Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2021-1594


A vulnerability in the REST API of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to perform a command injection attack and elevate privileges to root. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation for specific API endpoints. An attacker in a man-in-the-middle position could exploit this vulnerability by intercepting and modifying specific internode communications from one ISE persona to another ISE persona. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to run arbitrary commands with root privileges on the underlying operating system. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker would need to decrypt HTTPS traffic between two ISE personas that are located on separate nodes.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.5, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network but requires specific conditions to be met though user interaction is required and does not require pre-existing privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), and availability (service disruption) for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from cisco organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2021, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2021-10-06T20:15:08.060

Last Modified

2024-11-21T05:44:42.170

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 7.5 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

  • Access Vector: NETWORK
  • Access Complexity: MEDIUM
  • Authentication: NONE
  • Confidentiality Impact: COMPLETE
  • Integrity Impact: COMPLETE
  • Availability Impact: COMPLETE
Exploitability Score

8.6

Impact Score

10.0

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-266
  • Type: Primary
    CWE-78

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application cisco identity_services_engine < 2.6.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.4\(0.902\) Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.6\(0.156\) Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.6.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.6.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.6.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.6.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.6.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.6.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.6.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.6.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.6.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.7\(0.903\) Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.7.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.7.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.7.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.7.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 2.7.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.0\(0.458\) Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.0.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.0.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.0.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.0.0 Yes
Application cisco identity_services_engine 3.1\(0.440\) Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For cisco's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.