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Hackers Already Trying to Exploit Serious PHP Flaw | PCMag

PCMag · https://www.pcmag.com/news/hackers-already-trying-to-exploit-serious-php-flaw · published 2026-10-21 · added by curator@php.newsroom · slug pcmag-news-hackers-already-trying-to-exploit-serious-php-flaw

Promoted from the source watch (oq9gflln), snapshot 20261023T080331Z, selected by curator@php.newsroom from the 08:30 UTC pass (not from the queue). Michael Kan: hackers quickly probed and tried to exploit the PHP flaws; VulnCheck traced one attempt to an IP address in China; Amazon found signs of an attempt...

As of 14:40 UTC on 25 October, no named organisation has s…PCMag

What it says, as the collector read it

Hackers Already Trying to Exploit Serious PHP Flaw | PCMag

Promoted by curator@php.newsroom from the source watch (vault oq9gflln), page gb/news/pcmag/news-hackers-already-trying-to-exploit-serious-php-flaw, snapshot 20261023T080331Z. Copied byte for byte; every file's sha256 is in captures/20261023T080331Z/provenance.json and was re-checked against the watch's own hashes.

What the page says

_Curator's reading of the capture._

Michael Kan: hackers quickly probed and tried to exploit the PHP flaws; VulnCheck traced one attempt to an IP address in China; Amazon found signs of an attempt four days before the flaw was public; the PHP Foundation released patches that morning. The IP's location is not attribution.

> One exploitation attempt was sourced to an IP address based in China, says security provider VulnCheck.

Why it is here

Not from the promotion queue. The editor asked the curator, in its session on 23 October 2026, to start from the watch's 08:30 UTC pass while the researcher queued it, and approved this batch of fifteen. Selected mechanically: an article page of the watch, snapshot newer than the queue (23 October 02:20 UTC), text that names php2shell or one of the two CVE IDs, URL not already in this vault, English, and naming an organisation or a cause. Nobody has ranked it: if the researcher's queue later lists this URL, it is already here under this slug.

Capture notes

Language en; the text extract is the watch reader's, the page as served is in captures/20261023T080331Z/page.html. Nothing in the page addresses an AI or hides text from a reader.

Claims that cite it

ClaimWho says itStatusFact-checkPrimarySources
As of 14:40 UTC on 25 October, no named organisation has said it was compromised through php2shell. Exploitation attempts are widely reported, in millions; Hadrian reports exploitation at scale and Patchstack received reports of incidents from hosting partners, neither naming a victim, and Patchstack's own telemetry showed only probing. Sophos withdrew an earlier success claim: its data showed scanning and a few failed attempts.
A time-bounded absence, not a confirmed fact: it can only be true as of the last check, and it will change. Changed from "confirmed" on 22 October at the editor's request. Refreshed by the journalist on 24 October against the evidence vault at 1f38e70921b2: the named cases (GMO, ČVUT, DMM, Valtec) are now in the vault, and none of them states php2shell as the cause (Valtec retracted). The PHP Foundation's executive director: "to our knowledge, there has been no successful attempt at remote code execution" (The Verge). Luxembourg: no institution has announced an intrusion (Paperjam). Patchstack: incidents reported to it by hosting partners (Recorded Future) against "only probing attacks, with no hard evidence of breaches yet" in its own telemetry (PCMag); on the board for the fact-check desk. An anonymous startup owner's claim of stolen source code (Fortune) is unnamed and not attributed to the flaw. Sophos, via Cyber Security News: a correction at 21:21 UTC on 22 October withdrew an earlier success claim; scanning and a small number of failed attempts, a Mirai-derived payload blocked. American Banker, 23 October: no US bank or credit union has publicly reported a compromise. Refreshed on 24 October at 16:05 UTC against the vault at 8c16a64a7cf6 (382 sources): no new source names an organisation compromised through php2shell; Die Presse (12:03 on 23 October) knows of no successful attack in Austria, and RainForest's honeypot (VOIX) records attempts only. Refreshed again on 25 October at 09:35 UTC (09:35 GMT: the UK clocks went back at 01:00 UTC that day; an earlier version of this note said 10:35 BST, which was wrong) against the vault at 87795d121200 (418 sources): still no new source names an organisation compromised through php2shell; Turkey's Presidency Cybersecurity Directorate says the e-Devlet portal had no problem. Refreshed on 26 October against the vault at 94352a55fbaa (454 sources, latest capture 14:40 UTC on 25 October): 16 new claims reviewed, still no new source names an organisation compromised through php2shell; La Razón (23 October) knows of no successful execution.
fact timeline →		this site, from every captured source in the evidence vault (454 sources, head 94352a55fbaa), as of its latest capture at 14:40 UTC on 25 OctoberreportedA4 Corroborated6/24CISA CISA Huntress Amazon SecurityWeek SecurityWeek Recorded Future Imperva Threat Research Weird Gloop Paperjam PCMag IT Social Lupa.cz Yahoo! News Japan 産経ニュース INTERNET Watch The Verge Cyber Security News American Banker The Next Web Die Presse voix Haber.com La Razón

Events that cite it

No timeline event cites this source yet.

The bytes

capture 20261023T080331Z · HTTP 200 · https://www.pcmag.com/news/hackers-already-trying-to-exploit-serious-php-flaw
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  • rendered.html c0541438d0fa5ea4c569d63693e3755501968267907e8ed90840ee454b381571 794,429 bytes
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  • text.txt 82ef905cd2201bd4507643ba274b135e32b1e440606b1ded976617c782b28166 10,926 bytes
capture 20261023T160435Z · HTTP 200 · https://www.pcmag.com/news/hackers-already-trying-to-exploit-serious-php-flaw
  • headers.json 2b9c03883f70f1faabe082d41d9fcbe6092c52767ee752e93f89755969f261fe 658 bytes
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  • provenance.json 5d35f51515acb289a88cbfd15c74448b4d5d9c8c9960ed6301cebd1ec0a977d0 1,712 bytes
  • text.txt aed5a180dbdb800e3b610efd1721f668f58e7935fa393d6adbbc3efb4493beea 10,839 bytes

The captured files are held privately in the evidence vault and are not republished; the hashes above are what the vault recorded at capture time. Every source →