PHP Vulnerabilities Could Put Much of the Internet at Risk, Experts Warn

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An agency that monitors the programming language PHP issued a severe warning on Tuesday that it had identified two major cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Fixes should have been deployed on Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET, but security experts are urging website administrators to take immediate notice and precautions.

PHP is a free, open-source programming language that much of the web is built on. The warnings are unusually severe, with the exploit being dubbed “PHP2Shell.” The vulnerabilities were identified by AI and could affect 70% of the world’s websites, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Cybersecurity officials are urging website administrators to immediately download new updates with the patches. Cloudflare’s chief technology officer Dane Knecht said Wednesday morning that the company has deployed a fix, but it’s still seeing early attacks emerging.

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