CVE-2025-20337: 
Cisco ISE vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A critical vulnerability (CVE-2025-20337) has been identified in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC). This vulnerability allows an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the underlying operating system with root privileges. The vulnerability affects ISE and ISE-PIC releases 3.3 and 3.4, while versions 3.2 and earlier are not impacted. The flaw was discovered by Kentaro Kawane of GMO Cybersecurity and carries a maximum CVSS score of 10.0 (Cisco Advisory).

The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user-supplied input in a specific API of Cisco ISE and ISE-PIC. The flaw is tracked as CWE-74 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component). It has received a Critical severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 10.0 (Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H). The vulnerability can be exploited by submitting a crafted API request, requiring no valid credentials for exploitation (Cisco Advisory, NVD).

A successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows attackers to obtain root privileges on affected devices, potentially leading to complete system compromise. The attacker can execute arbitrary code on the underlying operating system with the highest privileges, giving them full control over the affected system (Hacker News, Cisco Advisory).

Cisco has released software updates to address this vulnerability. For Cisco ISE Release 3.3, users should upgrade to Release 3.3 Patch 7, and for Release 3.4, users should upgrade to Release 3.4 Patch 2. There are no workarounds available for this vulnerability. Organizations using hot patches ise-apply-CSCwo994493.3.0.430patch4-SPA.tar.gz or ise-apply-CSCwo994493.4.0.608patch1-SPA.tar.gz should upgrade to the recommended patch versions as these hot patches did not address CVE-2025-20337 (Cisco Advisory).