All websites using the common programming language should update to the latest security patch. Government websites in the EU and Canada were taken offline as a preventive measure following the announcement from the PHP Foundation regarding two critical vulnerabilities. Reuters reported that governments in the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Finland took down at least some websites.
Evan Solomon, Canada's Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, posted on X about the decision to temporarily go offline, while seconding the call for any website operators using PHP to update as soon as possible. PHP is a programming language used in several major web publishing services, including WordPress and Drupal. Earlier today, news broke that PHP's software had contained major vulnerabilities for years and they were only just uncovered thanks to AI tools being used by cybersecurity firms.
Those flaws could allow a hacker to infiltrate a system running PHP, potentially taking control of it. Tiffany Farriss, interim CEO of the Drupal Association, warned that all servers using any version of PHP released in the last 20 years will be vulnerable, impacting the majority of the Internet. Thus far, the main response from the US government is a missive from the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency encouraging organizations to update to the new patch from the PHP Foundation.
In a statement to Reuters, the White House said it was made aware of the issue on Friday.
Source: Engadget · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing