CVE-2026-20181
Received Received - Intake
Command Injection in Cisco ISE and ISE-PIC

Publication date: 2026-06-17

Last updated on: 2026-06-17

Assigner: Cisco Systems, Inc.

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.
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Meta Information
Published
2026-06-17
Last Modified
2026-06-17
Generated
2026-06-17
AI Q&A
2026-06-17
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-20181
EUVD
EUVD-2026-37748
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 4 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
cisco ise *
cisco ise-pic *
cisco identity_services_engine *
cisco ise_passive_identity_connector *
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-22 The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.
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Executive Summary

CVE-2026-20181 is a critical remote code execution vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC). It allows an authenticated remote attacker with administrative credentials to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system of the affected device.

The vulnerability is caused by insufficient validation of user-supplied input, which enables attackers to send specially crafted HTTP requests to exploit the issue. Successful exploitation can grant user-level access to the operating system and potentially allow privilege escalation to root.

In single-node deployments, exploiting this vulnerability could cause the affected ISE node to become unavailable, resulting in a denial of service (DoS) condition.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can have severe impacts including unauthorized execution of arbitrary commands on the device's operating system by an attacker with administrative credentials.

An attacker could gain user-level access and escalate privileges to root, potentially compromising the entire system.

In single-node deployments, exploitation could cause the ISE node to become unavailable, leading to a denial of service (DoS) condition where endpoints that have not authenticated cannot access the network until the node is restored.

Mitigation Strategies

To mitigate this vulnerability, you should apply the software updates released by Cisco that address this issue.

There are no available workarounds for this vulnerability.

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