Security Update – PHP Vulnerability

We are aware of the recent critical PHP security vulnerabilities highlighted by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) on 21st October 2026.

We would like to reassure customers that our main platforms, 4Matrix Cloud and 4Matrix Fusion, do not use PHP and are therefore not directly affected by these vulnerabilities.

PHP is used within some of our supporting systems, including our customer support ticketing and billing systems. Our desktop application also communicates with our sales system for licence verification. These systems do not store customers' payment details or sensitive information as part of the licence verification process.

We have been in contact with our hosting provider, Krystal, who has confirmed that the necessary security fixes have been applied to address the reported vulnerabilities.

No action is required from our customers in relation to this advisory.

We take the security of our systems and customer information seriously and will continue to monitor security developments and work with our hosting provider to maintain appropriate protections.

Duplicate pupils

This is a rare issue. Duplicate pupil records can be created if the Pupil Match function fails to recognise pupils and they are all marked as new, or if the Pupil MIS ID changes randomly, something which may affect hosted SIMS schools (see separate article relating to Admission number).

If the duplicate pupils appear in only 1 series then the quickest way to resolve this is to delete the affected series and re-import it, ensuring that the Pupil Match works correctly. If you are a hosted SIMS school, please download the latest reports from www.4matrix.com/simsreports to ensure that the match will work correctly.

If your duplicate pupils appear in more than 1 series then please see our article on Merging Pupils (4matrix.com).