Posts by Ronak Dhandha

Industry Insights

CVE-2026-41940: Inside the cPanel/WHM Authentication Bypass

By Ronak Dhandha

Security Engineer 2 - Research
May 13, 2026

Introduction Hosting control panels operate with near-total authority over a server: websites, databases, DNS, email, and the account lifecycle are all driven from one place. That privilege makes them a high-value target—when a control-plane bug appears, compromise can extend far beyond a single site. CVE-2026-41940 is a pre-authentication bypass affecting WebPros cPanel & WHM (WebHost Manager) and WP2 (WordPress Squared). In practical terms, it lets a remote, unauthenticated attacker reach administrator-level control without supplying valid credentials. Background: What Is cPanel/WHM? cPanel is a widely deployed, Linux-based hosting panel. WHM is the higher-privileged layer used by resellers and server administrators to…