Authenticated OS Command Injection in Cisco ISE and ISE-PIC
CVE-2026-20147 is a critical authenticated remote command injection vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC). The flaw is caused by insufficient validation of user-supplied input in the web management interface. Supporting content indicates the vulnerable path is in the deployment-rpc nodeTest method, where the user-controlled restartNodes parameter is passed into RestartUtil.invokeScript and concatenated into a shell command via bash -c without proper sanitization. A remote attacker with valid administrative credentials can send a crafted HTTP request to inject operating system commands on the underlying appliance. Successful exploitation allows escape from the application boundary to the host OS, initially yielding user-level execution and potentially enabling privilege escalation to root. In single-node ISE deployments, exploitation may also render the node unavailable.
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Impact, mitigation & remediation
What it means. What to do now. Patch path, mitigations, and the assume-compromise checklist.
Impact
What an attacker gets, and what they’ve been doing with it.
Mitigation
If you can’t patch tonight, do this now.
Remediation
Patch, then assume compromise.
Exploits
No public exploits tracked yet. Mallory keeps watching.
No public exploit code observed for this vulnerability.
Affected products & vendors
Products and vendors Mallory has correlated with this vulnerability. Open in Mallory to drill down to specific CPE configurations and version ranges.
Vendor-confirmed product mapping. Mallory continuously reconciles this list against your asset inventory.
Recent activity
18 sources tracked across advisories, community write-ups, and news. New activity surfaces here as Mallory finds it.
A critical authenticated OS command injection vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) that allows remote code execution as root via the deployment-rpc nodeTest method.
A critical Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE-PIC command execution vulnerability caused by insufficient validation of user-supplied input in HTTP requests, allowing an authenticated administrative attacker to execute arbitrary commands and potentially escalate to root.
An input validation vulnerability in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE-PIC that could allow an authenticated attacker with admin credentials to achieve remote code execution via crafted HTTP requests.
A critical Cisco Identity Services Engine vulnerability that allows attackers with admin privileges to execute remote code on the underlying operating system of an affected device.
The version that knows your environment.
Query your assets running an affected version, and investigate the blast radius.
Every observed campaign linking this CVE to a named adversary.
Malware families riding this exploit, with evidence and IOCs.
YARA, Sigma, Snort, and vendor rules, auto-deployed to your SIEM.
Cross-references every affected SKU, including bundled OEM variants.
Community discussion across Reddit, Mastodon, and other social sources.