Cisco Identity Services Engine Software up to 3.5.0 CLI command injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Cisco Identity Services Engine Software. This impacts an unknown function of the component CLI. This manipulation causes command injection. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-20136. It is possible to launch the attack on the local host. There is not any exploit available. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Cisco Identity Services Engine Software. Affected by this vulnerability is some unknown functionality of the component CLI. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a command injection vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-77. The product constructs all or part of a command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended command when it is sent to a downstream component. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) could allow an authenticated, local attacker with administrative privileges to perform a command injection attack on the underlying operating system and elevate privileges to root. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by providing crafted input to a specific CLI command. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to elevate their privileges to root on the underlying operating system.

It is possible to read the advisory at sec.cloudapps.cisco.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-20136 since 10/08/2025. The exploitation appears to be easy. Attacking locally is a requirement. The exploitation needs additional levels of successful authentication. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 04/16/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1202 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at EUVD (EUVD-2026-22960) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1146). Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Productinfo

Type

• Policy Management Software

Vendor

• Cisco

Name

• Identity Services Engine Software

Version

• 3.1.0
• 3.1.0 p1
• 3.1.0 p2
• 3.1.0 p3
• 3.1.0 p4
• 3.1.0 p5
• 3.1.0 p6
• 3.1.0 p7
• 3.1.0 p8
• 3.1.0 p9
• 3.1.0 p10
• 3.2.0
• 3.2.0 p1
• 3.2.0 p2
• 3.2.0 p3
• 3.2.0 p4
• 3.2.0 p5
• 3.2.0 p6
• 3.2.0 p7
• 3.3.0
• 3.4.0
• 3.5.0

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.cisco.com/

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Entryinfo

Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

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