Tell HN: I unknowingly broke the PHP RCE embargo. I am sorry.

I posted here about the then-upcoming PHP RCEs related to CVE-2026-109618 & CVE-2026-109619. I appreciate this has had considerable knock-on effects with the schedule for co-ordinated disclosure, and created additional workload.

I am truly sorry. I take full responsibility for my actions.

It was not remotely my intention to cause any of the subsequent side effects.

At the time of posting, I didn't know about any embargo. My contact had told me there was no embargo, and her contact had told her the same thing.

As someone who follows the 4-weekly PHP release cycle and compiles it from source, my intention was to alert others in a similar position to be aware of the importance/urgency of the updates.

That clearly backfired in a pretty wild fashion. I have learned my lesson.

57 points | by petecooper 4 hours ago

6 comments

  • rancar2 1 hour ago
    That’s kind of you, Pete, but it was leaked and being exploited well prior to your previous posting here: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/amazon-threat-intellig...
  • cwillu 3 hours ago
    Don't be silly, you can't possibly be responsible for breaking an embargo you weren't subject to or informed about.
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    • petecooper 2 hours ago
      That's fair. For clarity: I take responsibility for posting on HN, without knowing the facts.
      [-]
      • Onavo 1 hour ago
        Not sure what you are apologizing for. It's a severely overblown bug that ended up on the front page of New York Times and the Japan Prime Minister had to get involved too. The bug itself is non trivial to exploit from just public requests to a web server so I am not sure what the hysteria is about. It's no different from the other hundred or so CVEs I see being posted or dropped everyday.

        It will be headlines on Hacker News regardless due to sheer sensationalism, I think most DevSecOps people would rather find out the news here first than via their boss calling them after reading the morning news.

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        • Klonoar 1 hour ago
          The Japanese PM did not “have” to get involved.
    • bell-cot 2 hours ago
      Responsibility may include vetting your sources - is this person competent and dutiful, to actually know there's no embargo? - and researching the situation, and thinking several moves ahead, and other stuff.

      Reality is that everyone has to make decisions in finite time, using the resources they actually have.

      And I'd put a whole lot more responsibility further up that chain of contacts. And question how many other people they might have blabbered to.

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      • petecooper 2 hours ago
        >And question how many other people they might have blabbered to.

        100%. I'm concerned about the two-way street this might also have opened me up to with information I shared privately with this individual. Nothing significant or incriminating, but the professional relationship is concluded.

  • voakbasda 3 minutes ago
    Really hope you are not in the US. This kind of admission would be used against you in a civil trial, and lawyers love to sue for just about any reason under the sun. Someone could drag you to court and you might be able to defend yourself, but at an extremely painful cost both financially and emotionally. While I think that would be utter bullshit, that does seem to be the way this country operates now.
  • ChrisArchitect 21 minutes ago
    Related (where you already posted a bit of this):

    Today's PHP security release, and how we're strengthening security

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50182987

  • possmap 3 hours ago
    It happens. Information cascades are messy, especially with multi-layered contacts

    Thanks for owning it ,the best thing now is ensuring the patch details are clear once the official release drops. Moving forward is what matters

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  • aaron695 1 hour ago
    [dead]