Threat actors have launched millions of attempts to exploit the recently disclosed PHP2Shell vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619) in PHP versions 8.2 to 8.5, aiming to deploy a Mirai botnet variant called Potassium. Despite widespread scanning and exploit attempts, no successful remote code execution or payload deployment has been confirmed, indicating difficulties in weaponizing the flaws effectively; patching has been urged as more than 34 million PHP services remain vulnerable, with significant impacts leading to precautionary website shutdowns globally.
https://thehackernews.com/2026/10/php2shell-exploit-attempts-hit-millions.html