Websites Across US and Europe Go Dark Amidst Cybersecurity Concerns
Major online platforms experienced disruptions as a race to patch critical software vulnerabilities ensued.
Major websites in Europe and the United States were temporarily taken offline Wednesday due to newly identified software vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to gain control of servers. The vulnerabilities, known as “PHP2Shell,” target PHP, a widely used open-source programming language that powers a significant portion of the internet, including popular content management systems like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. Cybersecurity firm Cloudflare estimates that nearly 70% of all websites utilize PHP.
In the United States, the internet forum Something Awful temporarily suspended its message boards. The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, disabled some of its supporting services as a precautionary measure. Across Europe, government websites in Germany, France, Belgium, Finland, and the Netherlands were also taken offline. In the Netherlands, affected entities included hospitals, political organizations, and the Port of Rotterdam.
Cloudflare has reported detecting attacks exploiting these flaws, although the extent of successful breaches remains unconfirmed. Researchers at the cybersecurity firm Wiz demonstrated that the vulnerabilities could enable attackers to take control of servers without needing prior login credentials. These flaws have been assigned critical severity ratings of 9.2 out of 10.
Developers of PHP released emergency security patches on Wednesday, cautioning that these temporary fixes might not offer complete protection for all vulnerable systems. The PHP Foundation acknowledged that indicators of one of the underlying issues were noted during a security audit in 2024 but had not been resolved due to technical challenges and limited resources.