CVE-2025-20286
📋 TL;DR
A critical vulnerability in Cisco ISE cloud deployments allows unauthenticated attackers to access shared credentials across multiple cloud environments. This enables data access, administrative operations, configuration changes, and service disruption. Only organizations with Cisco ISE Primary Administration nodes deployed on AWS, Azure, or OCI cloud platforms are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete compromise of all Cisco ISE deployments sharing the same credentials across cloud environments, allowing full administrative control, data exfiltration, and service disruption.
Likely Case
Unauthorized access to sensitive configuration data and limited administrative operations across affected ISE deployments.
If Mitigated
Isolated credential compromise limited to a single deployment if proper network segmentation and access controls are implemented.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires extracting credentials from one cloud deployment and accessing other deployments through unsecured ports
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Not specified in provided reference
Vendor Advisory: https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ise-aws-static-cred-FPMjUcm7
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Review Cisco advisory for specific patch details. 2. Apply Cisco-provided patches for affected ISE versions. 3. Restart ISE services after patching. 4. Regenerate credentials for all affected deployments.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Network Segmentation
allRestrict access to ISE management interfaces using firewall rules and network segmentation
Credential Rotation
allManually rotate credentials for all affected ISE deployments
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Move Primary Administration node to on-premises infrastructure
- Implement strict network access controls to limit exposure of ISE management interfaces
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check if Cisco ISE Primary Administration node is deployed on AWS, Azure, or OCI cloud platformsCheck Version:
Check Cisco ISE version via administrative interface or CLIVerify Fix Applied:
Verify patch installation and confirm credentials are no longer shared across deployments📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unauthorized access attempts to ISE management interfaces
- Credential extraction attempts
- Configuration changes from unexpected sources
Network Indicators:
- Unusual traffic patterns to ISE management ports from external sources
- Credential reuse across multiple deployments
SIEM Query:
Search for authentication events from unexpected IP addresses or credential reuse patterns