---
id: CVE-2026-20234
title: >-
  As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product
  quality, the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco ISE Passive
  Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) engineering teams have conducted a comprehensive
  internal securi…
summary: >-
  As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product
  quality, the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco ISE Passive
  Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) engineering teams have conducted a comprehensive
  internal securi…
severity: critical
cvss: 9.9
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-522
vendor: cisco
product: identity_services_engine
affected:
  - 'identity_services_engine >= 3.1.0, < 3.3.0'
  - identity_services_engine = 3.3.0
  - identity_services_engine = 3.4.0
  - identity_services_engine = 3.5.0
  - 'identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector >= 3.1.0, < 3.3.0'
  - identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector = 3.3.0
  - identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector = 3.4.0
patched:
  - identity_services_engine 3.3.0
  - identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector 3.3.0
published: '2026-09-16'
updated: '2026-09-28'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-28T13:02:30.200'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-20234'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-hardening-ise-XU5EwX5T
    label: psirt@cisco.com
  - url: 'https://software.cisco.com'
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
  - csaf
  - vendor-advisory
  - cisco
epss: 0.004
epssPercentile: 0.34047
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: total
  timestamp: '2026-09-17T03:57:25.366451Z'
ingestedAt: '2026-09-16T16:37:52.196Z'
---

## Overview

As part of Cisco's ongoing commitment to proactive security and product quality, the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (ISE-PIC) engineering teams have conducted a comprehensive internal security review. This review resulted in a software hardening release that addresses multiple internally discovered vulnerabilities.

The vulnerabilities tracked by CVE-2026-20234 are related to insufficiently protected credentials issues that are grouped under the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) Pillar CWE-522.

## Affected

- `identity_services_engine >= 3.1.0, < 3.3.0`
- `identity_services_engine = 3.3.0`
- `identity_services_engine = 3.4.0`
- `identity_services_engine = 3.5.0`
- `identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector >= 3.1.0, < 3.3.0`
- `identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector = 3.3.0`
- `identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector = 3.4.0`

## Remediation

Upgrade past the affected range:

- `identity_services_engine 3.3.0`
- `identity_services_engine_passive_identity_connector 3.3.0`

## Vendor advisories

- **cisco-sa-hardening-ise-XU5EwX5T** · Cisco · affected: Cisco Identity Services Engine Software (245 versions), Cisco ISE Passive Identity Connector (6 versions) · updated 2026-09-16 · [advisory](https://sec.cloudapps.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-hardening-ise-XU5EwX5T)