# Source: PHP2Shell Exploitation Started Days Before Patches - SecurityWeek

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# PHP2Shell Exploitation Started Days Before Patches - SecurityWeek

**SecurityWeek** · [https://www.securityweek.com/php2shell-exploitation-started-days-before-patches/](https://www.securityweek.com/php2shell-exploitation-started-days-before-patches/) · published 2026-10-22 · added by `claude-story-site` · slug `securityweek-exploitation-days-before`

Secondary: Censys 2.58M hosts / 1.58M versioned / 1.57M unpatched on 21 Oct; nearly 3M by 22 Oct; VirusTotal 5.1M IPs, 1.1M announcing a version; Amazon's 17 Oct attempt; Cloudflare CTO early attacks.

## What it says, as the collector read it

#### PHP2Shell Exploitation Started Days Before Patches - SecurityWeek

Captured by claude-story-site. Status: captured. Secondary: Censys 2.58M hosts / 1.58M versioned / 1.57M unpatched on 21 Oct; nearly 3M by 22 Oct; VirusTotal 5.1M IPs, 1.1M announcing a version; Amazon's 17 Oct attempt; Cloudflare CTO early attacks.

- The Censys and VirusTotal figures come through this page; Censys's own post was not found.

## Claims that cite it

| Claim | Who says it | Status | [Fact-check](https://php.oct.2026.newsroom.sgit.ai/factcheck/) | Primary | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VulnCheck counts about 2.6 million internet-facing hosts exposing PHP; Censys, of the 2.58 million hosts it saw, could read a version on 1.58 million, and 1.57 million of those were unpatched on 21 OctoberCensys: 2.58 million hosts seen, 1.58 million reporting a version, 1.57 million not patched; nearly 3 million by 22 October. VirusTotal: 5.1 million IPs running PHP, 1.1 million announcing a version. Unit 42: 22.6 million systems that 'could be vulnerable' (via Insurance Business). Censys's own post was not found. [fact timeline →](../../facts/scale-2.6m-hosts/index.html) | VulnCheck and Censys, via The Hacker News and SecurityWeek | reported | **A2** Reported●●○○○○ | 0/2 | [THN](../../sources/thehackernews-php2shell-4days/index.html) [SecurityWeek](../../sources/securityweek-exploitation-days-before/index.html) |
| 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 →](../../facts/no-confirmed-compromise/index.html) | 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 October | reported | **A4** Corroborated●●●●○○ | 6/24 | [CISA](../../sources/cisa-kev-json/index.html) [CISA](../../sources/cisa-alert-php-20261021/index.html) [Huntress](../../sources/huntress-php2shell-rapid-response/index.html) [Amazon](../../sources/aws-security-blog-madpot/index.html) [SecurityWeek](../../sources/securityweek-first-attempts-sensors/index.html) [SecurityWeek](../../sources/securityweek-exploitation-days-before/index.html) [Recorded Future](../../sources/recordedfuture-php2shell/index.html) [Imperva Threat Research](../../sources/imperva-blog-php2shell/index.html) [Weird Gloop](../../sources/weirdgloop-blog-php2shell/index.html) [Paperjam](../../sources/paperjam-article-php2shell-des-milliers-de-sites/index.html) [PCMag](../../sources/pcmag-news-hackers-already-trying-to-exploit-serious-php-flaw/index.html) [IT Social](../../sources/itsocial-cybersecurite-cybersecurite-articles-php/index.html) [Lupa.cz](../../sources/lupa-cvut-cyber-attack/index.html) [Yahoo! News Japan](../../sources/yahoo-jp-gmo-fx-login-leak/index.html) [産経ニュース](../../sources/sankei-dmm-service-halt/index.html) [INTERNET Watch](../../sources/impress-watch-valtec/index.html) [The Verge](../../sources/the-verge-php2shell-websites-down/index.html) [Cyber Security News](../../sources/cybersecuritynews-critical-php2shell-exploit-code/index.html) [American Banker](../../sources/americanbanker-news-banks-dodge-early-damage-from-php2s/index.html) [The Next Web](../../sources/the-next-web-php2shell-no-confirmed-breaches/index.html) [Die Presse](../../sources/diepresse-41383717-die-php-sicherheitsluecke-ist-a/index.html) [voix](../../sources/voix-business-cards-rainforest-ip-activity-an/index.html) [Haber.com](../../sources/haber-teknoloji-siber-guvenlik-baskanligi-ndan/index.html) [La Razón](../../sources/larazon-tecnologia-consumo-php-nuevo-fallo-segur/index.html) |

## Events that cite it

| When | Event | Time is |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-21 07:43 UTC | Cloudflare's CTO reports early attacks emerging, before the release. | stated |

### Numbers from this source

| Figure | Of | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 1.57 million | internet-facing hosts with an identifiable PHP version that were unpatched on 21 October, of 2.58 million seen | reported |

## The bytes
capture 20261022T112314Z · HTTP 200 · https://www.securityweek.com/php2shell-exploitation-started-days-before-patches/- `headers.json` 20346ce7a28ae2cea09c5ce445b478a4fe9837f2cc4cf97d5ae15a6bcd846d48 1,083 bytes
- `page.html` d00e2e5608d37d978b2fa983ffa1087430976a445caa72df9a49b7618dbe9566 168,865 bytes
- `provenance.json` 99114af56492dfd4921ca1b095bf85f256188ccd6d6e17fdaadd7657d629d83b 1,072 bytes
- `rendered.html` e493b8fc733dacfc40164c4bb153884e96b82e984e2e3c738c13c536a5edce73 259,915 bytes
- `screenshot.png` e5454077149da3ca0ea83a39c68e30ce9f6f984788c53349e104a0d45dea3fb9 2,097,665 bytes
- `text.txt` ac663f2d9dbd0197d3721e1756bdc12e2491cb512eaa32197592ff9792f2632c 13,376 bytes
capture 20261023T012042Z · HTTP 200 · https://www.securityweek.com/php2shell-exploitation-started-days-before-patches/- `headers.json` b01a0edd023e17c2f04a4913c33e56ac238c88c8e9485fb7626d944108450f84 1,154 bytes
- `page.html` f647ac130d515c7b5c236e72825fe19525346633a458f5418dd0c7f086b1f105 168,791 bytes
- `provenance.json` 9c39d001855e1787e2c3cca3b9f32ebd1eb7ed763fd137f8650e9e3a183e0d98 1,755 bytes
- `rendered.html` dba965e893cc4ff6b487e9ba323d2d44187ec4dec5f54b7a12701b556e6c1f06 168,220 bytes
- `screenshot.jpg` 9377de12373bc83afe1223d09bfd971c7e094cedf8d6ed2d183c3454b734a04e 745,141 bytes
- `text.txt` b922b47f8fab0fa86af000c740795a67ad78d0d4cdc6a57a316408988acb5835 12,604 bytes
capture 20261023T232528Z · HTTP 200 · https://www.securityweek.com/php2shell-exploitation-started-days-before-patches/- `headers.json` a3950340c23973d8fa713fde8e45b57fdad16597cd3e4c15caffce4ed9ac2c89 1,348 bytes
- `page.html` a33eb3fa95d02d124aadccb41bd5593400b53f0c220a6fefc3fed3cee5883808 168,695 bytes
- `provenance.json` 88e631a105418e1339c970fd9cfc8fad0b897c58aa97535350ffaad3d1117d15 1,695 bytes
- `text.txt` 9dfbfafa6b4a57d429b41f22ff482aa77766cf6bea32505f0edd54168adb4435 13,264 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 →](../index.html)


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site v0.22.26 · data as of 2026-10-25T14:40Z · vault commit 94352a55fbaa · https://refs.php.oct.2026.newsroom.sgit.ai/sources/securityweek-exploitation-days-before/index.html