Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
Cisco ISE Admin portal read-only administrators could access sensitive configuration information they should not see. This is not a takeover bug, but it can expose security configuration details that help an insider or compromised admin account plan further attacks.
Executive priority
Treat as a moderate-priority confidentiality risk. Prioritize environments where Cisco ISE manages critical network access policy or where read-only administrator accounts are broadly assigned.
Technical view
CVE-2021-1412 is an authenticated remote information disclosure issue in Cisco Identity Services Engine Software. The weakness is improper enforcement of administrator privilege levels for sensitive data, mapped to CWE-266. CVSS 3.1 is 6.5: network-accessible, low complexity, low privileges, no user interaction, high confidentiality impact.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most relevant where Cisco ISE is deployed and read-only administrator accounts can access the Admin portal. The supplied sources do not provide affected version ranges or deployment-specific exposure details.
Exploitation context
The bundle states exploitation requires authenticated read-only administrator access and browsing to pages containing sensitive data. CISA KEV status is false, and no cited source in the bundle states active exploitation.
Researcher notes
Key unknowns are affected version ranges and exact fixed releases, which are not included in the supplied bundle. The vulnerability is privilege-bound, confidentiality-only, and depends on improper admin privilege enforcement rather than unauthenticated access.
Mitigation direction
- Review Cisco’s advisory for affected releases and fixed software guidance.
- Restrict Cisco ISE Admin portal access to trusted administrative networks.
- Review read-only administrator accounts and remove unnecessary access.
- Apply least-privilege controls for all ISE administrative users.
- Monitor Cisco guidance for any updated remediation details.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Cisco ISE deployments and Admin portal exposure.
- Identify users with read-only administrator access.
- Compare installed ISE versions against Cisco advisory guidance.
- Review logs for unusual read-only administrator portal activity.
- Confirm remediation status after following Cisco’s vendor guidance.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CWE-266: Exact CWE lookup
Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-2021-1412 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 6.5 (3.1)
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS vector scores
1 official scoreWe collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N2.83.6Primary CVE scoreVulnerability scoring details
Base CVSS 3.1 score
6.5MediumVector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- 20210217 Cisco Identity Services Engine Sensitive Information Disclosure VulnerabilitiesCVE reference · vendor-advisory, x_refsource_CISCO
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.
Incorrect Privilege Assignment
Incorrect Privilege Assignment represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.