PHP Releases Security Update Fixing Two Remote Code Execution Vulnerabilities, Explains How Disclosure Process Leaked
The entire PHP 8.x series has released a security update fixing two remote code execution vulnerabilities; due to a leak in the coordinated disclosure process, exploit code has been circulating since last night. The PHP Foundation explained that on October 20, two CVE IDs circulated on forums and social media with an incorrect publication time and an incorrect 10.0 CVSS score (actually 9.2), so the project moved the pre-announcement up to 19:30 UTC and advanced the release date from October 22 at 14:00 UTC to October 21 at 14:00 UTC. The timeline provided by Wiz Research shows that the team discovered the first vulnerability on August 19, reported it to the PHP security team on August 24, and the patch was released and publicly disclosed on October 21.
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The original article recounts how the PHP security update was released early, allowing readers to understand how the coordinated disclosure process was disrupted after the information leak.
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21st October 2026 - Link Blog
Today's PHP Security Release, and How We're Strengthening PHP Security (via) If you're running anything on PHP it's vital you upgrade - today's updates (across the entire PHP 8.x line) address two remote code execution holes, and there have been exploits circulating since last night, thanks to a leak in the coordinated disclosure process.
This post from the PHP Foundation explain what went so wrong:
On Tuesday, October 20th, at around 15:00 UTC, the two CVE IDs began circulating on online forums and social media. They came with a wrong release time and a wrong CVSS score of 10.0 (the actual score is 9.2). No technical details leaked. In response, the PHP project brought its pre-announcement forward and published it at 19:30 UTC. It also moved the release from October 22nd, 14:00 UTC, to October 21st, 14:00 UTC [...]
As a result of the leak and pre-announcement around 20:00 UTC, Calif, one of the security firms that had reported the issues mistakenly published a video. It showed their proof of concept working against a number of targets and revealed a few additional, though limited, details about the vulnerabilities. Copies of the deleted video started circulating on social media soon after. The video contributed to accelerated development of various PoCs (exploitation proof of concepts), which then increased circulation on October 21st.
This article from the team that discovered the original vulnerability includes a more detailed timeline of the original intended responsible disclosure:
August 19, 2026: Wiz Research discovers the first PHP vulnerability using Wiz Atlas, Gemini 4 Argon, and GPT-5.6 Sol.
August 20, 2026: Unauthenticated RCE is confirmed against Drupal.
August 21, 2026: Unauthenticated RCE is confirmed against WordPress.
August 24, 2026: Wiz Research reports the vulnerabilities to the PHP security team.
September 21, 2026: PHP acknowledges the reports and begins developing a coordinated fix.
October 21, 2026: Patched PHP releases become available.
October 21, 2026: Public disclosure.
Posted 21st October 2026 at 6:41 pm
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This is a link post by Simon Willison, posted on 21st October 2026.