none
Automatable: yes
Technical impact: total

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD: —
CNA · cisco: 10.0; NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Get told when this record changes

Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
Proof of concept exists, no weaponized module
No fixed version yet

If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

Vendor	Product	CPE
cisco	identity services engine	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:identity_services_engine
cisco	identity services engine passive identity connector	cpe:2.3:a:cisco:identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

cisco identity services engine3.4.0
cisco identity services engine passive identity connector3.4.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (cisco). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

Cisco Cisco Identity Services Engine Software
- 3.4.0, 3.4 Patch 1affected

Same product

cisco: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

CVE-2025-20281Cisco ISE API Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution VulnerabilityKEV
99Now
CVE-2026-76460Cisco Identity Services Engine Authentication Bypass VulnerabilityKEV
93Now
CVE-2025-20337Cisco ISE API Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution VulnerabilityKEV
92Now

Published before and after this one in the same product

← EarlierCVE-2025-20286Jun 4, 2025 · ISE on AWS Static Credential
39Monitor
← EarlierCVE-2025-20264Jun 25, 2025 · Cisco Identity Services Engine Authorization Bypass Vulnerability
25Monitor
Later →CVE-2025-20283Jul 16, 2025 · Cisco Identity Services Engine Authenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
32Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

No fix version is recorded for this entry. Check the references for vendor advisories.

Exploit status

Proof of concept available

A public proof of concept or detection signature exists. Exploit knowledge is out there; don't delay patching.

Evidence

Nuclei detection template ×1
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub ×1

Noroxi does not host or link to exploit code. Metasploit module names and Nuclei template ids are shown (names, not code); Exploit-DB entries and PoC repositories are given as counts only.

Public exploit evidence
Source	Kind	Date
Nuclei detection template	Nuclei template CVE-2025-20282	—
Proof-of-concept repository on GitHub	stars:1	2025-07-01

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

PublishedJun 25, 2025
First PoCJul 1, 2025+5 d
TodayOct 31, 2026+493 d

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

National notice (Türkiye Cybersecurity Directorate / USOM)

Official security notices citing this record; remediation advice is on the agency's page.

TR-25-0138 · Jun 26, 2025(Cisco ISE Güvenlik Bildirimi)

All national notices →

Technical details

Attack conditions

Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
No account or password is required.
No user action is required.
No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality: high · data can be read
Integrity: high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability: high · the service can be disrupted

Impact can extend beyond the vulnerable component (scope changes).

Attack vector: Network
Attack complexity: Low
Privileges required: None
User interaction: None
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality impact: High
Integrity impact: High
Availability impact: High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd-secondary

Root cause

To simplify setup, a service account is granted broad, cluster-wide permissions. The principle of least privilege is skipped during installation.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-269 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

yaml

1kind: ClusterRole
2rules:
3  - apiGroups: ["*"]
4    resources: ["*"]
5    verbs: ["*"]

Fixed

yaml

1kind: Role
2metadata:
3  namespace: lodos-system
4rules:
5  - apiGroups: ["apps"]
6    resources: ["deployments"]
7    verbs: ["get", "list", "update"]

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

Attack patterns (CAPEC)

ATT&CK techniques

Abuse Elevation Control MechanismT1548

Change log

No changes recorded on tracked fields yet. Score, KEV, exploit maturity and fix status changes appear here.

References

sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ise-unauth-rce-ZAd2GnJ6

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records