What is 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. 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.
The record classifies CVE-2026-48172 under weakness class CWE-266. Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw is reachable remotely over the network, needs no prior authentication, needs no user interaction, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 2 affected-product entries are recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 160 days ago.
Severity and exploitation probability
- CVSS v3.1 base score
- 9.8 — CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS v4.0 base score
- 10
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 (FIRST)
- 1.0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 62.0% of all scored CVEs
- CISA KEV
- Listed since 2026-05-26, federal remediation deadline 2026-05-29 — used in known ransomware campaigns
- Threadlinqs priority
- 10/10 — CISA lists it as used in ransomware, which Threadlinqs scores at the maximum
- Published
- 2026-05-21, last modified 2026-10-07
Is CVE-2026-48172 being exploited?
CISA added CVE-2026-48172 to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2026-05-26, which means the agency holds evidence of exploitation in the wild; US federal civilian agencies had to remediate it by 2026-05-29 under BOD 22-01. CISA flags the vulnerability as one used in known ransomware campaigns. Weaponised exploit code for CVE-2026-48172 is publicly available. 3 public proof-of-concept repositories are tracked for this identifier. It currently carries a trending score of 39 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.
Affected products and versions
- Litespeedtech: Litespeed Cpanel Plugin, Litespeed Whm Plugin
How to fix CVE-2026-48172
Vendor advisory: https://blog.litespeedtech.com/2026/05/21/security-update-for-litespeed-cpanel-plugin/. Because CVE-2026-48172 is KEV-listed, US federal civilian agencies were required to apply the vendor fix, or stop using the product, by 2026-05-29. Apply the vendor fix referenced above to every affected product listed in this record, then confirm the running version against the vendor advisory.
Threat activity tracking CVE-2026-48172
1 tracked threat in the Threadlinqs corpus references CVE-2026-48172, either in the campaign’s CVE list or as an indicator on the campaign record.
Sources
Enriched from CVE.org, FIRST EPSS, CISA KEV, public proof-of-concept repositories. Last verified by Threadlinqs on .