Episode 1: PHP Hell Week

Every layer of the web stack had a rough October, and every layer has a fix. In the first episode of True North Cybersecurity, Luis Freitas walks through the stories, bottom to top, with a Canadian angle and a little sarcasm, and ends with exactly what to patch.

In this episode

• A Linux kernel networking bug that can hand out root over the network, and the AI that wrote the exploit in a lab
• Two critical Drupal advisories: a core remote code execution bug and an actively exploited Drupal Commerce flaw
• A WordPress core race condition in the update process, and 60,000 attempts in a day
• The Crime Stoppers tip platform breach here in Canada
• The FBI names North Korea for the $6 billion Binance theft
• Deep dive: PHP2Shell, the week governments took their own websites offline

Chapters

• Linux: the robot that found root
• Drupal, times two
• WordPress: the update was the problem
• Crime Stoppers breach in Canada
• FBI: North Korea and the $6B Binance heist
• Deep dive: PHP2Shell
• Do this week: patch the stack

Do this week: patch the stack

• Linux kernel: install your distribution’s kernel update, then reboot.
• PHP: run php -v; update anything older than 8.2.35, 8.3.36, 8.4.27 or 8.5.12. Until CVE-2026-115560 is fixed, set session.upload_progress.enabled=0.
• Drupal: core 11.4.10, 11.3.19 or 10.6.19; Drupal Commerce 8.x-2.41 or 3.3.13, then check your orders.
• WordPress: 7.1.4 or your branch’s security release, and confirm it actually finished.

Links

• Linux kernel flaw lets attackers run root commands (Cyber Security News)
• Drupal SA-CORE-2026-014: Field UI remote code execution
• Drupal Commerce Core flaw actively exploited (The Hacker News)
• 60,000 attacks targeting WordPress (Cyber Security News)
• Cyber Centre alert AL26-026: critical PHP vulnerabilities
• FBI confirms North Korean hackers behind the Binance theft (Cyber Security News)
• Privacy Commissioner investigates Crime Stoppers platform provider (Global News)

Listen and follow

True North Cybersecurity is out every Friday. Follow it in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite app so new episodes show up on their own. Have a question? Send it through our contact page and Luis may answer it on the show.

Facts checked on November 1, 2026. Some figures were still changing; see the linked sources for the latest.