Skip to content
NewA calmer, faster ZeroHour

UK pentester claims $2,000 Bitcoin prize for PHP2Shell CTF RCE

Original title: UK pentester 'killa' claims $2K Bitcoin prize in PHP2Shell capture-the-flag contest

The Register · Securityby Connor Jones ()3 min read1
AI summary · x-ai/grok-4.7Summaries by Vani AI

Jaydip Modhwadia says he achieved remote code execution in about three hours after a PHP endpoint was added.

UK pentester Jaydip Modhwadia, known as Killa, won a Bitcoin prize for remote code execution in James Pavur's PHP2Shell capture-the-flag contest. Pavur launched Steal My Bitcoin on October 24 to test whether the bug was as easy to exploit as claimed. The site initially served static HTML; Modhwadia got code execution at 1547 UTC on October 25 after a PHP endpoint was added. He published a write-up and a single-file Python script. Hudson Rock's Alon Gal said the result was target-specific and not evidence of scalable automated compromise.

Unconfirmed: The site timer showed 19.28 hours, but Modhwadia says the actual effort was about three hours.

Key facts
  • Pavur first offered $500; the community raised the award to $2,000.
  • The site displayed 19.28 hours, while Modhwadia says the work took about three hours.
  • His script, he says, needs at most 20 HTTP requests to finish the exploit.
  • He says the method bypasses ASLR and other recently disclosed barriers.
  • He donated part of the prize to the Lupus Foundation.
Security assessment · AI, from the articlePublic proof of concept

Impact: Remote code execution on the contest website

ProductAffected
PHP—
Analyze this story with Vani AIImpact, who is affected and what defenders should do, in a new chat

From the original article

3 min read at theregister.com

Jaydip Modhwadia beats challenge designed to test real-world exploitability of PHP2Shell in around 3 hours

The Register · Security

By Connor Jones · theregister.com

Read the full article at The Register · Security

A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.