Executive brief
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) contain improper privilege management vulnerabilities discovered during an internal security review. These issues could allow attackers to gain unauthorized elevated access or permissions within the authentication and network access control system. Cisco has released software patches to address these vulnerabilities with no workarounds available.
Technical details
The vulnerability is classified under CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management) and involves incorrect privilege assignment, privilege chaining, and incorrect use of privilege APIs within Cisco ISE and ISE-PIC. The flaw is network-reachable with no authentication or user interaction required, allowing unauthenticated attackers to exploit the privilege management weaknesses. Attackers can potentially escalate their privileges within the system to perform unauthorized actions. Cisco released software hardening updates that include patches for this vulnerability across multiple software releases; customers should upgrade to the patched releases indicated in the advisory.
Affected products
- Cisco Identity Services Engine 3.0 and earlier; 3.1 before 3.1 Patch 12; 3.2 before 3.2 Patch 11; 3.3 before 3.3 Patch 12; 3.4 before 3.4 Patch 7; 3.5 before 3.5 Patch 4
- Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector 3.4 and earlier
Timeline
- 2026-09-16: disclosed: Cisco Security Advisory published
- 2026-09-16: advisory: CVE-2026-20287 assigned as part of hardening release grouping