South Korea’s presidential National Security Office convened an emergency cybersecurity meeting on Thursday to coordinate a response to a critical vulnerability in PHP, a programming language widely used to power websites around the world.
The meeting, chaired by Song Ki-ho, the third deputy director of the National Security Office, brought together senior officials from the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of National Defense and the National Intelligence Service, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
The three agencies serve as the lead agencies for civilian, government and military cybersecurity crisis management, respectively,
The meeting was aimed at coordinating the agencies’ responses to cyber threats and reviewing PHP usage and the status of measures taken across the public, private and defense sectors to address the recently disclosed PHP vulnerability, Cheong Wa Dae said.
They also discussed accelerating security updates, introducing temporary safeguards for websites unable to install patches immediately and checking for signs of potential breaches.
The participating agencies agreed to share threat intelligence and updates on their responses in real time to strengthen coordination.
"The vulnerability could allow attackers to take control of servers without authentication, and attack attempts have already been reported overseas," Song said. "How quickly we respond will determine the scale of the damage."
Song urged civilian, government and military authorities to work together to implement security measures as quickly as possible.
PHP is a widely used server-side programming language that enables websites to handle functions such as user logins, online searches, payments and personal data processing.
The new AI-assisted discovery of vulnerability could allow attackers to execute malicious code on vulnerable servers without entering a username or password, potentially giving them control over affected systems.
The PHP Foundation released emergency security updates on Wednesday to fix two critical remote code execution vulnerabilities, while some government agencies overseas have temporarily taken websites offline as a precaution against potential attacks.
South Korea raised its cybersecurity alert for the private sector from "Interest" to "Caution" on Thursday in response to the threat.
The country's four-tier cybersecurity alert system for the private sector ranges from "Interest" and "Caution" to "Alert" and "Severe." Under the "Caution" level, authorities activate emergency response measures, including deploying additional personnel to handle cyber incidents and placing rapid-response teams on standby around the clock.
Cheong Wa Dae explained that Korean government agencies and the military face relatively limited exposure because PHP is less widely used in their systems.
The National Security Office said it would continue monitoring the implementation of security measures with relevant agencies and consider additional steps as the situation develops.
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com