From BBC News · · 1m 10s
PHP security flaws force global website shutdowns
Critical PHP vulnerabilities trigger worldwide site outages as governments urge fixes.
In brief
Critical PHP vulnerabilities trigger worldwide site outages as governments urge fixes. Critical PHP security flaws caused global website shutdowns as governments urged immediate patching. Originally reported by BBC News.
Critical PHP flaws discovered
International governments and agencies urged websites to address two critical cyber-security flaws in PHP.
PHP vulnerabilities discovered by AI
Cyber-security firms Wiz and Calif discovered the flaws using AI tools from OpenAI's Patch the Planet program.
70% of internet affected
PHP security experts estimate roughly 70% of the internet is impacted by the vulnerabilities.
Global website shutdowns
Finnish government, Edinburgh council, BBC and Dutch authorities temporarily shut websites due to the flaws.
US National Security Agency advice
US National Security Agency advised organizations to take systems offline if unable to apply fixes.
PHP vulnerability impact
The flaws allow direct access to server file systems or databases without authentication.
Wikipedia and other sites affected
Wikipedia and DeviantArt temporarily shut down services as precautionary measures.
PHP vulnerability timeline
The flaws were discovered in August after using AI tools for a few weeks, affecting PHP versions from 2004 onwards.
The main idea
Critical PHP security flaws caused global website shutdowns as governments urged immediate patching.
