CVE-2026-20305 Cisco Identity Services Engine Command Injection Vulnerability
Authenticated attackers can inject commands via the web interface to execute arbitrary code and gain root privileges on Cisco ISE nodes.
- 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-2026-20305?
CVE-2026-20305 is a critical command injection vulnerability in Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector, published on 16 Sep 2026. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A vulnerability in the diagnostic tools of Cisco ISE and ISE-PIC could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform command injection attacks on the underlying operating system and elevate privileges to root. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted commands to the web-based management interface of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the device and 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-78
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-20305?
How do I fix CVE-2026-20305?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-20305 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-2026-20305 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-20305 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-6cv4-w2cr-6qmr.