Identity Services EngineApplication · Cisco
CVE-2021-1412
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 · uneditedMultiple vulnerabilities in the Admin portal of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to obtain sensitive information. These vulnerabilities are due to improper enforcement of administrator privilege levels for sensitive data. An attacker with read-only administrator access to the Admin portal could exploit these vulnerabilities by browsing to one of the pages that contains sensitive data. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to collect sensitive information regarding the configuration of the system. For more information about these vulnerabilities, see the Details section of this advisory.
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 confidenceMultiple vulnerabilities in Cisco ISE Admin portal allow authenticated read-only administrators to access sensitive system configuration data that should be restricted to higher privilege levels. The improper privilege enforcement enables information disclosure through browsing to protected pages.
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 EngineApplication
< 2.3.0= 2.3.0= 2.4.0= 2.6.0= 2.7.0= 3.0.0CVSS 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
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the installed Cisco ISE versionLog into the ISE Admin UI and navigate to Administration > System > Licensing, or use the CLI command 'show version' to determine the exact software version runningAffected if The installed version matches < 2.3.0, = 2.3.0, = 2.4.0, = 2.6.0, = 2.7.0, or = 3.0.0
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Confirm existence of read-only administrator accountsNavigate to Administration > Identity Management > Administrators > Admin Users and verify if any read-only administrator accounts are configuredAffected if One or more read-only admin accounts exist in the system
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Test access to protected configuration pages with read-only adminLog in using a read-only administrator account and attempt to browse to sensitive configuration pages such as Administration > System > Backup & Restore, Administration > System > Certificates, or Operations > ReportsAffected if The read-only admin can successfully view sensitive system configuration data that should be restricted to higher privilege levels
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Verify privilege enforcement via URL accessUsing a read-only admin session, directly access protected URLs or navigate through the Admin UI menu to reach configuration sections typically reserved for Super Admin or Admin usersAffected if Read-only administrators can bypass privilege restrictions and access protected pages
A user is affected if Cisco ISE is running an affected version (2.3.0, 2.4.0, 2.6.0, 2.7.0, 3.0.0, or prior to 2.3.0) AND read-only administrator accounts can access sensitive configuration data that should require higher privileges.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 data2.3.0
Apply Cisco's vendor patch for CVE-2021-1412 to ISE and verify that read-only administrator accounts can no longer access sensitive configuration pages.
Fix this in Identity Services Engine
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-1412 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-1412 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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
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