CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2017-6747 — Cisco Identity Services Engine security vulnerability

Critical CVSS 9.8

A vulnerability in the authentication module of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to bypass local authentication. The vulnerability is due to improper handling of authentication requests and policy assignment for externally authenticated users. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating with a valid external user account that matches an internal username and incorrectly receiving the authorization policy of the internal account. An exploit could allow the attacker to have Super Admin privileges for the ISE Admin portal. This vulnerability does not affect endpoints authenticating to the ISE. The vulnerability affects Cisco ISE, Cisco ISE Express, and Cisco ISE Virtual Appliance running Release 1.3, 1.4, 2.0.0, 2.0.1, or 2.1.0. Release 2.2.x is not affected. Cisco Bug IDs: CSCvb10995.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.8 (3.0)
Published
2017-08-07
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-287

Affected products

  • cisco / identity_services_engine / 1.3(0.722)
  • cisco / identity_services_engine / 1.3(0.876)
  • cisco / identity_services_engine / 1.3(0.909)
  • cisco / identity_services_engine / 1.3(106.146)
  • cisco / identity_services_engine / 1.3(120.135)
  • cisco / identity_services_engine / 1.4(0.109)

Showing 6 representative product identities from 18 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authentication bypass and missing authentication

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Check exposure

  • Map every affected endpoint and protocol path, including alternate ports, legacy routes, recovery flows, service accounts, and machine-to-machine access.
  • Confirm which deployments enable the affected authentication mode and whether the interface is reachable from untrusted networks.
  • Review session, token, credential, and proxy trust configuration without attempting account takeover.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and centralize fail-closed authentication before protected request handling.
  • Remove default or embedded credentials, rotate affected secrets and sessions, and bind authentication decisions to the intended audience and channel.
  • Add negative tests for alternate routes, malformed or absent credentials, recovery flows, and proxy-derived identity.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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