If you run ColdFusion or Lucee on Windows with IIS, you may have PHP installed without realizing it — left behind by control panels, old phpMyAdmin installs, or host setup images. This guide shows how to detect and safely remove PHP using PowerShell. After a recent PHP security patch (nicknamed PHP2Shell), a host applied a blanket rule blocking multipart/form-data requests, breaking ColdFusion admin logins.
The author discovered an old phpMyAdmin install still active on the server. Checks include verifying IIS handler mappings, scanning for .php files, confirming PHP installation, and auditing public visibility. Removal steps: back up IIS config, move phpMyAdmin out of web folders, block .php URLs, remove FastCGI handler, and uninstall PHP.
Always verify no dependencies exist before removal.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing