What it is
CVE-2026-48172 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting LiteSpeed Technologies cPanel Plugin, WHM Plugin. LiteSpeed User-End cPanel Plugin before 2.4.5 allows privilege escalation (possibly to root), as exploited...
Vulnerability report
Exploited in the wild
Confirmed confidence
In CISA KEV
CVE-2026-48172
cPanel Plugin Privilege Escalation
LiteSpeed Technologies / cPanel Plugin · affected before 2.4.7
- Severity
- CVSS 10.0 · Critical
- Confidence
- Confirmed
- Exploit status
- Exploited in the wild
- EPSS
- 18.9%
- First observed
- —
- Last observed
- —
Decision summary
What security teams need to know first
Direct answers before the deeper technical record.
Is it exploited?
Yes. KEV Intelligence tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed.
Who is affected?
LiteSpeed Technologies / cPanel Plugin affected before 2.4.7.
What should we do?
Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.
Overview
cPanel Plugin Privilege Escalation
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.
Vendor
Product
Affected
Status
LiteSpeed Technologies
WHM Plugin
WHM Plugin/cPanel Plugin
Before 5.3.1.0
Affected
- Published
- 21 May 2026
- Exploitation Reported
- 01 Jun 2026
- Attack vector
- Remote
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
Tags
cisa
redis
CVE References
- CVE Record CVE.org · CVE Record https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48172
- litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-panel-... litespeedtech.com · CVE Record https://www.litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-p...
- litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-panel-... litespeedtech.com · CVE Record https://www.litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-p...
- blog.litespeedtech.com/2026/05/21/security-update-for-litespeed-cpa... blog.litespeedtech.com · CVE Record https://blog.litespeedtech.com/2026/05/21/security-update-for-litespe...
Exploitation evidence
Why KEV Intelligence marks this CVE as exploited
Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.
Exploited in the wild
CVE
Independent exploitation attestation added to the KEV Intelligence record.
Known exploited vulnerability sources
Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the KEV Intelligence Pro API.
Learn about Pro API access| Source | Added |
|---|---|
| CVE First | 2026-06-01 13:29 UTC |
| CISA | 2026-06-02 14:00 UTC |
Detection
Operational artifacts and observed signals
Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.
Observed signals
- Request targets
- 0
- User-Agents
- 0
Raw values available in Pro and Enterprise.
Scanner coverage
No scanner integrations recorded yet.
Virtual patch status
No KEV Intelligence virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.
Learn about virtual patches →No detection artifacts or sensor request patterns are available for this CVE yet.
Check back as sensor telemetry and scanner integrations are updated.
Risk and context
Severity, weaknesses, and research context
CVSS v4.0
10.0
Critical
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
EPSS
18.9%
Weaknesses
Recent mention · All CISA Advisories
CISA Adds One Known Exploited Vulnerability to Catalog
CISA has added one new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. CVE-2026-48172 LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin Privilege Escalation Vulnerability This type of vulnerability is a frequent attack vector for...
Read full advisoryAll CVSS Scores
CVSS v4.0
10.0
Critical
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
CVSS v3.1
9.8
Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Timeline
From disclosure to observed exploitation
-
Added to CISA KEV
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
-
Added to KEV Intelligence KEV Feed
High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation
-
CVE published
Vulnerability disclosed publicly
-
CVE ID reserved
Identifier reserved by the CNA
Pro API
Automate this intelligence
Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.
- Evidence confidence and provenance
- First-party sensor telemetry
- PoC and scanner references
- Affected versions and enrichment
- Automation-ready JSON delivery
GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2026-48172
Free JSON includes basic KEV fields{
"cve_id": "CVE-2026-48172",
"confidence": "Confirmed",
"cvss_score": 10.0,
"cvss_estimated": false,
"epss_score": 0.18914,
"exploit_status": {
"exploited_in_the_wild": true,
"active_exploitation_observed": false
},
"sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}Early warning alerts
Get alerts on high-impact exploitation
Receive curator-selected alerts when exploitation activity warrants attention. Each alert includes the evidence and context needed to decide what requires attention now.