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New CVE Detected

CVE-2026-41940 – Authentication bypass in cPanel & WHM login flow

## Overview

**CVE-2026-41940** is a critical authentication bypass vulnerability affecting cPanel & WHM. The issue allows **unauthenticated remote attackers** to bypass the login flow and gain unauthorized access to the control panel.

### Vulnerability details

– **Type:** Authentication bypass (CWE-306)
– **Root cause:** A flaw in the login flow that permits authentication to be bypassed under certain conditions, enabling attackers to access cPanel/WHM functionality without valid credentials.
– **Exploitability:** Network-accessible; no privileges or user interaction required.

### Affected software / versions

According to the advisory data, affected versions include cPanel & WHM versions prior to the following builds (upgrade to these builds or later):

– 11.110.0.97
– 11.118.0.63
– 11.126.0.54
– 11.132.0.29
– 11.134.0.20
– 11.136.0.5

If your cPanel/WHM instances run versions older than the builds above, they are considered vulnerable.

### Severity & potential impact

– **Severity:** CRITICAL
– **CVSS 3.1 (per advisory):** 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H)

Potential impacts of successful exploitation include:

– Unauthorized administrative access to cPanel and WHM management interfaces
– Full compromise of hosted accounts and management of hosted services
– Data exposure of hosted sites and customer information
– Lateral movement within hosting infrastructure and potential deployment of malicious content or backdoors

### Recommended actions / mitigations

– **Patch immediately:** Upgrade cPanel & WHM to the fixed builds listed above (or later) via the vendor release process.
– **Restrict access:** Where patching is delayed, restrict access to cPanel/WHM management ports (typically 2082/2083/2086/2087) to trusted IP ranges via firewall rules.
– **Rotate credentials:** Consider rotating administrative credentials and API keys used by affected systems after patching.
– **Audit & monitor:** Review authentication and access logs for suspicious login activity and signs of unauthorized changes. Check for web shells or unexpected cron jobs on hosted accounts.
– **Apply vendor guidance:** Follow any additional mitigation or detection guidance published by cPanel.

## IONIX Status

The IONIX research team is tracking ongoing exploitation attempts and recommends immediate patching. Potentially affected assets are outlined in this post.

References:

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1

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