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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 29 May 2026.
Litespeed Cpanel PluginPlugin / extension · Litespeedtech

CVE-2026-48172

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-05-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.4.7 / 5.3.1.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
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.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

LiteSpeed User-End cPanel Plugin before version 2.4.5 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing attackers to potentially gain root access through mishandling of Redis enable/disable features. The flaw was actively exploited in the wild in May 2026.

MitigationImmediately update LiteSpeed User-End cPanel Plugin to version 2.4.7 or later and use the provided grep command to search logs for exploitation indicators (cpanel_jsonapi_func=redisAble) to determine if the system was compromised.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Litespeed Cpanel PluginPlugin / extension
Affected:< 2.4.7
Litespeed Whm PluginPlugin / extension
Affected:< 5.3.1.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify LiteSpeed plugin installation
    Run 'rpm -qa | grep -i litespeed' or check /usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/docroot/cgi/addon_lsws.cgi for cPanel plugin presence, and check /usr/local/cps/bin/lsws_whmapp or similar for WHM plugin
    Affected if Either the LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin or WHM Plugin is installed on the system
  2. Determine installed version of LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin
    Run 'rpm -qa | grep lscpanel' or use '/usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/docroot/cgi/addon_lsws.cgi -v' to retrieve the exact version number
    Affected if Version is below 2.4.7 (affected range: < 2.4.7)
  3. Determine installed version of LiteSpeed WHM Plugin
    Run 'rpm -qa | grep lswhm' or check the WHM plugin interface for the version number
    Affected if Version is below 5.3.1.0 (affected range: < 5.3.1.0)
  4. Check if Redis feature is enabled
    Examine the LiteSpeed plugin configuration files or the WebAdmin interface for Redis-related settings. Look for redisEnable, redisAble, or similar configuration flags in /etc/litespeed/ or the plugin config directory
    Affected if Redis functionality is enabled in the LiteSpeed configuration (the vulnerability involves mishandling of Redis enable/disable features)
  5. Search logs for indicators of compromise
    Search authentication logs, LiteSpeed logs, and shell history for patterns matching 'redisAble' using: grep -r 'redisAble' /var/log/ and grep -r 'redisAble' ~/.bash_history
    Affected if Any log entries, commands, or configuration changes involving the redisAble pattern are found (this is a known IOC for this vulnerability)

The system is affected if either LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin version is below 2.4.7 or WHM Plugin version is below 5.3.1.0, and Redis functionality is present or IOC patterns are found in logs.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.4.7 / 5.3.1.0 or later
Fixed in 2.4.75.3.1.0
Interim mitigation

Immediately update LiteSpeed User-End cPanel Plugin to version 2.4.7 or later and use the provided grep command to search logs for exploitation indicators (cpanel_jsonapi_func=redisAble) to determine if the system was compromised.

Recommended fix High confidence

LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin >= 2.4.7; LiteSpeed WHM Plugin >= 5.3.1.0

  1. Check current LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin version: rpm -qa | grep -i lscphp or cat /usr/local/cpanel/src/litespeed/VERSION
  2. Check current LiteSpeed WHM Plugin version: rpm -qa | grep -i lsw
  3. Upgrade LiteSpeed cPanel Plugin to version 2.4.7 or later via cPanel WHM or LSPHP RPM update
  4. Upgrade LiteSpeed WHM Plugin to version 5.3.1.0 or later via cPanel WHM or LSPHP RPM update
  5. Run the detection command to verify no active exploitation: grep -rE "cpanel_jsonapi_func=redisAble" /var/cpanel/logs /usr/local/cpanel/logs/ 2>/dev/null
  6. If output is found, analyze source IP addresses from logs and block suspicious IPs
  7. Review system logs (auth.log, secure, cPanel logs) for any unauthorized root access or privilege escalation attempts from detected IPs
  8. Restart LiteSpeed service after upgrade: systemctl restart lsws or /scripts/restartsrv_lsws
Caveat Standard plugin upgrade; review release notes for any configuration changes between versions

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Litespeed Cpanel Plugin Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,440
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An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,304.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-48172 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data