Overview
The CVE-2025-20282 vulnerability represents a critical threat to organizations utilizing Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE-PIC products. This vulnerability allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to potentially compromise the system or leak data by uploading arbitrary files and executing them as root. This vulnerability is significant due to the potential for full system compromise and the widespread usage of these Cisco products in enterprise settings.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-20282
Severity: Critical (CVSS 10.0)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Impact: Full system compromise, potential data leakage
Affected Products
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Product | Affected Versions
Cisco ISE | All versions prior to the patched version
Cisco ISE-PIC | All versions prior to the patched version
How the Exploit Works
The exploit takes advantage of a vulnerability in an internal API of Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE-PIC which lacks sufficient file validation checks. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by uploading a malicious file to the affected device, which could then be placed in privileged directories. Upon successful upload, the attacker has the ability to execute this file as root, potentially leading to full system compromise or data leakage.
Conceptual Example Code
This is a conceptual example illustrating the vulnerability. The attacker sends a POST request to the vulnerable endpoint with a malicious payload.
POST /vulnerable/api/endpoint HTTP/1.1
Host: target.example.com
Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Content-Length: [length]
[binary data of the malicious file]Upon successful upload, the malicious file could be executed on the underlying system as root, leading to a potential system compromise or data leakage.
Mitigation and Recommendations
To mitigate this vulnerability, it is recommended to apply the security patch released by Cisco immediately. If the patch cannot be applied immediately, a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) can be used as a temporary mitigation method. However, these measures do not fully protect against the exploit and are only to be used as interim solutions until the patch can be applied.
It is also advised to regularly update and patch all systems and applications, regularly perform vulnerability scanning, and to follow the principle of least privilege to reduce the risk of similar vulnerabilities in the future.