CVE-2026-48172: LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

In short

LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin has a weakness classified as CWE-266. CISA added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2026-05-26. NVD lists CVSS 4.0 at 10 CRITICAL.

What it is

“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.” — CISA KEV, retrieved 2026-11-01

“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.” — NVD, retrieved 2026-11-01

Who is affected

LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin. NVD lists the following versions as affected:

• Litespeedtech Litespeed Cpanel Plugin: before 2.4.7
• Litespeedtech Litespeed Whm Plugin: before 5.3.1.0

Exploitation status

CISA KEV added: 2026-05-26. Known ransomware campaign use: Not reported by CISA. Due date CISA set for US federal civilian agencies: 2026-05-29.

Scores

NVD CVSS 4.0: 10 CRITICAL; vector 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; source [email protected].

EPSS by FIRST: 17.91%; percentile 97.18; score date 2026-10-31. EPSS estimates the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

CWE: CWE-266.

Timeline

CISA required action

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

What to do

• Confirm whether you run LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin and which version.
• Apply the vendor update or mitigation in the advisory.
• Follow CISA’s required action.
• Review the vendor guidance on signs of compromise.
• Track the fix through completion.

References

• Vendor Advisory: https://blog.litespeedtech.com/2026/05/21/security-update-for-litespeed-cpanel-plugin/
• Release Notes: https://www.litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-panel-support/release-log
• NVD detail
• CVE.org record
• CISA KEV catalog

Sources and dates

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, version 2026.10.30; retrieved 2026-11-01. CISA KEV data: CC0 1.0. No endorsement by CISA.

NVD retrieved: 2026-11-01. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

EPSS scores by FIRST; score date 2026-10-31.