VulnerabilityPublished 25 Jun 2025Updated 26 Jun 2025

CVE-2025-20264: Cisco Identity Services Engine Software · Improper Authorization

Affects Cisco Identity Services Engine SoftwareSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.4 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.4Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 28% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: Low
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 25 Jun 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Cisco Cisco Identity Services Engine Software	Affected 3.0.0 – 3.4.0 5 affected builds	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Immediate patching: Organizations should prioritize applying Cisco’s security updates and patches for Cisco ISE versions affected by this vulnerability as soon as they become available.
Restrict SAML SSO user privileges: Limit the number of users authenticated via SAML SSO with administrative privileges and enforce the principle of least privilege to reduce the attack surface.
Monitor administrative activities: Implement enhanced logging and monitoring of administrative commands and configuration changes within Cisco ISE to detect anomalous or unauthorized actions promptly.
Network segmentation: Isolate Cisco ISE management interfaces from general network access, restricting access only to trusted administrative hosts and networks.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA): Enforce MFA for all administrative access to Cisco ISE to reduce the risk of compromised credentials being used to exploit this vulnerability.
Deploy high-availability (HA) configurations: Where possible, avoid single-node deployments by implementing HA clusters to mitigate the impact of system restarts and maintain continuous authentication services.
Conduct regular security audits: Periodically review Cisco ISE configurations, especially SAML SSO integration settings, to ensure authorization policies are correctly enforced and no unauthorized privilege escalations are possible.

Description

A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to bypass the authorization mechanisms for specific administrative functions. This vulnerability is due to insufficient authorization enforcement mechanisms for users created by SAML SSO integration with an external identity provider. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by submitting a series of specific commands to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to modify a limited number of system settings, including some that would result in a system restart. In single-node Cisco ISE deployments, devices that are not authenticated to the network will not be able to authenticate until the Cisco ISE system comes back online. 

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be significant, particularly for enterprises and service providers that use Cisco ISE for centralized network access control and policy enforcement. Unauthorized modification of administrative settings could lead to disruption of network authentication services, causing downtime or degraded network access for employees and devices. This is especially critical in single-node deployments where a system restart triggered by exploitation can result in temporary denial of network access, impacting business continuity. While confidentiality is not directly compromised, the integrity of system configurations is at risk, potentially allowing attackers to weaken security policies or disrupt operations. Critical infrastructure sectors such as finance, healthcare, telecommunications, and government agencies in Europe that rely on Cisco ISE for secure network access could face operational disruptions and increased risk of lateral movement by attackers if this vulnerability is exploited. The medium severity rating suggests that while exploitation requires authenticated access, the ease of bypassing authorization controls and the potential for availability impact make this a notable threat to network security posture.

References

sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ise-auth-bypass-mVfKVQAU (opens in a new tab)

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 25 Jun 2025, 16:37 UTC

Technical details

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