Governments race to patch flaws in PHP, a programming language used to run websites

Asian governments are racing to patch critical security flaws in PHP, a programming language widely used by websites. Hacking attempts have surged since details of the vulnerabilities were leaked online on Tuesday, a day before developers were due to release security fixes. China has urged organisations to immediately inspect their systems and install the latest secure version of PHP. Japan has called for websites to be taken offline if security fixes cannot be installed in time. The vulnerabilities date back years, with researchers identifying a potential flaw in 2024. Just as AI was deployed to uncover the weakness, OpenAI has warned that the same technology can be used to exploit the same vulnerability.