AI Just Found a Bug That Puts Up to 70% of the World’s Websites at Risk
Researchers used AI to uncover the flaws, and PHP maintainers said 1.5 million hosts may still be unpatched.
- On Wednesday, the PHP Foundation released emergency patches for two critical remote code execution vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, each rated 9.2 in severity. Administrators were urged to update immediately to prevent unauthorized access.
- Security researchers at Calif, using OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol model, identified the long-standing vulnerabilities in August. Experts compare the discovery to the 2014 Heartbleed bug, noting AI accelerated finding previously difficult-to-exploit weaknesses.
- The vulnerabilities affect roughly 70% of websites worldwide, prompting the National Security Agency and the European Union's Computer Emergency Response Team, CERT-EU, to advise operators to patch or isolate vulnerable systems immediately. This scope underscores the global threat.
- As a precaution, the Wikimedia Foundation and various government agencies across Europe took websites offline on Wednesday while installing security updates. These entities prioritized protecting systems over maintaining service availability.
- Cybersecurity researchers warn of an immediate "race to exploit" as hackers attempt to reverse-engineer the patches. Experts caution that securing all affected websites could take months, creating an extended window of vulnerability.
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Rush is on to patch a software vulnerability that could impact 70% of websites worldwide - Boston News, Weather, Sports
LONDON (AP) — Governments and corporations worked throughout the night on urgent security updates after the AI-assisted discovery of vulnerabilities in a programming language vital...
The Herald-Dispatch
Idaho State JournalRush is on to patch a software vulnerability that could impact 70% of websites worldwide
LONDON — Governments and corporations worked throughout the night on urgent security updates after the AI-assisted discovery of vulnerabilities in a programming language vital to 70% of websites globally.
LONDON (AP) — Governments and corporations worked all night to repair a flaw in a vital programming language for 70% of the world’s websites.
A crack in PHP programming language has been described as the most important ever discovered by artificial intelligence
70% of websites face catastrophic hijacking under newly discovered flaw
A critical software crisis has emerged after artificial intelligence uncovered a severe vulnerability in PHP, the code powering up to 70% of the world's websites. Named PHP2Shell, the memory management flaw allows hackers to gain control of unpatched servers within seconds. Security experts reported by The Wall Street Journal are rushing to install patches before automated AI tools are weaponized by cybercriminals. The post 70% of websites face …
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