CVE-2025-20281
Actively exploited. CVE-2025-20281 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2025-07-28) — exploitation has been observed in the wild, and US federal agencies are required to remediate it under BOD 22-01. Treat patching as urgent.
Public exploit code is available. Proof-of-concept or working exploit code for CVE-2025-20281 is indexed in GitHub PoC and Nuclei. Expect opportunistic scanning and exploitation attempts — prioritize remediation.
Cisco Identity Services Engine contains an injection vulnerability in a specific API of Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE-PIC due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input allowing an attacker to exploit this vulnerability by submitting a crafted API request. Successful exploitation could allow an attacker to perform remote code execution and obtaining root privileges on an affected device.
CSIRTS triage
- What
- Cisco Identity Services Engine contains an injection vulnerability that allows remote code execution due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input.
- Who is affected
- Deployments of Cisco Identity Services Engine and Cisco ISE-PIC that are running affected versions.
- Urgency
- Immediate remediation is necessary as the vulnerability is actively exploited and rated critical.
- Action
- Update to the latest version of Cisco Identity Services Engine.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Exploitation outlook
- Exploitation confirmedAlready exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) — the prediction phase is over. Patch now. Riskier than 100% of all EPSS-scored CVEs.
Exploit availability
Public exploit or proof-of-concept code for CVE-2025-20281 is indexed in these free datasets. Available exploit code raises real-world risk independent of the CVSS score.
- GitHub PoCPublic proof-of-concept repositories on GitHub reference this CVE.look it up ↗
- NucleiA nuclei-templates detection/PoC template exists for this CVE.look it up ↗
Advisory coverage (1)
- criticalexploitedCVE-2025-20281: Cisco Identity Services Engine Injection Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2025-07-28
External references
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[](https://www.csirts.com/cve/CVE-2025-20281)