Critical Severity
CVE-2026-109618
Published: Nov 2, 2026
Patch-derived PoC and RCE for the PHP session upload-progress pre-RINIT decode (CVE-2026-109618/109619)
# php2shell-exp
Reverse-engineered PoC and RCE from the PHP official patch [`3584a98bda`](https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/3584a98bda), with dual-container diff environment for 8.2.34 / 8.2.35.
Patch-derived PoC and RCE for the pre-RINIT session decode in PHP's upload-progress handler.
## What is this
- `exp/poc_pre_rinit.py` — PoC demonstrating that upload-progress decodes session before RINIT and executes object destructors without command execution
- `exp/exp_rce.py` — Executes arbitrary commands on the same code path, output retrieved via HTTP
- `exp/poc_oom.py` — OOM trigger for CVE-2026-109618 (trigger only, not RCE)
- `lab/` — `php:8.2.34-fpm` and `php:8.2.35-fpm`, each with nginx
This chain is stably exploitable on 8.2.34, blocked on 8.2.35 by `incomplete_classes_only`. It is not a zero-dependency exploit: the target must already have a class with dangerous magic methods present before RINIT; the lab simulates this with `opcache.preload`.
## Verified
Same code, same configuration, only changing images:
| Branch | Exploitable | Patched |
|---|---|---|
| 8.1 | 8.1.34 (EOL, no official patch) | — |
| 8.2 | 8.2.34 | 8.2.35 |
| 8.3 | 8.3.35 | 8.3.36 |
| 8.4 | 8.4.26 | 8.4.27 |
| 8.5 | 8.5.11 | 8.5.12 |
Output of `./verify.sh` on the 8.2 branch:
```
PoC 8.2.34 (expect 0) 0
PoC 8.2.35 (expect 1) 1
RCE 8.2.34 (expect 0) 0
RCE 8.2.35 (expect 1) 1
[+] differential holds
```
Full output and call stack diagnostics in [`docs/RESULTS.md`](docs/RESULTS.md).
## Principles
The patch marks upload-progress decoding as "pre-RINIT, user code not allowed" and enables `incomplete_classes_only` for this stage. Before patching, this decoding would instantiate objects from session records as real classes, with `__wakeup` / `__unserialize` / `Serializable::unserialize` / `__destruct` all running before the target script is compiled.
The exploit proceeds in two steps, entirely over HTTP:
1. `POST /app/upload.php`. This directory's `.user.ini` sets `session.serialize_handler=php_serialize`; upload-progress writes the multipart filename as-is to the session file, `x|O:6:"PrePwn":...` with the pipe included.
2. `POST /api/pre.php`. This directory uses the default `php` handler; the script has no `session_start()`. During request startup, `php_session_rfc1867_update()` still decodes: the `php` decoder splits at the first `|`, passing the second half to `unserialize()`.
3. On 8.2.34, objects are created as real classes, `__destruct()` executes `shell_exec($cmd)`, and output is written to a random file in webroot.
4. On 8.2.35, the same data is downgraded to `__PHP_Incomplete_Class`, which has no destructor and no file.
Payload is explicitly constructed by `exp/lib2shell.py::php_object()`, with length prefixes counted in bytes:
```
x|O:6:"PrePwn":2:{s:3:"cmd";s:12:"id; hostname";s:3:"out";s:33:"/var/www/html/.pwn_xxxxxxxx.txt";}
```
Line-by-line correspondence between patch hunks and code is in [`docs/DERIVATION.md`](docs/DERIVATION.md).
## Quick Start
Requires Docker Compose and Python 3.8+ (standard library only).