Conflict & Security
AI-assisted discovery exposes 22-year-old PHP flaw, triggering global security scramble
October 23, 2026 at 12:28 PM
AI researchers uncovered critical flaws in PHP, the language powering nearly 70 percent of the web, prompting a global emergency patching effort this week.
- AI security firm Calif, with OpenAI's Patch the Planet initiative, and Google-backed Wiz discovered PHP exploits, publicly disclosed Wednesday alongside the fix.
- The PHP Foundation released a software patch Wednesday, and national cyber-security authorities urged IT teams to apply it urgently or take websites offline.
- Cloudflare reported thousands of exploits in the hours before the patch after a pre-announcement leak, while no large-scale data breaches have been confirmed.
- Microsoft chief Satya Nadella said he had not seen anything like the PHP emergency "in a long, long time."