BREAKING: Cisco Patches Severe Identity Services Engine (ISE) Exploits – Upgrade Now!

Cisco has released critical security patches to address two severe vulnerabilities in its Identity Services Engine (ISE) platform. These flaws, tracked as CVE-2025-20124 and CVE-2025-20125, allow authenticated remote attackers with read-only admin privileges to execute arbitrary commands as root and bypass authorization on unpatched devices.

Cisco ISE and Its Role in Enterprise Security

Cisco ISE is a robust identity and access management (IAM) solution that integrates authentication, authorization, and accounting into a single appliance. Enterprise administrators use Cisco ISE to enforce security policies across their networks, making its vulnerabilities a significant concern for organizations relying on the platform for secure access management.

Details of the Vulnerabilities

The two newly discovered vulnerabilities affect Cisco ISE and Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) appliances, regardless of their configuration.

CVE-2025-20124: Insecure Deserialization Vulnerability

• Severity Rating: 9.9/10 (Critical)
• Cause: Insecure deserialization of user-supplied Java byte streams
• Exploitation Method: Attackers can send a crafted serialized Java object to a vulnerable API.
• Impact: Successful exploitation allows attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the affected device and escalate privileges to root.

CVE-2025-20125: Authorization Bypass and Improper Validation

• Severity Rating: Critical
• Cause: Lack of authorization validation in a specific API and improper validation of user-supplied data
• Exploitation Method: Attackers can craft malicious HTTP requests to exploit the flaw.
• Impact: A successful attack can enable unauthorized modification of system configurations, access sensitive data, and reload affected devices.

Affected Versions and Recommended Fixes

To mitigate these risks, Cisco has provided fixed releases for vulnerable Cisco ISE versions. Administrators should update their systems immediately:

Cisco ISE Software Releases First Fixed Release 3.0 Migrate to a fixed release 3.1 3.1P10 3.2 3.2P7 3.3 3.3P4 3.4 Not vulnerable

Cisco’s Security Response and No Active Exploits

Cisco’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) has confirmed that, as of now, there is no evidence of public exploit code or real-world exploitation of these vulnerabilities. The security issues were responsibly disclosed by Deloitte security researchers Dan Marin and Sebastian Radulea.

Additional Cisco Security Alerts

Alongside the ISE vulnerabilities, Cisco also warned of high-severity vulnerabilities in its network operating systems, including IOS, IOS XE, IOS XR, and NX-OS:

Denial-of-Service (DoS) Vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-20169, CVE-2025-20170, CVE-2025-20171, CVE-2024-20397)

• Affected Systems: IOS IOS XE IOS XR (with SNMP enabled) NX-OS (bypass NX-OS image signature verification)
• Impact: Attackers can trigger DoS conditions or bypass security verification.
• Patch Status: Cisco is planning updates in February and March to fix SNMP-related vulnerabilities in IOS, IOS XE, and IOS XR.
• Mitigation: Administrators should disable vulnerable object identifiers (OIDs) on affected devices. However, doing so could negatively impact network performance.

Historical Context: Cisco’s Recent Security Flaws

These newly disclosed vulnerabilities follow a series of security issues that Cisco has addressed in recent months:

• September 2024: Cisco patched another ISE vulnerability that had public exploit code, enabling privilege escalation to root.
• November 2024: Cisco fixed a maximum severity flaw in its Ultra-Reliable Wireless Backhaul (URWB) access points, which allowed attackers to execute commands with root privileges.

Conclusion: Immediate Action Required

Given the severity of the CVE-2025-20124 and CVE-2025-20125 vulnerabilities, organizations using Cisco ISE should immediately upgrade to the recommended fixed releases. Additionally, enterprises using IOS, IOS XE, IOS XR, and NX-OS should stay vigilant for upcoming patches and implement temporary mitigations as needed.

Cisco continues to address security concerns, but these vulnerabilities highlight the importance of continuous monitoring, timely updates, and strong cybersecurity hygiene to prevent potential exploitation in enterprise environments.