Islamabad, June 23, 2025: In a major security alert, the National Computer Emergency Response Team has issued a high-severity advisory about a critical Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vulnerability that threatens cloud-based environments across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
The flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-20286, holds a CVSS score of 9.9, making it one of the most dangerous security threats identified this year. The Cisco ISE vulnerability enables unauthenticated attackers to gain full administrative access, effectively bypassing authentication protocols in official Cisco cloud images.
This serious cloud security flaw stems from improper credential handling and weak session validation. While it does not impact on-premises installations, it directly affects Cisco ISE versions 3.1 to 3.4 when deployed via the Cisco Marketplace on cloud platforms.
Exploit in the Wild: Immediate Action Required
What makes CVE-2025-20286 especially alarming is the availability of a public proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit. This enables remote attackers to connect over the internet through HTTPS and take over management interfaces—without any credentials or prior access.
Successful exploitation grants attackers the ability to:
- Modify or disable security configurations
- View identity and authentication logs
- Circumvent network access policies
- Move laterally within connected cloud networks
Root Cause and Affected Versions
According to the advisory, the root causes of this Cisco ISE cloud vulnerability include:
- Hard-coded credentials
- Insecure default settings
- Flawed access control validation
These flaws are present in Cisco ISE images deployed via the AWS, Azure, and OCI marketplaces, but custom-configured or manually set up deployments remain unaffected.
Security Measures and Recommendations
To mitigate the risk, organizations must take immediate corrective action:
- Redeploy affected instances using the newly patched Cisco images released in June 2025.
- Restrict access to the ISE admin interface through firewalls or secure VPN tunnels.
- Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for admin-level access.
- Isolate vulnerable systems with cloud network segmentation.
Administrators should rotate all credentials and access tokens used in exposed environments and review logs for any signs of unauthorized activity. Integration with SIEM tools and full forensic analysis is highly recommended to detect potential compromises.
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