CVE-2025-20286
Published: 04 June 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-20286 is a critical-severity Use of Hard-coded Password (CWE-259) vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine. Its CVSS base score is 9.9 (Critical).
Operationally, ranked at the 39.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-16883
Vulnerability details
A vulnerability in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) cloud deployments of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to access sensitive data, execute limited administrative operations, modify system configurations, or…
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disrupt services within the impacted systems. This vulnerability exists because credentials are improperly generated when Cisco ISE is being deployed on cloud platforms, resulting in different Cisco ISE deployments sharing the same credentials. These credentials are shared across multiple Cisco ISE deployments as long as the software release and cloud platform are the same. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by extracting the user credentials from Cisco ISE that is deployed in the cloud and then using them to access Cisco ISE that is deployed in other cloud environments through unsecured ports. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to access sensitive data, execute limited administrative operations, modify system configurations, or disrupt services within the impacted systems. Note: If the Primary Administration node is deployed in the cloud, then Cisco ISE is affected by this vulnerability. If the Primary Administration node is on-premises, then it is not affected.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Changing default authenticators prior to first use directly prevents use of hard-coded passwords.
Shared threat data frequently highlights products or deployments still using hard-coded passwords, enabling remediation that directly blocks credential-based attacks.
Background checks and authorization requirements decrease the probability that a developer will hard-code passwords for later unauthorized access.
Reviews of supplier deliverables reduce the chance that hard-coded passwords are introduced into the system.