Australian Website Operators Urged to Patch Critical PHP Flaws

Conceptual shield being repaired beside website servers and eucalyptus leaves

Updated: 22 October 2026, 06:21 AEDT

Australian website operators are being urged to check and update PHP after two critical software vulnerabilities triggered an international security response on Wednesday, 21 October. ABC reported that the Australian Signals Directorate said cyber.gov.au and other Australian government websites had experienced outages in connection with the issue.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s 21 October alert says the flaws, tracked as CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619 and known as “php2shell”, can let an attacker run code remotely without authenticating. It says PHP installations serving web requests are affected.

CISA identifies PHP 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 and 8.2.35 as the updated versions that fix the vulnerabilities. It urges organisations to inventory their PHP systems and prioritise patching those exposed to the internet.

For systems that cannot be updated immediately, including unsupported PHP 8.1 or earlier versions, the agency recommends taking them offline until they can be patched or upgraded. It says a web application firewall may offer some interim protection.

ABC’s report, updated early Thursday in Sydney, says ASD advised users to monitor official PHP guidance and apply patches as they become available. PHP is used in website software including WordPress and Drupal, making the warning relevant to government agencies, businesses and other site operators.

CISA said it had not observed exploitation when its alert was published. That statement does not establish that every affected website was breached; ABC separately reported Cloudflare’s warning of emerging attacks.

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