
Governments, public institutions and companies around the world are urgently trying to fix two critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used by a large portion of websites.
According to The Telegraph, the problems have forced institutions in several European countries to temporarily close their websites to prevent possible attacks and data theft.
Among the institutions affected are the French Interior Ministry, the Finnish government, the Dutch Parliament and several European universities.
In Britain, local authorities in Edinburgh, Oxford and Bristol cut off access to their websites, while similar measures were taken by the Port of Rotterdam, one of Europe's largest trading centers.
The British National Cyber Security Agency (NCSC) urged organizations to immediately update their systems or temporarily take them out of service if they cannot implement protective measures.
Similar warnings were issued by the US National Security Agency (NSA), European cybersecurity institutions, and authorities in Australia and Japan.
Weaknesses were discovered with artificial intelligence
The two security problems, which reportedly had existed for about a decade, were identified with the help of artificial intelligence tools developed by OpenAI and Google.
Cybersecurity company Wiz said it had used the GPT-5.6 Sol and Gemini 4 Argon models to discover the vulnerabilities, which it described as among the most serious ever identified in PHP.
According to the company, the problems were discovered in August, while the White House was informed last week.
The vulnerabilities could allow attackers to execute malicious code on servers without having to log in, creating opportunities for unauthorized access to files and databases.
This is particularly concerning because PHP is used to connect public websites to systems where user information is stored.
The foundation that administers PHP released urgent security updates on Wednesday, urging users to install them immediately.