CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2017-12261 — Cisco Identity Services Engine security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.8

A vulnerability in the restricted shell of the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) that is accessible via SSH could allow an authenticated, local attacker to run arbitrary CLI commands with elevated privileges. The vulnerability is due to incomplete input validation of the user input for CLI commands issued at the restricted shell. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to the targeted device and executing commands that could lead to elevated privileges. An attacker would need valid user credentials to the device to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability affects the following Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) products running Release 1.4, 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.1.0: ISE, ISE Express, ISE Virtual Appliance. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCve74916.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.8 (3.0)
Published
2017-11-02
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-264, CWE-863

Affected products

  • cisco / identity_services_engine / 1.4
  • cisco / identity_services_engine / 2.0
  • cisco / identity_services_engine / 2.0.1
  • cisco / identity_services_engine / 2.1.0
  • cisco / identity_services_engine_express / 1.4
  • cisco / identity_services_engine_express / 2.0

Showing 6 representative product identities from 12 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authorization bypass, IDOR, and cross-tenant access

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Check exposure

  • Map object and action authorization checks across API, UI, batch, import/export, and background-job paths.
  • Identify tenant, ownership, role, and policy boundaries for affected resources and administrative operations.
  • Use synthetic fixtures to compare intended access matrices without accessing another user's real data.

Remediate safely

  • Enforce server-side authorization at each resource access and state transition using the authenticated principal and trusted tenant context.
  • Scope data queries by tenant and ownership; treat client-supplied identifiers, roles, and policy claims as untrusted.
  • Add deny-by-default policy tests for horizontal and vertical access across every affected transport.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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