CVE-2026-20181 Cisco Identity Services Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Authenticated attackers can execute arbitrary commands and escalate privileges to root on Cisco ISE via crafted HTTP requests.
- 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-2026-20181?
CVE-2026-20181 is a critical command injection vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine, published on 17 Jun 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A vulnerability in Cisco ISE and ISE-PIC could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system of an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain user-level access to the underlying operating system and then elevate privileges to root. In single-node deployments, successful exploitation of this vulnerability could cause the affected ISE node to become unavailable, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition. In that condition, endpoints that have not already authenticated would be unable to access the network until the node is restored.
Weakness: CWE-22
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20181?
It affects 2 products.
Products include Cisco Identity Services Engine, Cisco Identity Services Engine Passive Identity Connector.
How do I fix CVE-2026-20181?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-20181 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-2026-20181 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20181 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Identity Services Engine
- CVE-2026-76460 Cisco Identity Services Engine Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs
- CVE-2025-20337 Cisco Identity Services Engine Injection
- CVE-2025-20281 Cisco Identity Services Engine Injection
- CVE-2026-20130 Cisco Identity Services Engine Hardening Release - Improper Neutralization Vulnerabilities
- CVE-2026-20192 Cisco Identity Services Engine Hardening Release - Access Control Vulnerabilities
Sources
Also known as GHSA-j3jc-gmh7-9qr9.