01 Record
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
CriticalKEVPUBLISHEDCNA: mitre
CNA base score10.0 CVSS v4.0CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
02 Description
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
03 Exploitation and scoring
- Exploitation
- Exploited in the wild. Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2026-05-26. Federal remediation due 2026-05-29.
- SSVC decision
- ExploitationactiveCISA reports credible evidence of active exploitation.
- AutomatableyesAn attacker can reliably automate reconnaissance through exploitation, so this scales.
- Technical ImpacttotalSuccessful exploitation gives total control of the vulnerable component.
- EPSS probability
- 17.91% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
- EPSS percentile
- Equal to or higher than the score of 97.1% of scored records. A rank, not a probability.
- NVD base score
- 10.0 (CVSS v4.0), scored by the NVD independently of the CNA.
- NVD CVSS 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
- NVD analysis status
- Analyzed. NVD last modified this record on 2026-10-07.
- Red Hat severity
- No Red Hat rating. Red Hat rates the CVEs that affect its products.
Exploit-prediction scores from FIRST. Independent scoring and analysis status from the NVD. Vendor severity from Red Hat. Exploitation assessment and catalog membership from CISA.
04 Metadata
- Published
- 2026-05-21 00:38Z5 MO AGO
- Last updated
- 2026-10-07 18:11Z21 DAYS AGO
- Reserved
- 2026-05-21
- Assigning CNA
- mitre
- Record state
- PUBLISHED
- Severity
- Critical (CVSS 10.0)
- CNA CVSS 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
- Weaknesses
- CWE-266Incorrect Privilege AssignmentBase
- Data version
- 5.2
- Document digest
- d47f9343a5e0e6d62a660b4e0a4b0c42612cba7c0ff64254d3d85497c35ce2b2
05 Affected products
VendorProductVersionsPlatforms
06 References
- www.litespeedtech.comhttps://www.litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-panel-support/cpanel
- www.litespeedtech.comhttps://www.litespeedtech.com/products/litespeed-web-server/control-panel-support/release-log
- blog.litespeedtech.comhttps://blog.litespeedtech.com/2026/05/21/security-update-for-litespeed-cpanel-plugin/
- www.cisa.govhttps://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2026-48172
07 Remediation
Installation of LiteSpeed WHM PlugIn 5.3.1.0 and cPanel 2.4.7. Though installation of WHM 5.2.10 and cPanel 2.4.5 and above mitigate most of the issues.