Websites taken offline worldwide after critical PHP flaws uncovered

Government agencies and companies around the world took websites offline Wednesday after cybersecurity firms disclosed two critical vulnerabilities in PHP, the programming language underlying a large share of the web.

The flaws could allow attackers to take control of vulnerable servers without passwords, according to the South China Morning Post. Wiz, one of the security firms involved in the discovery, estimated that PHP runs about 70% of the world’s websites and described the vulnerabilities as among the most severe found in PHP. Because PHP supports widely used web-design platforms, potentially affected sites include online stores, news organizations and government services.

France 24 reported that artificial intelligence was used to uncover the flaws and that PHP developers released a patch Wednesday. The U.S. National Security Agency advised organizations to apply the patch immediately or take vulnerable systems offline, the South China Morning Post reported.

Sky News reported that a major technology company had recorded “millions” of attempts to exploit a critical flaw since it emerged. Government and corporate shutdowns were reported across multiple countries as administrators raced to secure affected systems.