Websites are gradually coming back online after PHP security update

On Wednesday morning, numerous websites were taken offline due to two significant vulnerabilities in PHP, affecting around 70% of websites. Corine Schipper-Derkse from the National Cyber Security Centre clarified that this was not an attack but a flaw in the programming language that could be exploited to steal customer data. The alarm was raised after an AI bot discovered the vulnerabilities, leading to a security update by the PHP Foundation. Consequently, various websites, including government and media sites, were preemptively shut down. While some foreign sites were also taken offline, many remained operational due to differing risk assessments. A patch was released by the PHP Foundation around 4 PM, resolving the issues, and no misuse of the vulnerabilities has been reported so far.