Technology

PHP Security Flaw Sets Off Global Rush to Patch, Leaving Websites Offline

NYTimes Technology • Thu, 22 Oct 2026

Governments and businesses in Kenya, the Netherlands and elsewhere were scrambling to prevent hackers from exploiting a vulnerability in PHP, a widely used programming language.

What happened?

Governments and businesses in Kenya, the Netherlands and elsewhere were scrambling to prevent hackers from exploiting a vulnerability in PHP, a widely used programming language.

Story details

Governments and businesses in Kenya, the Netherlands and elsewhere were scrambling to prevent hackers from exploiting a vulnerability in PHP, a widely used programming language.

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This story helps build a stronger internal English tech archive around Technology, giving search visitors more reasons to keep browsing the site instead of bouncing after a single headline.

Original source

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/22/world/php-vulnerability-websites-cybersecurity-ai.html

Two vulnerabilities found in the programming language PHP put enormous swaths of the internet in danger. By some accounts, up to 70 percent of websites use PHP in some capacity. It powers Wikipedia, WordPress, Drupal, and a host of other popular sites and platforms, including DeviantArt and 4Chan, which were temporarily shut down after the […]

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