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Python and PHP, on security: what PHP2Shell made obvious

On 21 October 2026 the PHP project shipped emergency releases for two critical bugs, now widely called PHP2Shell. CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619 are both scored CVSS 9.2. Together they can let an unauthenticated attacker run their own code on a server that is still on an older build. They are a useful comparison, because the bugs are in the engine that turns an HTTP request into a PHP program.

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