@timothy_bramlett: Cybersecurity people are calling this month "Black October." The biggest story: a critical hole in PHP, the software behind 69.2% of websites, including WordPress. Two bugs let attackers run code on a web server without logging in. Researchers at Wiz called them among the most severe PHP bugs ever found, and they'd been there for decades. Wiz and Calif found them using AI models from OpenAI and Google. The fix shipped October 21, but only in PHP 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 and 8.2.35. PHP 8.1 and older no longer get updates from the PHP project. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre says if a system can't be updated or patched, consider taking it offline. And it's part of a bigger wave. About 400,000 software bugs have been logged since 1988. 13,000 came in October alone. Sam Altman: "I no longer think we're going to be able to just patch all the bugs." You don't need to be technical. Email your web host one question: "Which PHP version is my site on, and have you applied the PHP2Shell security fix?" If it's 8.1 or older, ask to move to a supported, patched version. If they can't answer clearly, that's your answer. Want to check first? Go to Zinng .ai, click Free Tools in the menu, then PHP Vulnerability Checker. Enter your website and it tells you if you're vulnerable, patched, or on an end-of-life version. Free, no signup. Do you know which PHP version your site runs?

Timothy Bramlett

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Sunday 25 October 2026 22:47:38 GMT