Government websites across Europe went dark on Wednesday as operators raced to patch two critical vulnerabilities in PHP, one of the most widely used programming languages on the web. The developers of PHP announced they would release patches for two critical vulnerabilities, prompting EU cybersecurity officials to warn organizations unable to apply the fixes to take affected websites offline.
What is PHP? PHP is a programming language that runs websites behind the scenes. When a user loads a page, the server running PHP assembles the content and sends the finished page to the browser. It is free, open source, and maintained by volunteers, meaning site owners rarely interact with it directly.
According to web technology tracker W3Techs, PHP runs nearly 70 percent of all websites whose programming language can be identified. It serves as the core engine behind WordPress, the software that powers about 40 percent of all websites globally, including blogs, small business pages, government portals, e-commerce shops, and major news outlets.
Regarding the risks, the two newly discovered vulnerabilities are rated 9.2 out of 10 on the CVSS v4.0 severity scale, a standard industry scoring system. CERT-EU, the European Union's cybersecurity response team, stated that such a high rating signals severe potential risks, leaving administrators worldwide scrambling to secure their digital infrastructure.
