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Identity Services Engine SoftwareApplication · Cisco

CVE-2013-5538

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-10-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The Sponsor Portal in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) uses weak permissions for uploaded files, which allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files via a direct request, aka Bug ID CSCui67506.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The Sponsor Portal in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) has weak permissions configured for uploaded files, allowing remote unauthenticated attackers to read arbitrary files on the system through direct HTTP requests. This file disclosure vulnerability stems from improper permission settings on the portal's upload directory.

MitigationApply restrictive file permissions to the Sponsor Portal upload directory and ensure uploaded files are not directly accessible via URL. Verify that directory traversal protections are in place to prevent access to system files.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Identity Services Engine SoftwareApplication
Affected:all versions
Identity Services EngineHardware / appliance
Affected:all versions

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
None
Availability
None

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Cisco ISE is installed
    Identify Cisco Identity Services Engine presence in the environment by checking for the application processes, services, or installed packages associated with ISE.
    Affected if Cisco ISE software is present in the environment.
  2. Check if Sponsor Portal is enabled
    Access the ISE administration interface and verify whether the Sponsor Portal feature has been enabled under the portal configuration settings.
    Affected if The Sponsor Portal is enabled and accessible.
  3. Locate the Sponsor Portal upload directory
    Identify the file system path used for the Sponsor Portal's file uploads, typically found within the ISE application directory structure under the portal's configuration.
    Affected if The upload directory exists and is accessible to the application.
  4. Verify upload directory permissions
    Examine the file system permissions on the identified upload directory to determine if overly permissive access controls allow world-readable or group-readable access to uploaded files.
    Affected if The directory or its contents have weak permissions (e.g., world-readable, overly permissive ACLs) that allow unauthorized access.
  5. Test direct HTTP access to upload directory
    Attempt to access the Sponsor Portal upload URL directly via HTTP/HTTPS request without authentication to determine if files can be retrieved without credentials.
    Affected if The upload directory is directly accessible via URL without authentication, allowing file retrieval.

The environment is affected if Cisco ISE is installed with the Sponsor Portal enabled and the upload directory has weak permissions or is directly accessible via HTTP without authentication.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply restrictive file permissions to the Sponsor Portal upload directory and ensure uploaded files are not directly accessible via URL. Verify that directory traversal protections are in place to prevent access to system files.

Fix this in Identity Services Engine Software Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2013-5538 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data