Government agencies and businesses worldwide temporarily shut down websites on Wednesday after two critical security vulnerabilities were discovered in PHP, a programming language.
According to media reports, the US National Security Agency urged organisations to install security patches or take vulnerable systems offline, warning that the flaws could allow attackers to access server files and databases and potentially take control of web servers without authentication.
The PHP development community released fixes on Wednesday, urging users to update their systems promptly. The vulnerabilities were independently reported in August by cybersecurity firm Calif and OpenAI, with Google-owned Wiz later identifying additional exploitation methods.
However, details of the flaws leaked online on Tuesday, prompting precautionary shutdowns before the patches were released.
In France, local government websites, including the Paris Police Prefecture, were taken offline. The Netherlands suspended access to its DigiD digital identity service and several government websites, while Belgium’s foreign ministry also temporarily shut down its websites.
The incident comes amid a growing number of software security disclosures, with vulnerabilities identified in 2026 projected to approach twice last year’s record total.
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