CVE-2026-48172
Litespeedtech Litespeed Cpanel Plugin ≤ 2.4.7
Raw 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:XCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2026-48172 is a critical-severity Incorrect Privilege Assignment (CWE-266) vulnerability in Litespeedtech Litespeed Cpanel Plugin. Its CVSS base score is 10.0 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Valid Accounts (T1078); ranked in the top 38% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-6 (Least Privilege) and AC-2 (Account Management) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
The LiteSpeed User-End cPanel Plugin before version 2.4.5 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability, possibly to root, that stems from incorrect handling of Redis enable and disable features and is tracked under CWE-266. The flaw received a maximum CVSS 4.0 score of 10.0 reflecting network-accessible attack conditions with no required authentication or user interaction.
Unauthenticated remote attackers can exploit the issue to obtain elevated privileges on affected systems. Public records confirm the vulnerability was exploited in the wild during May 2026, enabling adversaries to execute arbitrary actions that could fully compromise the host.
Vendor advisories direct administrators to upgrade to version 2.4.7 or later. Detection of potential compromise is accomplished by searching cPanel logs for the string “cpanel_jsonapi_func=redisAble,” followed by review of any matching IP addresses and associated system activity; the flaw is also listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The associated EPSS score has remained flat at 0.0796 with no material increase after disclosure.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-31204
Vulnerability Data
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…
more
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.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 26 May 2026
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 8 hardening rules · 6 OS baselines
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Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Least privilege directly requires that only the minimal necessary privileges are assigned to each actor.
Account management defines and authorizes the exact privileges granted to each account or role.
Enforces only the authorizations that were assigned, so correct assignment is a prerequisite.
Separation of duties constrains which privilege combinations may be assigned to any actor.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Directly enforces least-privilege policy definition, management, and review that prevents incorrect privilege assignments.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
A.5.15 directly requires determining access needs, defining/enforcing topic-specific access control policy and rules (including need-to-know, privilege restrictions, segregation, formal authorization, role-based mapping, and consistency with classification), which stops most incorrect privilege assignments from being exploitable; the bounded remainder is incorrect assignments that arise from flawed implementation of those rules rather than from their absence.
A.5.18's provisioning, review, revocation and SoD rules (esp. a,b,c,f,i,j) directly stop most incorrect privilege assignments from being granted or persisting, with a bounded remainder in flawed implementation of the authorization step itself (see 5.9/5.15 dependency)