Major websites worldwide go offline over critical PHP security flaws
The vulnerabilities, collectively known as PHP2Shell, could allow attackers to remotely execute malicious code on vulnerable servers without authentication, potentially exposing website databases, stored information and other systems.
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According to reports, the October 21 shutdowns affected government agencies, major corporations, financial institutions and public services as organizations rushed to install emergency security updates.
Among the prominent websites and services affected were the BBC in the United Kingdom, the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Nomura, All Nippon Airways (ANA), and government websites across Europe.
The Internet Archive, a major digital library, also temporarily shut down its website for emergency maintenance, while the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, suspended several supporting systems as a precaution.
In Japan, the Ministry of Finance, Meteorological Agency and National Tax Agency temporarily suspended some online services. French telecommunications giant Orange also restricted access to several websites and applications.
The Netherlands experienced widespread disruptions involving its national government portal Overheid.nl, National Cyber Security Centre, national football association KNVB and several hospital websites.
Belgium’s Foreign Ministry, Finland’s government web services, the Czech government website and several government portals in Germany and France were also temporarily taken offline.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which helps coordinate the global internet’s domain name system, temporarily disabled three administrative websites. ICANN confirmed on October 22 that the sites had been restored after security patches were installed.
The vulnerabilities, collectively known as PHP2Shell, could allow attackers to remotely execute malicious code on vulnerable servers without authentication, potentially exposing website databases, stored information and other systems.
PHP is widely used by content management platforms such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. The vulnerabilities were discovered with the assistance of artificial intelligence, raising fresh concerns about the security of software infrastructure supporting much of the internet.
The PHP development team released emergency updates on October 21, while cybersecurity agencies urged website operators to immediately patch vulnerable systems or temporarily take them offline until security measures are implemented.
Most of the reported shutdowns were precautionary and did not necessarily indicate that the affected websites had been hacked.
Key points
- The vulnerabilities, collectively known as PHP2Shell, could allow attackers to remotely execute malicious code on vulnerable servers without authentication, potentially exposing website databases, stored information and other systems.