CVE-2026-48172
LiteSpeed User-End cPanel Plugin before 2.4.5 allows privilege escalation (possibly to root), as exploited in the wild in May 2026.…
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- mitre
Description
LiteSpeed User-End cPanel Plugin before 2.4.5 allows privilege escalation (possibly to root), as exploited in the wild in May 2026. Detection is best done via a command line of grep -rE "cpanel_jsonapi_func=redisAble" /var/cpanel/logs /usr/local/cpanel/logs/ 2>/dev/null in Bash. If you get no output, you have not been hit with exploitation of the vulnerability. If there is output, we recommend you examine the IP addresses in the list, determine if they are valid IP addresses, and if not, block them. To determine damage done, examine the system logs for use by the detected IP addresses. The issue is related to mishandling of Redis enable/disable features. The recommended minimum version is 2.4.7.
Exploited in the wild
CISA lists this vulnerability in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin Privilege Escalation Vulnerability.
- Added
- 26 May 2026
- Fix due (US federal)
- 29 May 2026
- Used by ransomware
- Not known
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: it is being exploited.
Timeline
ID reserved
By mitre
Published
- 5 days later
· 5 days later
Added to CISA KEV
Known exploited in the wild
- 4 months later
· 4 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| mitreCNA (assigner) | 4.0 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 4.0 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 17.9% · top 2.8% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 10.0.
Weakness
Affected products
LiteSpeed Technologies · cPanel Plugin
- affected 2.3 – < 2.4.7
LiteSpeed Technologies · WHM Plugin
- affected < 5.3.1.0
What to do
Solution: Installation of LiteSpeed WHM PlugIn 5.3.1.0 and cPanel 2.4.7. Though installation of WHM 5.2.10 and cPanel 2.4.5 and above mitigate most of the issues.
References (4)
- https://www.litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-panel-support/cpanel (opens in a new tab)
- https://www.litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-panel-support/release-log (opens in a new tab)
- https://blog.litespeedtech.com/2026/05/21/security-update-for-litespeed-cpanel-plugin/ (opens in a new tab)
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2026-48172 (opens in a new tab)government-resource
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- CISA KEV catalog (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2026-48172)Record last updated .