What’s the PHP coding flaw that could pull down 70 percent of the internet?
The vulnerability allows a hacker to change a website or extract data, including personal information.
Government websites in Europe and elsewhere have gone offline after news of critical vulnerabilities in a widely used programming language sent website operators scrambling to protect their systems.
Developers of the PHP programming language on Wednesday released urgent new fixes, saying all users were “encouraged to update immediately”.
PHP runs on the servers that host websites, building pages behind the scenes before they reach a visitor’s browser. Most people never see it, but it powers everything from blogs to online shops and government portals.
Moses said it was unclear how the hacker learned of the flaws while Calif’s and Wiz’s reports were still under embargo. Security researchers usually keep details of flaws secret until a fix is ready, so attackers cannot use them in the meantime.