Wiz CTO Warns of AI‑Accelerated Vulnerabilities and the PHP2Shell Threat
Current overview (not historical)
Wiz’s Chief Technology Officer, Tomer Schwartz, warned that artificial intelligence is rapidly accelerating the discovery and exploitation of software vulnerabilities, making traditional manual patching insufficient. In a TechCrunch Equity podcast interview, Schwartz highlighted the PHP2Shell vulnerability, a critical flaw in PHP that has been publicly known for a decade, and emphasized that the scale of future attacks—what he calls a “vulnpocalypse”—will outpace conventional patching methods. Schwartz urged startups to embed security into their development processes from the outset, arguing that relying on post‑release fixes is no longer viable. He noted that the rapid pace of AI‑driven vulnerability discovery will expose legacy codebases and unpatched systems to unprecedented risk, underscoring the need for proactive, automated security measures.
Written with AI from the reporting · updated 10/28/2026
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- 1Unclassified fact stationOct 29, 03:20single sourcereport-time onlyrevised
Wiz CTO discusses PHP2Shell vulnerability and coming vulnpoc
Read original source ↗ TechCrunch · AIReplay this moment in the explorerEvidence & revisions · 1 source records
- Subject：
- Tomer Schwartz
- Action：
- discusses
- Object：
- PHP2Shell vulnerability
- Occurred (fact side)：
- not recorded
- Published (valid side)：
- Oct 29, 03:05
- First seen (known side)：
- Oct 29, 03:20
Fact stationSingle source · one-sided claimRevisedReport-time onlyCopy may have been revised later; time replay is bounded. Layer labels group reading only, not causation between layers.
- 2Unclassified fact stationOct 29, 03:20single sourcereport-time onlyrevised
Wiz CTO discusses AI-driven vulnerability discovery in PHP b
Read original source ↗ TechCrunch · AIReplay this moment in the explorerEvidence & revisions · 1 source records
- Subject：
- Tomer Schwartz
- Action：
- discusses AI-driven vulnerability discovery
- Object：
- PHP bugs
- Occurred (fact side)：
- not recorded
- Published (valid side)：
- Oct 29, 02:50
- First seen (known side)：
- Oct 29, 03:20
Fact stationSingle source · one-sided claimRevisedReport-time onlyCopy may have been revised later; time replay is bounded. Layer labels group reading only, not causation between layers.
Uncertainty marks flag where to check the sources; they are not proven causation.
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- TechCrunch · AIRelated fact: single sourceFact occurrence time unverifiedSource report revisedWiz CTO Tomer Schwartz Discusses Rapid PHP Vulnerabilities and the Need for Automated Security
Report first recorded Oct 29, 03:20
Wiz CTO Tomer Schwartz explains how two critical PHP bugs—now dubbed PHP2Shell—triggered a global scramble to patch systems that power roughly 70% of the web. He recounts the coordinated effort between Wiz, OpenAI, the PHP core team, and the research group Calif to deploy fixes, noting that the incidents signal the start of a new era where AI accelerates the discovery and exploitation of vulnerabilities. Schwartz argues that manual patching cannot scale and urges early‑stage startups to embed security into their development lifecycles from day one.
Read original source ↗ - TechCrunch · AIRelated fact: single sourceFact occurrence time unverifiedSource report revisedWiz CTO Warns AI Will Accelerate Discovery of Long‑Hidden PHP Vulnerabilities
Report first recorded Oct 29, 03:20
Tomer Schwartz, CTO of Wiz, explained that two critical bugs in PHP—responsible for about 70% of websites—were only recently discovered after a week‑long scramble involving Wiz, OpenAI, the California research group, and the PHP core team. The bugs had existed for over a decade, and AI tools helped identify and patch them quickly. Schwartz said that manual patching cannot scale as AI enables faster identification and exploitation of new vulnerabilities, and that many small‑business WordPress sites may still be unpatched. The incident illustrates how AI is reshaping the threat landscape for open‑source code.
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