OMM Newsroom
Government agencies and other organizations in Europe have temporarily suspended a number of websites and online services because of serious security vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language, AnewZ reports. PHP is used to power many websites worldwide.
In the Netherlands, websites belonging to government agencies, the Port of Rotterdam, the country’s national football association KNVB and several hospitals were taken offline while security patches were being prepared.
In Finland, state IT services provider Valtori suspended public web services. In France, ministry websites were temporarily shut down for what was described as “preventive maintenance.”
The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the online encyclopedia, also said it had taken some of its systems offline until they could be securely updated. Other organizations across Europe took similar precautionary measures during the day.
Flaws could allow attackers to take control of servers
PHP’s development team released emergency security updates on October 21. The team said the two vulnerabilities, dubbed “PHP2Shell,” were serious. Hackers could exploit them to take control of a website’s server without needing a password or account access.
Once they gain access to a server, attackers could steal data, install malicious code or take a website completely offline.
The European Union’s cybersecurity response team, CERT-EU, urged organizations to install the patches immediately. Those unable to do so at once were advised to isolate or temporarily shut down vulnerable services.
Flaws identified with help from artificial intelligence
Security company Wiz said its researchers used artificial intelligence tools, including models from Google and OpenAI, to examine PHP code and find vulnerabilities that had gone unnoticed for a long time. Google-owned Wiz notified the PHP team about the issues in August, giving developers time to prepare patches before disclosure. Security company Calif also said it had identified the flaws using artificial intelligence.
Experts say the incident shows how artificial intelligence is changing cybersecurity. Tools that help identify hidden software bugs could also assist hackers and accelerate their ability to launch attacks.
Internet security company Cloudflare said it had detected attempts to exploit the vulnerabilities after information about them leaked online before the official disclosure. Australia’s cybersecurity agency said it was not aware of active attacks while it assessed the situation.
PHP is used on about 70% of websites where the technology can be identified. These include online stores, blogs and news sites built on platforms such as WordPress and Drupal.
The vulnerabilities affect all PHP versions released over roughly the past decade. Patches are available for the latest versions, while sites running older, unsupported versions need a full upgrade to be protected. Security agencies are urging website operators to install updates as soon as possible and advising users to wait for the sites to come back online.
