CVE-2026-76426 in Identity Services Engine Software
Summary
by MITRE • 09/16/2026
A vulnerability in the REST API of Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE-PIC could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to conduct SQL injection attacks against the monitoring database.
This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of specific parameters that are then concatenated into an SQL statement. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted request that contains SQL statements in one of the affected parameters. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to read information from the monitoring database. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/16/2026
The identified security flaw resides within the REST API interface of Cisco Identity Services Engine and its associated Policy Information Card component, presenting a critical risk vector for authenticated adversaries. This vulnerability is classified as an SQL injection attack, specifically categorized under CWE-89 in the Common Weakness Enumeration standard, which addresses improper neutralization of special elements used in an SQL command. The root cause lies in insufficient input validation within specific API parameters that are directly concatenated into dynamic SQL statements without adequate sanitization or parameterized query usage. This architectural oversight allows maliciously crafted data to alter the intended logic of database queries executed by the monitoring subsystem, thereby bypassing standard security controls designed to separate code from data.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability enables a remote attacker who possesses valid administrative credentials to interact directly with the underlying monitoring database. The primary impact involves unauthorized read access to sensitive information stored within the system. While the requirement for authentication limits the attack surface compared to unauthenticated exploits, it does not mitigate the severity of the data exposure once inside the perimeter. An attacker leveraging this flaw can extract confidential network configuration details, user identity records, policy definitions, and potentially other proprietary or personally identifiable information depending on the specific database schema exposed through these endpoints. This capability aligns with the ATT&CK technique T1078, which covers Valid Accounts, as well as data exfiltration methods such as T1005, where attackers collect data from local system sources before potential lateral movement or further exploitation.
The necessity for administrative credentials means that this vulnerability primarily threatens organizations with compromised privileged accounts due to weak password policies, credential stuffing attacks, or internal misuse by malicious insiders. However, the ability to perform SQL injection through a web-based API significantly lowers the technical barrier for exploitation compared to direct database access methods. The attacker can construct complex queries using standard HTTP requests, making detection more challenging if logging and monitoring systems do not specifically flag anomalous query patterns originating from the ISE management interface. This underscores the importance of strict input validation on all user-supplied data that interacts with backend databases, regardless of the authentication status of the requester.
To mitigate this risk, organizations must ensure they are running a version of Cisco Identity Services Engine and Policy Information Card components where this vulnerability has been patched by the vendor. Immediate application of the latest security updates is the most effective remediation strategy. In addition to patching, network segmentation should be enforced to restrict access to the ISE management interfaces only from trusted administrative subnets. Implementing Web Application Firewalls with rules specifically tuned for SQL injection patterns can provide an additional layer of defense by blocking malformed requests before they reach the application logic. Furthermore, enforcing multi-factor authentication and rigorous credential rotation policies reduces the likelihood that an attacker will obtain the necessary valid credentials to exploit this flaw in the first place. Continuous monitoring of API access logs for unusual query structures or high-volume data retrieval operations can also aid in early detection of attempted exploitation activities.