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Actively exploited

CVE-2026-48172 LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin contains privilege escalation vulnerability that is exposed via the user-end cPanel plugin, which can be abused by any cPanel user account to execute arbitrary scripts with root privileges.

From the CISA KEV catalogue version 2026.11.06, with Cybergen analysis. Updated 6 Nov 2026.

Our Assessment

Should You Worry?

Patch nowCybergen assessment
  • CISA confirmed exploitation in the wild and added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on 26 May 2026.
  • Rated Critical severity (CVSS 10.0, scored by Vendor).
  • It has been in the catalogue for 164 days. Systems still unpatched now have almost certainly been scanned for it.
The Vulnerability

What It Is

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.

Affected Versions

ProductVersions
LiteSpeed Technologies cPanel Plugin2.3 to before 2.4.7
LiteSpeed Technologies WHM Pluginbefore 5.3.1.0

From the public CVE record, as supplied by the vendor. Always confirm against the vendor advisory.

From Watch to Action

What To Do Now

  1. 1

    Find it

    Search your asset inventory and external attack surface for LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin. Include cloud images, appliances and anything a supplier runs for you.

    Attack Surface Management
  2. 2

    Fix it

    Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

    Vulnerability Management
  3. 3

    Hunt for compromise

    If an affected system was reachable before you patched, assume it may have been hit. Check logs, new accounts, web shells and outbound connections from the date of exposure.

    Incident Response
  4. 4

    Prove it is fixed

    Rescan or test the system after patching. Upgrades that fail silently and forgotten secondary instances are common.

    Penetration Testing

Vendor Advisories

Regulation

The Compliance Clock

Cyber EssentialsRated critical, so if it affects devices in your Cyber Essentials scope, the update must be installed within 14 days of the vendor releasing it.NIS2If exploitation causes a significant incident, essential and important entities owe their CSIRT an early warning within 24 hours and a notification within 72 hours.DORAFinancial entities must classify ICT incidents and send an initial notification for a major incident within strict deadlines, with exploited flaws a common cause.US federal (BOD 22-01)Federal civilian agencies had until 29 May 2026 to remediate. A sensible benchmark for everyone else.

General guidance, not legal advice. Your obligations depend on your sector, scope and jurisdiction.

Stay Ahead

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CVE-2026-54420LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following VulnerabilityAdded 15 Jun 2026

All 2 exploited LiteSpeed vulnerabilities

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Evidence

Sources

  1. CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue
  2. NVD: CVE-2026-48172
  3. CVE record: CVE-2026-48172
  4. FIRST EPSS
  5. blog.litespeedtech.com/2026/05/21/security-update-for-litespeed-cpanel-plugin/
  6. litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-panel-support/cpanel
  7. litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-panel-support/release-log