Authentication Exposure in Cisco Identity Services Engine on AWS, Azure, and OCI

CVE-2025-20286

What is CVE-2025-20286?

CVE-2025-20286 is a significant vulnerability affecting the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) when deployed on cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Cisco ISE is an advanced network security policy management platform primarily used for ensuring secure access to network resources and enforcing security policies across enterprise environments. This vulnerability arises from the improper generation of credentials during the deployment process of Cisco ISE on these cloud platforms. As a result, different Cisco ISE instances within the same software release and cloud environment inadvertently share the same credentials.

This flaw can lead to severe security repercussions for organizations that rely on Cisco ISE for their network management. It exposes sensitive data to unauthorized access, allows unauthorized administrative actions to be executed, and permits configurations of the system to be altered. The exploitation of this vulnerability can disrupt services, which can be detrimental to organizations operating in cloud environments where Cisco ISE is configured, potentially leading to reputational damage and operational downtimes.

Potential impact of CVE-2025-20286

1. Unauthorized Access to Sensitive Data: An unauthenticated attacker can exploit shared credentials to gain access to sensitive information stored within affected Cisco ISE deployments, risking data breaches that could compromise personal or organizational data.

2. Execution of Unauthorized Administrative Operations: The vulnerability allows attackers to perform limited administrative functions across different Cisco ISE deployments, which could lead to misconfigurations or further security breaches, severely undermining the integrity of the security infrastructure.

3. Service Disruption: Exploitation of this vulnerability may enable attackers to disrupt critical services managed by Cisco ISE, impacting network security posture and overall operational capabilities, leading to potential service outages for organizations.

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