AI discovered severe flaws in the PHP programming language, prompting a global cyber-security alert as governments and organisations rushed to patch vulnerable websites.
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01Summary
- 01Vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used since the 2000s, were found by researchers at security firms Calif and Wiz using advanced AI tools.
- 02Cyber-security firm Wiz described the flaws as the 'most severe' ever detected by AI, and OpenAI called it 'one of the most impactful security issues in recent memory'.
- 03The flaw could allow attackers to take control of web servers without authentication; it potentially affects 'millions and millions' of websites including Wikipedia.
- 04Governments including the US, UK, EU, Australia and Japan urged immediate patching; some organisations like Wikimedia, the Finnish government and Edinburgh council took systems offline.
- 05PHP developers released patches on the day of the announcement, but experts warned further exploitation attempts are likely as technical details become public.
02Why it matters
This matters because PHP underpins a huge portion of the internet, including many sites you use daily. If your favourite websites are unavailable or urge you to change passwords, this is the reason.
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