Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessCraft link with malicious script payload
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ExploitPhish ISE admin to click link
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ExecutionReflected input executes in admin browser
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ImpactSteal session data / act in interface context
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Output encoding, context-aware escaping
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Initial Access, Execution The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires an attacker to persuade an authenticated user of the ISE web-based management interface to click a crafted link (UI:R), so success depends on social engineering of an interface user rather than a direct server hit. The attacker themselves needs no credentials (PR:N) and no non-default configuration is required - any deployment exposing the ISE admin web interface is affected. Limiting factors: the payload only executes in the victim's browser (C:L/I:L, no A impact), the victim must be a legitimate interface user who takes the action, and restricting admin-interface access to trusted management networks materially reduces exposure. |
| Impact | This is a moderate-severity reflected cross-site scripting flaw (CVSS 6.1, CWE-79) in the Cisco ISE web-based management interface. The CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N) shows a network-reachable, low-complexity issue requiring no attacker authentication, but the mandatory UI:R (victim must click a crafted link) and the low, browser-scoped C:L/I:L impacts are the key limiters - this is not a server-compromise bug. No EPSS score, KEV listing, or POC was provided, so there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no evidence of active exploitation. Reflected XSS is inherently a targeted, social-engineering-dependent attack rather than automatable mass exploitation, which is consistent with the low real-world urgency despite the 'unauthenticated remote' framing. Net assessment: a legitimate defense-in-depth patch priority for the admin interface, but a lower priority than the authenticated SQLi, path-traversal, and deserialization flaws in the same ISE line - verify no session-hijacking amplification via vendor advisory cisco-sa-ise-xss-Uz9VWRQ. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker crafts a malicious URL targeting the ISE web management interface with an unvalidated parameter containing script, then socially engineers an ISE administrator into clicking it (e.g., via phishing). When the admin's browser renders the reflected response, the script executes in the context of the ISE interface, letting the attacker run arbitrary script or steal browser-based session information. No public exploit code was identified at time of analysis. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 16, 2026
Reflected cross-site scripting in the web-based management interface of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) lets a remote, unauthenticated attacker execute arbitrary script code in the browser session of an ISE interface user who is persuaded to click a crafted link (CVSS 3.1 base 6.1, CWE-79). Successful exploitation is confined to the victim's browser context - the attacker can read browser-based information or act as the interface user, but there is no server-side code execution and no availability impact (C:L/I:L/A:N). Exploitation requires user interaction (UI:R) against a legitimate interface user, so exposure drops sharply if the admin interface is not reachable from untrusted networks; at time of analysis there is no CISA KEV entry and no public exploit code identified, although the affected version list is broad, covering ISE 3.1.0 through 3.5 releases.
RemediationAI
No fixed release version is identified in the supplied intelligence, so the authoritative fix mapping must be taken from the Cisco advisory at https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-ise-xss-Uz9VWRQ - obtain the appropriate maintenance or patch release for your ISE train (3.1.0, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, or 3.5) from Cisco and upgrade to it, since the advisory is the vendor's single source of truth for patched builds; do not treat absence of a version number here as confirmation that no fix exists. Until you can upgrade, the highest-value compensating control is to restrict access to the ISE web-based management interface to a trusted management network or VPN and block it from general user networks - the trade-off is reduced administrative flexibility for remote staff but it eliminates the network reachability the reflected XSS depends on, and it aligns with treating ISE admin UI as out-of-band infrastructure. Because exploitation requires the victim to click a crafted link (UI:R), reinforce operator awareness not to open unsolicited URLs pointing at the ISE management interface, and consider enforcing browser-side defenses such as a restrictive Content-Security-Policy on any reverse proxy in front of the admin UI, with the caveat that CSP may break legitimate ISE UI functionality and must be tested. Additional hardening includes limiting the number of accounts with admin-interface access, using short session timeouts, and monitoring ISE web logs for suspicious query-string payloads; disabling the web management interface entirely is not a realistic option for most deployments since it is the primary administrative channel.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The flaw is a classic CWE-79 reflected (non-persistent) cross-site scripting issue in the ISE web-based management interface: the application reflects user-supplied input into a response without proper output encoding or input neutralization, so a crafted URL causes attacker-controlled script to be rendered and executed in the victim's browser. The CVSS vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N indicates the attack is network-reachable with low complexity and requires no attacker credentials (PR:N), but depends on a targeted user clicking a link (UI:R) and the injected script crossing a trust boundary (S:C - scope change), which is why the impact is rated limited for confidentiality and integrity and none for availability. The CPE entry cpe:2.3:a:cisco:cisco_identity_services_engine_software:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* is a wildcard covering the product family, and the European advisory data enumerates affected builds across the ISE 3.1.0 (p1-p11, p72), 3.2.0 and 3.2 patch, 3.3.0 and 3.3 patch, 3.4.0 and 3.4 patch, and 3.5.0 and 3.5 patch release trains. Because this is an administrative interface, the typical victim is a privileged ISE operator whose browser session may carry session cookies or tokens useful to the attacker.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Reflected XSS: unauthenticated network attacker (PR:N/AV:N) but requires victim click (UI:R); script runs in victim's browser (scope change S:C) with limited browser-context confidentiality/integrity impact and no availability effect.
Primary rating from Vendor (cisco).
CVSS VectorVendor: cisco
DescriptionCVE.org
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against a user of the interface.
This vulnerability exists because the web-based management interface does not properly validate user-supplied input. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user of the interface to click a crafted link. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary script code in the context of the affected interface or access sensitive, browser-based information.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Cross-Site Scripting occurs when an application accepts untrusted data and sends it to a web browser without proper validation or encoding.
Authentication bypass in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE Passive Identity Connector lets an unauthenticated
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Remote code execution and privilege escalation in Cisco Identity Services Engine allows authenticated attackers with Rea
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SQL injection in the SXP REST API of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) lets a remote attacker who already holds valid
Command injection in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) allows an authenticated, high-privileged remote administrator
Improper input validation in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) all
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) contain multiple internally discovered
EUVD-2026-81146
GHSA-48qc-vpgr-vrxg
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB