A critical coding language vulnerability is taking websites offline over hack fears
Developers of the PHP programming language said they had identified two critical vulnerabilities, and urged users to update their sites as soon as a fix was released.
On Wednesday, government websites across Europe and other regions experienced downtime after critical vulnerabilities were identified in PHP, a widely used programming language. Developers of PHP disclosed two significant flaws and urged users to update their sites immediately following a fix's release. Hackers were reportedly exploiting these vulnerabilities.
The Dutch and Finnish governments took their websites offline as a precaution. PHP underpins many aspects of the internet, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Magento sites, shared hosting platforms, and control panels. Cybersecurity firms reported emerging attacks and urged immediate patching, emphasizing the need for timely updates.
Wordfence, a plugin protecting WordPress websites, warned that automatic updates wouldn't apply the fix and advised site owners to determine who is responsible for PHP updates. European, Australian, Japanese, and British cybersecurity agencies advised PHP users to either update immediately or take websites offline. The Dutch cybersecurity agency went offline itself as a precaution.
Officials stated that PHP versions from 5 onwards could be affected, though the exact vulnerable versions have not been disclosed.
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