CORSIKA 8 represents a significant update in the simulation of particle showers, building on the well-established foundation of CORSIKA 7. It has been entirely rewritten as a modular and modern C++ framework, addressing the limitations of its predecessor to provide a flexible platform designed to satisfy current and novel use cases. This allows for application beyond pure air-shower scenarios such as cross-media particle cascades and an advanced calculation of the radio emission. A first official ``physics-complete'' version has already been released that supports the treatment of hadronic interactions with Sibyll 2.3d, QGSJet-II.04, and EPOS-LHC and the treatment of the electromagnetic cascade with PROPOSAL 7.6.2. In this presentation, we will discuss the design principles, current functionality, and validation efforts of CORSIKA 8, emphasizing its potential applications for future experiments.