Cisco has disclosed two critical security vulnerabilities in its Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) products, both earning a maximum CVSS severity score of 10.0. These flaws—CVE-2025-20281 and CVE-2025-20282—allow unauthenticated remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system with root privileges. The vulnerabilities are unrelated but equally severe, highlighting urgent concerns for organizations relying on Cisco ISE for network access control and identity policy enforcement.
CVE-2025-20281 is caused by insufficient input validation in a public-facing API, while CVE-2025-20282 stems from improper file validation that allows malicious file uploads and execution. Cisco has issued patches for both flaws and urges immediate action. Although no public exploits have been reported, the nature of these vulnerabilities makes them highly attractive targets for threat actors seeking initial access, privilege escalation, or lateral movement within enterprise environments.
In this episode, we break down the details of these critical flaws, including:
- How CVE-2025-20281 and CVE-2025-20282 work and what distinguishes them
- Which software versions are affected and what patches are available
- The risks associated with remote code execution, including system compromise, data theft, cryptojacking, and ransomware deployment
- The patching process for Cisco ISE and how organizations can verify successful installation
- Broader RCE mitigation strategies including input validation, network segmentation, and zero-trust architecture
These vulnerabilities underscore the critical importance of timely patching and rigorous software lifecycle management. Cisco’s advisory offers clear instructions, but given the risk profile, security teams should treat remediation as an emergency priority. Even in the absence of confirmed exploitation, the potential impact is equivalent to a full system compromise.
For enterprise security professionals, network architects, and incident response teams, this episode delivers actionable intelligence on the nature of the flaws, mitigation pathways, and why RCE in network infrastructure should never be underestimated.
