For more than a decade, serious shortcomings had remained undiscovered in technology that lies at the foundation of a large portion of the internet.
Artificial Intelligence Needed ( He) gave these weaknesses to light, causing a global alarm for cyber security.
Weaknesses are found in a programming language called The PHP, which has been used worldwide since the 2000s to create websites.
Governments and cyber security agencies worldwide are trying to limit the consequences of the discovery made Wednesday. They have called on internet site operators to install an urgent security update immediately or to consider the possibility of temporary deactivation of their platforms.
The cyber security company Wiz, one of the companies whose researchers discovered weaknesses, described them as the worst ever identified by artificial intelligence, writes Pubc.
OpenAI, whose technology was used to reveal these weaknesses, described the case as one of the most important security problems in recent times.
What’s PHP?
Most people may not have heard of The PHP, but will most likely interact with it every day.
PHP is short for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. It’s about an open code programming language that works in the back of a server and enables data processing for web sites.
Developed in the early 1990s to enable the creation of dynamic pages and applications, The PHP continues to be widely used today. It is based on platforms such as Wikipedia, online shops and WordPress, the system used to build many websites.
When you visit a website, code The PHP collects and processs data, turning it into a page you can read.
The PHP has also been used to create a series of tools that enable construction or acceleration of development of internet apps. Among the best – known platforms based on this language are Laravel, Symphony, and Drupal.
According to the cyber security company Wiz, which helped detect the critical weaknesses made public this week, this programming language empowers 70 percent of the world’s websites.
Its maintenance is done by a nonprofit organization called The PHP Foundation, composed of individuals and companies that depend on this programming language and aim to ensure its long-term development and stability.
What is the weakness revealed?
A group of cyber security researchers and organisations discovered two weaknesses this week in the PHP, which warned they could endanger websites worldwide.
Cyber security companies Wiz and Calif said the weaknesses, given to them by the name “ph2shwell,” are natural in programming language itself. They affect PHP versions published over the past decade.
Ryan Austin, a researcher in Calif who helped uncover security problems, told the BBC that this was the most serious weakness I have ever discovered.
In a release on her blog, Wiz explained that, under certain conditions, hackers can exploit the weakness of af2shel to take control of affected servers and steal confidential data. According to the company, that means everything built on top of it. The PHP may be exposed to danger.
Artificial intelligence could make such attacks easier and faster, Paul Spain, executive director of the Gorilla Cyber Security Company, told the BBC.
He estimated that weakness could affect millions and millions of websites.
Jill Slay, cyber security researcher at Adelaide University, said the consequences would be devastating if hackers or states used this weakness to get private data from websites.
What Web sites have been affected?
The alert has caused worldwide disruptions of services from playgrounds to government portals and online forums.
Among the affected institutions is Wikipedia, the organisation behind the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which has disabled some of its systems as a precautionary measure.
Online sites and services have been put out of office by the Finnish government, the Edinburgh Municipal Council and the BBC. Even the Netherlands cyber security agency has disabled its website.
The Geneva University site was among those disabled Wednesday, following a call by the European Union’s Computer Emergency Response Team ( CERT-EU, following the discovery of weakness.
A number of public organisations in Scotland, including municipal councils and health boards, have also disabled their sites.
Some experts warn that this weakness could expose more to cyber security-resistant attacks, especially those of small organisations that have limited resources for cyber security.
Salil Kanhere, cyber security researcher at the University of New South Wales in Sydney ( U n NSW Sydney said more efforts are expected in the coming weeks to exploit these weaknesses, as technical details are already being made public.
What happened after their weaknesses were discovered?
The PHP Foundation released security updates Wednesday to correct weaknesses that had remained undiscovered on its software for years.
All PHP users are strongly advised to update the system immediately, the organisation said.
Authorities and security organisations worldwide have repeated warnings, urging internet site operators to secure their platforms.
United States National Security Agency ( The NSA asked all PHP organisations to disable their systems if they are unable to install security updates immediately. The agency warned that weakness could create a direct way to attack a system’s database.
These risks are serious enough to require immediate correction of weaknesses in all departments and government agencies of the United States, the agency said.
The National Cyber Security Centre of the United Kingdom gave similar advice, urging organisations to check whether attackers have installed backwaters (backwaters) in their systems. These are mechanisms that allow unauthorized access to a system.
Similar warnings have issued relevant institutions in the European Union, Singapore and Australia.
Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, urged citizens to check if their web sites, accessible to the public, operate through the PHP.
I have an urgent request for everyone to take action tonight, Takaichi wrote on the X social network.
If it is difficult to install corrective updates immediately, the temporary suspension of internet sites and similar measures can be considered effective ways to reduce the risk, she said.
Even technology companies have tried to secure their systems quickly.
The Amazon electronic trade giant said he had faced several attacks several days before the problem. PHP became public, but that its websites were functioning normally.
Matthew PRlNCE, the director of the Cloudflaller company, which offers infrastructure for the internet, said that in the ten hours prior to publishing the problem, thousands of attempts to exploit weaknesses on their network.
After the public announcement, the number increased to tens of thousands within 45 minutes, to hundreds of thousands within two hours and has now reached millions, he wrote on X.
How was artificial intelligence involved?
Researchers at Calif and Wiz companies who discovered weaknesses used advanced artificial intelligence tools capable of analyzing the code and identifying flaws much faster than humans or old systems.
Modern software is extremely complex and some weaknesses may remain undiscovered for years, Kanhere said.
The acts were essentially not new; what changed was our ability to find them, he added.
Details of the discovery were published online this week, forcing PHP developers to speed up reporting on the security problem and its size.
In a blog report, OpenAI said the case shows how artificial intelligence can detect security weaknesses, but also how it can help attackers develop tools and methods for cyberattacks.
The company that created ChatGPT said it had published a programme to check whether the platform PHP is safe.
Many of these weaknesses stem from the way software was built in the past, when priority was given to functionality and not security, Ryan Ko of the University of Queensland’s Cyber Research Centre said.
What does that mean to you?
The problem affects development processes and the functioning of websites in the back of the systems, which are invisible to most users. Thus, most people do not need to take direct action.
However, small businesses that have websites, including those built with WordPress, can worry about how to protect their platforms.
Owners of web pages and persons managing PHP-based infrastructure have been asked to provide their systems by installing the latest version of programming language.
Ken Munro, an ethical hacker who has been identifying weaknesses in computer systems for years, said installation of corrective updates, known as skating, is more or less like the update of the Windows operating system.
If your page is managed by a host service company or an Internet developer, contact them and ask if they have installed security updates for PHP.
These corrections should be applied directly to the PHP and the problem cannot be solved only by up-to-date WordPress or its appendix.
If you manage your own site, Munro says it is your responsibility to ensure that corrective updates are installed.
The National Cyber Security Centre of the United Kingdom recommends that internet sites be temporarily deactivated if updates or safeguards cannot be implemented quickly enough.
The US National Security Agency has also called for increased vigilance over the coming weeks, urging users to closely convey updates published by software companies.
Vigilance in implementing corrective updates for these systems is essential, the agency said.
Although the main responsibility falls on internet site operators, users should stay alert to security advice published by the affected services, including password change requirements, Kanhere said.
He also warned that people should be careful of the cheating messages of the phishing type, which could exploit publicity about this incident to steal personal data. /Telegraphy/