Rush to patch software flaw that could impact 70% of websites worldwide
LONDON — Governments and corporations worked throughout the night on urgent security updates after the AI-assisted discovery of vulnerabilities in a programming language vital to 70% of websites globally. Many government sites appeared to be functioning normally Thursday, but outages or limited service continued while security work was under way. The FBI’s cyber division warned on Wednesday that…
Governments and corporations raced to release emergency security patches after AI tools uncovered critical vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language that powers around 70% of websites worldwide. While many government websites appeared to be operating normally on Thursday, a few experienced outages or reduced functionality as security teams worked to remediate the issue.
The FBI's cyber division issued a warning on Wednesday that the flaws could enable remote code execution in PHP, posing a significant risk of data breaches and network compromises. The agency advised operators to take websites offline if they were unable to apply the patches immediately. Cybersecurity experts told the Associated Press that the consequences of these vulnerabilities would have lasting effects, but they praised the government's adherence to cyber best practices by shutting down affected sites while they were updated.
In the United Kingdom, some government services faced "limited" disruptions during the patching process.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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