Iran says seven ships hit near Hormuz as US and Israel reportedly plan post-midterm strikesAramco evacuates headquarters and US pulls diplomats as Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia intensifyRussia strikes Kyiv after Witkoff-Putin talks as Ukrainian drones target MoscowEbola reaches Nigeria as WHO warns of a more complex outbreakOil climbs to five-month high as global stocks fallMillions of exploit attempts follow AI-found PHP flaws as sites return onlineFrench risk premium hits euro-crisis levels as borrowing costs pass USDeath toll passes 150 after drone strike on Abyei marketTrilateral Ukraine talks eyed for November as Witkoff's Putin remark angers alliesMagnitude 7 earthquake kills at least 16 in northern TibetFrance bans non-union protests ahead of Saturday demonstrationsLula accepts Bolsonaro's terms for record disclosure before Brazil run-offAI debt worries weigh on markets as Meta credit risk hits recordTaiwan and China prepare as Super Typhoon Champi approachesIsrael's race stays tight as Netanyahu courts right-wing votersExperts expect Meta to fight $25bn New Mexico penalty on appealIsrael frees nine settler suspects to house arrest as UN calls West Bank violence out of controlSerbia's student list rallies in Belgrade as campaign closes before Sunday's voteNorth Korea to restart border propaganda broadcasts as tensions riseDeepSeek reportedly raises $15bn as TSMC seeks rare-earth workaroundsGermany arrests Ukrainian man suspected of spying for RussiaItalian truckers ease fuel-price protests as government lines up aidTrump asked Musk to lift Starlink limits in Ukraine, as Rubio says access is Musk's callTesla profit falls as analysts debate SpaceX mergerProtests in Indonesia demand action as haze blankets Southeast AsiaAnkara rejects Greek and EU criticism of Libya maritime dealAfghanistan-Pakistan conflict turns to proxy groups after eight monthsICC wins EU Sakharov Prize while under US sanctionsIndonesia moves to shore up markets ahead of MSCI index changeRetail investors fully subscribe Jio Platforms IPOQatar, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia sign defence industry pactNestlé removes Russian business from accounts after Kremlin takeoverAlbanian lawmakers scuffle in parliament as street protests continueNATO agency to let Ukraine buy weapons through its procurement systemAung San Suu Kyi speaks to son for first time in over five yearsIsraeli fire kills four in Gaza as hospitals face fuel and medicine shortagesBarclays to cut 5,000 jobs as it steps up AI adoptionIran says seven ships hit near Hormuz as US and Israel reportedly plan post-midterm strikesAramco evacuates headquarters and US pulls diplomats as Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia intensifyRussia strikes Kyiv after Witkoff-Putin talks as Ukrainian drones target MoscowEbola reaches Nigeria as WHO warns of a more complex outbreakOil climbs to five-month high as global stocks fallMillions of exploit attempts follow AI-found PHP flaws as sites return onlineFrench risk premium hits euro-crisis levels as borrowing costs pass USDeath toll passes 150 after drone strike on Abyei marketTrilateral Ukraine talks eyed for November as Witkoff's Putin remark angers alliesMagnitude 7 earthquake kills at least 16 in northern TibetFrance bans non-union protests ahead of Saturday demonstrationsLula accepts Bolsonaro's terms for record disclosure before Brazil run-offAI debt worries weigh on markets as Meta credit risk hits recordTaiwan and China prepare as Super Typhoon Champi approachesIsrael's race stays tight as Netanyahu courts right-wing votersExperts expect Meta to fight $25bn New Mexico penalty on appealIsrael frees nine settler suspects to house arrest as UN calls West Bank violence out of controlSerbia's student list rallies in Belgrade as campaign closes before Sunday's voteNorth Korea to restart border propaganda broadcasts as tensions riseDeepSeek reportedly raises $15bn as TSMC seeks rare-earth workaroundsGermany arrests Ukrainian man suspected of spying for RussiaItalian truckers ease fuel-price protests as government lines up aidTrump asked Musk to lift Starlink limits in Ukraine, as Rubio says access is Musk's callTesla profit falls as analysts debate SpaceX mergerProtests in Indonesia demand action as haze blankets Southeast AsiaAnkara rejects Greek and EU criticism of Libya maritime dealAfghanistan-Pakistan conflict turns to proxy groups after eight monthsICC wins EU Sakharov Prize while under US sanctionsIndonesia moves to shore up markets ahead of MSCI index changeRetail investors fully subscribe Jio Platforms IPOQatar, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia sign defence industry pactNestlé removes Russian business from accounts after Kremlin takeoverAlbanian lawmakers scuffle in parliament as street protests continueNATO agency to let Ukraine buy weapons through its procurement systemAung San Suu Kyi speaks to son for first time in over five yearsIsraeli fire kills four in Gaza as hospitals face fuel and medicine shortagesBarclays to cut 5,000 jobs as it steps up AI adoption
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Symbolic image: Millions of exploit attempts follow AI-found PHP flaws as sites return onlineSymbolic image

Millions of exploit attempts follow AI-found PHP flaws as sites return online

15 sources

Two critical PHP flaws found with AI tools forced agencies and firms to pull websites offline on Wednesday. Cloudflare reports millions of exploit attempts, while many sites are back.

The flaws, tracked as CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619 and dubbed "PHP2Shell", let attackers run code on a server without logging in; the PHP security team rates both 9.2 out of 10. PHP's developers released a fix on Wednesday, 21 October, after Germany's BSI and the US NSA urged operators to patch or go offline. Cloudflare chief Matthew Prince told Sky News of a few thousand attempts in the ten hours before the announcement, hundreds of thousands two hours after it, and millions since. Many sites are back online after patching.

Banks and airlines hit in Japan

Nikkei reports that Sega, All Nippon Airways and MUFG Bank suspended websites or parts of their online services by Thursday.

AI chained known weaknesses

Handelsblatt reports the flaws were long known but rated non-critical, and AI let researchers chain them into an attack path. Citing the Wall Street Journal, FAZ says a researcher found them with an OpenAI model.

German fallout

Volkswagen briefly took a dealer portal offline, according to an internal email seen by Handelsblatt. Marc Henrichmann, chair of the Bundestag's intelligence oversight panel, called the episode a "turning point".

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