Government websites in Europe and other regions went offline on Wednesday as operators rushed to address critical vulnerabilities in PHP, a widely used programming language, after cybersecurity researchers discovered the flaws using artificial intelligence (AI).
PHP developers released urgent security patches on Wednesday, urging all users to update their systems immediately. The vulnerabilities had remained undetected in the software for years, raising concerns about widespread cyberattacks.
With technology companies warning that hackers were already exploiting the flaws, several government agencies and online platforms took their websites or systems offline as a precaution.
Experts warned that the public release of security fixes could accelerate attacks, as AI tools make it easier for hackers to identify and exploit the underlying vulnerabilities before systems are updated.
AI was driving a “race to exploit,” said Costin Raiu, co-founder of cybersecurity research and incident response firm TLP:Black. He warned that the next phase could involve the mass compromise of vulnerable web servers worldwide.
PHP, which dates back to the early 1990s, powers a significant portion of the internet and is widely used by platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and Magento. A critical flaw in the language could therefore have far-reaching consequences.
“This issue impacts the majority of the internet,” said Tiffany Farriss, interim chief executive of the Drupal Association, warning that servers running PHP versions released over the past two decades could be affected.
Cybersecurity agencies worldwide urged website operators to install the patches immediately or take vulnerable sites offline until the fixes could be applied. - AGENCIES
