ProbablyHaveProblems

php vulnerability

If your Google searches feel slow today, it might be because an overworked web developer is hogging all the bandwidth searching for today’s third-most popular query: php vulnerability. And he’s sweating bullets, frantically trying to protect your data.

Multiple cybersecurity companies independently found a vulnerability in the web’s most popular programming language, PHP. The issue was in how PHP handled fatal errors while processing HTTP requests, specifically out-of-memory errors.

This is a problem because roughly 75% of the web runs on php. The exploit allowed attackers to run code remotely without authentication on Drupal, Joomla, and worst of all, WordPress (this blog is built with WordPress, good thing I don’t keep your data huh!). This vulnerability had been there more than a decade, and likely would not have been discovered without the help of AI. PHP released a patch today, so there are lots of scared engineers Googling the fix.

This incident is a great case study in why we should use AI, be thankful for it, and fear it all at the same time. Although the bug was found by AI, it also is being exploited by attackers using AI against websites that don’t have the resources or staff to update quickly.

Just remember, kids, the internet isn’t forever and everything you read is true!