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IT teams race to patch PHP after critical flaws spark global scramble
BBC: admins spent 48 hours patching two critical PHP flaws after agencies urged urgent updates; Nadella called the emergency unusual. Some experts say exploit rumors outran evidence; no large-scale breaches confirmed.
- New headline Was: “'It's been relentless': IT workers scramble to fix PHP flaw described as worst crisis in years”
- Our desk filed its story
IT administrators spent the past two days rushing to patch two critical flaws in PHP, the programming language that powers millions of websites, the BBC reported Friday, citing national cyber agencies that urged teams to apply a fix or take systems offline1.
Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella told a conference he had not seen an emergency like the PHP response in a long time and that it had been a long day and night for IT and security staff, according to the BBC1.
UK system administrator Adam Mudd told the BBC the work had been relentless, with clients asking that sites be taken down as a precaution while he coordinated updates across different setups1. He said taking a site offline sometimes took longer than applying the PHP fix, and that he had been working until 22:30 BST1.
In Mauritius, administrator Loganaden Velvindron said many running PHP versions were end-of-life, forcing teams to rebuild web apps and change code, and that the disclosure left little time to prepare1. Jon Jones, a digital advertising technical director, said the PHP Foundation's patch dropped at 15:00 BST Wednesday and that applying updates carried a risk of other breakage1.
The BBC said details of the flaws leaked early and rumors spread that criminals already had working attack methods1. UK cyber specialist Daniel Card said teams were flooded with poor intelligence about proof-of-concept exploits; he said the bugs were serious on paper but that claims of hackers already on the loose had outrun the facts1.
One security firm issued then retracted a warning that attackers had a working proof of concept, the BBC said1. Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services warned of millions of hacking attempts an hour, but the BBC reported no evidence of large-scale data breaches1. The report said researchers had seen AI used to try to build attack methods, none of which appeared to work at scale yet, and that AI also helped find the PHP flaws after they had gone unnoticed for years1.
Wordfence founder Mark Maunder said more serious bugs will surface as OpenAI and Anthropic tools improve, and that messaging needs to be calibrated to avoid alert fatigue if a fully exploitable flaw appears1. Whether large-scale exploitation follows remains unknown1.