CVE-2025-20281
CRITICAL severity · CVSS 10 · Injection · actively exploited (CISA KEV)
10CVSS CRITICAL ● exploited
🔴 Actively exploited in the wild (CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities).
Added to KEV 2025-07-28. US federal agencies must patch by 2025-08-18.
Summary
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.
Impact & exploitability
Attack vectorNetwork
Attack complexityLow
Privileges requiredNone
User interactionNone
Confidentiality impactHigh
Integrity impactHigh
Availability impactHigh
Exploit probability (EPSS)33%
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected products we track (1)
Recommendation
This vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild — patch affected products urgently. Open any affected product above for its exact safe version.
Additional information
- NVD record
- https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ise-unauth-rce-ZAd2GnJ6Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2025-20281
- https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2025/7/24/cve-2025-20281-cisco-ise-api-unauthenticated-remote-code-execution-vulnerabilityAdvisory