WASHINGTON: Governments and companies across the world took websites offline on Wednesday after two critical flaws were exposed in PHP, the programming language that powers a large share of the internet.
The US National Security Agency urged organisations to patch at once or disconnect vulnerable systems, warning that attackers could seize web servers without a password.
Security firm Calif and OpenAI independently reported the flaws in August, and they were kept confidential while a fix was prepared. Details leaked online on Tuesday, a day before the planned release. PHP volunteers issued a patch on Wednesday.
In France, local government sites, including the Paris Police Prefecture, went dark at the request of the national cybersecurity agency. In the Netherlands, the DigiD identity service and parliament’s website were taken down as a precaution. Belgium’s foreign ministry did the same, though no attacks were recorded.
The scare comes as powerful AI models drive a surge in security disclosures, with vulnerabilities found this year on track to roughly double last year’s record total.
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