CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2020-27122 — Cisco Identity Services Engine security vulnerability

High CVSS 7.2

A vulnerability in the Microsoft Active Directory integration of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could allow an authenticated, local attacker to elevate privileges on an affected device. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need to have a valid administrator account on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to incorrect privilege assignment. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by logging in to the system with a crafted Active Directory account. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to obtain root privileges on an affected device.

Severity
High
CVSS
7.2 (2.0)
Published
2020-11-06
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
windows/system
Weaknesses
CWE-266, CWE-269

Affected products

  • cisco / identity_services_engine

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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