⚠ Actively exploited
Added to CISA KEV on 2025-07-28. Federal agencies required to patch by 2025-08-18. 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..

CVE-2025-20281

Severity
10.0CRITICAL
EPSS
28.2%
top 3.50%
CISA KEV
KEV
Added 2025-07-28
Due 2025-08-18
Exploit
PoC available
Public exploit / PoC exists
Timeline
PublishedJun 25
KEV addedJul 28
KEV dueAug 18
CISA 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.

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

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:HExploitability: 3.9 | Impact: 6.0

Affected Packages3 packages

🔴Vulnerability Details

3
GHSA
GHSA-rc4f-42xm-hvjw: 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 unde2025-06-26
CVEList
Cisco ISE API Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability2025-06-25
VulnCheck
Cisco Identity Services Engine Injection Vulnerability2025

💥Exploits & PoCs

1
Nuclei
Cisco ISE - Remote Code Execution

🔍Detection Rules

1
Suricata
ET WEB_SPECIFIC_APPS Cisco ISE ERS API Unauthenticated RCE (CVE-2025-20281)2025-07-17

📋Vendor Advisories

2
CISA
Cisco Identity Services Engine Injection Vulnerability2025-07-28
Cisco
Cisco Identity Services Engine Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities2025-06-25

🕵️Threat Intelligence

2
Bleepingcomputer
Exploit available for critical Cisco ISE bug exploited in attacks2025-07-28
Bleepingcomputer
Cisco warns of max severity RCE flaws in Identity Services Engine2025-06-26
CVE-2025-20281 (CRITICAL CVSS 10) | A vulnerability in a specific API o | cvebase.io