Government websites across Europe and Asia have been taken offline to address two critical vulnerabilities in the PHP language, which powers about 70% of the internet.
01Summary
- 01The US National Security Agency issued a rare public warning on 22 October 2026, advising offline sites if they cannot be updated immediately.
- 02Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, the Czech Republic, and Japan have shut some government websites to apply security patches.
- 03The two flaws, dubbed PHP2Shell, were discovered using AI by security firms Calif and Wiz in August 2026.
- 04The vulnerabilities allow remote attackers to run commands on servers without a password.
- 05The PHP Foundation said the flaws rank among the most severe ever found in the language and urged immediate updates.
02Why it matters
This affects readers because the PHP vulnerabilities put millions of websites at risk of remote takeover, including government services, requiring urgent patching that may temporarily disrupt online access.
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