RCE in Cisco Identity Services Engine Software
CVE-2026-20176
A vulnerability in Cisco ISE could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the underlying operating system of an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker must have valid high-privileged administrative credentials. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending a crafted HTTP request to an affected device. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain system-level access to the underlying operating system and then elevate privileges to root. In single-node deployments, successful exploitation of this vulnerability could cause the affected ISE node to become unavailable, resulting in a DoS condition. In that condition, endpoints that have not already authenticated would be unable to access the network until the node is restored.
Vulnerability class: Command Injection (OS Command Injection)
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 9.1 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.008 (56.7th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 57th percentile — 56.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.008 · newest: 0.008 · change: +0.000
Affected products
- Cisco Identity Services Engine Software — versions 3.1.0, 3.1.0 p1, 3.1.0 p10
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-20176?
- CVE-2026-20176 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine Software, classified under Command Injection. CVSS score: 9.1/10. Published 2026-09-16.
- How severe is CVE-2026-20176?
- Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.1 out of 10.