A Closer Look Statement on PHP2Shell Vulnerabilities

A Closer Look Confirms Its Systems Are Not Affected by the PHP2Shell Vulnerabilities

Duluth, Georgia, October 22, 2026: A Closer Look LLC today confirmed that its client platforms and internal systems are not affected by the two critical PHP vulnerabilities disclosed this week, known as "PHP2Shell" (CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619). A Closer Look does not run PHP anywhere in its technology stack. No client data is at risk from these flaws, and no action is required by clients.

Why A Closer Look is not exposed

The PHP2Shell flaws let an attacker run code on a web server that uses PHP, without logging in. They affect nearly every PHP version back to 5.4. The PHP team released emergency patches on October 21, 2026, and CISA has urged organizations running PHP to update immediately.

A Closer Look's systems are built on different technology:

• Clarity, our client reporting platform, runs on React and Node.js.
• Insight, our internal operations platform, runs on .NET and C#.
• Client and research data is stored in Microsoft SQL Server on Microsoft Azure.
• Our public website is hosted on Webflow.

None of these components use PHP. The vulnerable code is not present in our environment.

Third-party providers

We are also confirming status with the third-party providers that support our services, including our SMS survey platform. We will contact affected clients directly if any provider reports exposure. Our standard security monitoring remains in place.

Statement from our CTO

"Several clients asked us this week whether PHP2Shell affects them through us. It does not. We don't run PHP, so there is nothing to patch on our side. We know our clients trust us with years of customer experience data, and we take that seriously. If anything changes with our providers, clients will hear it from us first."
Dwight Dayhoff, Chief Technology Officer, A Closer Look LLC

About A Closer Look

A Closer Look LLC is a customer experience research company. It provides mystery shopping, competitive market analysis, and SMS-based quick surveys to businesses across the United States and Canada. Learn more at a-closer-look.com.
‍

Sources

• CISA alert: Critical Vulnerabilities in PHP Require Immediate Patching
• The Hacker News: PHP Issues Emergency Patches for Two Critical PHP2Shell RCE Flaws

‍