PHP2Shell Exploit Attempts Hit Millions as Attackers Try to Deploy Mirai Malware

Threat actors have been observed attempting to exploit the newly disclosed PHP2Shell vulnerabilities to rope infected systems into a Mirai botnet variant called Potassium, The Hacker News reports. The attacks target CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, both rated CVSS 9.2, though weaponizing the flaws may be harder than previously thought.