# Fact: Exploit attempts across Cloudflare's network: thousands in the ten hours before 

> Research: collected from outside sources and what this site derives from them; every fact links to a saved copy of its source.

Exploit attempts across Cloudflare's network: thousands in the ten hours before announcement, tens of thousands within 45 minutes after, hundreds of thousands within two hours, millions by 22 October 01:25 UTC Who says it, its status (reported), its sources, and its timeline from publication to this site.

Fact · exploitation · reported

# Exploit attempts across Cloudflare's network: thousands in the ten hours before announcement, tens of thousands within 45 minutes after, hundreds of thousands within two hours, millions by 22 October 01:25 UTC

**Who says it:** Matthew Prince, Cloudflare CEO, on X · **Sources:** [Matthew Prince, Cloudflare CEO on…](../../sources/x-eastdakota-php2shell-stats/index.html)

Primary party. Attempts, not compromises; no blocked count; 1.4 million views at capture.

## Fact-check

**A2** Reported●●○○○○ measures differently · Count · verdict: **holds**

Prince's own post carries all four figures and the 01:25 UTC time (UTC browser); the counter and date are known, the population is 'attempts across the Cloudflare network', but the method (what counts as an attempt: rule matches, requests, deduplication) is not stated, so A2 is the ceiling. SecurityWeek, the EADT and Tagesspiegel only repeat it.

| Capture checked | Result | What it says | sha256 of the text read |
|---|---|---|---|
| [x-eastdakota-php2shell-stats](../../sources/x-eastdakota-php2shell-stats/index.html) | carries | *In the 10 hours before it was publicly announced, across the @Cloudflare network we saw thousands of attempts to exploit it.* | 4069805bcb164ff1 |
| [x-eastdakota-php2shell-stats](../../sources/x-eastdakota-php2shell-stats/index.html) | carries | *That jumped to tens of thousands in the 45 minutes post announcement, hundreds of thousands within 2 hours, and millions now.* | 4069805bcb164ff1 |
| [x-eastdakota-php2shell-stats](../../sources/x-eastdakota-php2shell-stats/index.html) | carries | *1:25 · 22 Oct 2026* | 4069805bcb164ff1 |
| [imperva-blog-php2shell](../../sources/imperva-blog-php2shell/index.html) | absent | *During this pre-disclosure monitoring period, Imperva observed no traffic matching the monitored PHP2Shell exploit patterns.* | 3da873bdb21219a6 |

Open tickets: [Finding-61](../../factcheck/index.html#Finding-61).

Graded in Run-1, resting on captures up to 2026-10-22 11:18 UTC. The scale is on [the fact-check page](../../factcheck/index.html#ladder).

## This fact over time
- 2026-10-22 01:25 UTCMatthew Prince, Cloudflare CEO on… publishes [Matthew Prince 🌥 on X: "Some stats on #php2shell. In the 10 hours before it was publicly announced, across the](../../sources/x-eastdakota-php2shell-stats/index.html)
- 2026-10-22 11:18 UTCSaved into the evidence vault: Matthew Prince, Cloudflare CEO on…
- 2026-10-22Enters this site as reported in v0.2.0 (reconstructed from git)

Published: when the source says it was published. Saved: the first capture into the evidence vault. The rest are this site: the release in which the fact first appeared and every release that changed its wording, sources or status.

## What it rests on

## Where this fact appears

In the briefings for:
AAlexCurious readerCCaseyWebsite ownerJJordanBoard member or executiveSSamSecurity leadBBlakeAnalyst or policy advisorRRobinCISOQQuinnCFOMMorganData protection officerJJamieHead of AppSec
And on [every claim](../../claims/index.html#cf-millions).

## Every version of this fact
v1 · site v0.2.0 · 22 October 2026 · reported
```
Exploit attempts across Cloudflare's network: thousands in the ten hours before announcement, tens of thousands within 45 minutes after, hundreds of thousands within two hours, millions by 22 October 01:25 UTC
Who says it: Matthew Prince, Cloudflare CEO, on X
Status: reported
Topic: exploitation
Sources: x-eastdakota-php2shell-stats
```


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site v0.8.0 · data as of 2026-10-22T11:34Z · vault commit 200d08971937 · https://php.oct.2026.newsroom.sgit.ai/facts/cf-millions/index.html