CVE-2025-20284 Cisco Identity Services Engine Authenticated Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Medium 6.5 Published 16 Jul 2025 Updated 26 Feb 2026

Authenticated attackers with high privileges can execute arbitrary code as root via crafted API requests in Cisco ISE.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: An administrator
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2025-20284?

CVE-2025-20284 is a medium-severity command injection vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine, published on 16 Jul 2025. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A vulnerability in a specific API of Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE-PIC could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the underlying operating system as root. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An attacker with valid credentials could exploit this vulnerability by submitting a crafted API request. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute commands as the root user. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid high-privileged credentials.

Weakness: CWE-74

Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-20284?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Cisco Identity Services Engine, Cisco Identity Services Engine Passive Identity Connector.

How do I fix CVE-2025-20284?

No fix has been published for CVE-2025-20284 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.

Is CVE-2025-20284 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-20284 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Cisco Identity Services Engine vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-w5q9-32xf-9fxh.