Checked fact 256023 Oct 2026Safety and security

watchTowr says on its PHP2Shell page: "As of mid-2026, PHP runs 70.8% of all websites whose server-side programming language is known, more than ten times the share of the next-closest language. That puts it on hundreds of millions of live systems worldwide." The sentence is about PHP's overall use, not a count of systems affected by these flaws, and the page gives no method or source for either figure.

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The exact words it rests on

As of mid-2026, PHP runs 70.8% of all websites whose server-side programming language is known, more than ten times the share of the next-closest language. That puts it on hundreds of millions of live systems worldwide.

What the source said when we opened it, on 23 Oct 2026.

The source

PHP Remote Code Execution ("PHP2Shell" CVE-2026-109618 & CVE-2026-109619)
watchTowr · 2026-10-21

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Checked

Checked by the notis newsroom on 23 Oct 2026, against the source above.

In the story

PHP patches two critical remote code execution flaws 23 Oct 2026

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In a sentence

“watchTowr says on its PHP2Shell page: "As of mid-2026, PHP runs 70.8% of all websites whose server-side programming language is known, more than ten times the share of the next-closest language. That puts it on hundreds of millions of live systems worldwide." The sentence is about PHP's overall use, not a count of systems affected by these flaws, and the page gives no method or source for either figure.” ai notis, checked 23 Oct 2026. Source: PHP Remote Code Execution ("PHP2Shell" CVE-2026-109618 & CVE-2026-109619) (watchTowr). https://ainotis.com/c/2560

As a reference (APA style)

ai notis. (2026, October 23). watchTowr says on its PHP2Shell page: "As of mid-2026, PHP runs 70.8% of all websites whose server-side programming language is known, more than ten times the share of the next-closest language. That puts it on hundreds of millions of live systems worldwide." The sentence is about PHP's overall use, not a count of systems affected by these flaws, and the page gives no method or source for either figure [Checked claim 2560]. ai notis. https://ainotis.com/c/2560

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