The potential remains for continuing impacts resembling the aftermath of Log4Shell, the vulnerability in the widely used Log4j software component, GuidePoint Security threat expert Justin Timothy tells CRN.
The threat of attackers potentially exploiting a pair of critical-severity PHP vulnerabilities could persist for some time, even though the initial evidence of exploitation of the PHP2Shell flaws appears to be modest, according to a threat intelligence expert at GuidePoint Security.
The widespread usage of PHP—and the difficulty faced by some organizations around identifying every service that leverages it—could mean that attackers will continue to seek exploitation opportunities for months to come, GuidePoint’s Justin Timothy told CRN Thursday.
[Related: 5 Things To Know About ‘Critical’ PHP Vulnerabilities Exploitation]
Despite the limited exploitation so far, “the PHP2Shell vulnerabilities and their exploitation definitely have the potential to be a Log4j-Log4Shell kind of scenario,” said Timothy, threat intelligence consultant at Herndon, Va.-based GuidePoint Security, No. 32 on CRN’s 2026 Solution Provider 500.
GuidePoint is among those security organizations that have not seen first-hand cases of exploitation as of this writing. A representative at cybersecurity vendor Huntress, which has also been tracking potential exploitation of the vulnerabilities, likewise told CRN in an email that “no real exploitation activity” has been observed thus far.
Still, that should not be interpreted as an indication that the risks have passed from PHP2Shell, Timothy said. The concern is that—as with Log4Shell, which was initially disclosed in late 2021 and saw exploitation for months to come—software dependencies that end up going overlooked could leave a variety of organizations vulnerable to attack, he said.
“We saw the effects of that for months afterwards,” Timothy said. “I’m afraid that we’re going to be seeing the same kind of trailing [impacts]—where people haven’t patched and threat actors are exploiting it [for some time].”
The PHP2Shell vulnerabilities—which are considered a “critical” risk with severity ratings of 9.2 out of 10—can enable attackers to execute code remotely without authentication. PHP is a key technology behind numerous web platforms including WordPress and Drupal.
PHP released fixes in versions 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 and 8.2.35 to address the vulnerabilities, which are tracked as CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619. Organizations are being urged to install the appropriate update or obtain patched packages from their software vendor.
A major concern is that organizations may focus on patching the systems they know about, while overlooking some of their other applications and services that also depend on PHP, according to Timothy.
“We’re seeing a lot of patching with our clients,” he said. “But we’re also equally seeing clients who aren’t aware of the services that use PHP—just because it’s a massive dependency.”
Given the high-profile nature of the vulnerabilities, “there’s been a lot of awareness, but I don’t think there’s been enough awareness,” Timothy said. “Security events like this have the potential to be drastic, and have cascading effects, for many organizations.”
