The Man Who Saved the Internet Yesterday
On Tuesday, the world found out about two massive security vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language that is used by roughly 70 percent of websites. The flaw was discovered by cybersecurity researchers using a frontier model from OpenAI. If they exploited it, attackers could gain full control of servers, stealing or copying anything inside or simply taking sites offline.
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Yeah... this appears to have been overblown.
I mean, the national cybersecurity council here saw exploits happening in the wild. So it's definitely possible and practical enough for it to happen.
Hi, can you please provide some sources for this? I can't seems to find anything official. Thanks
https://nltimes.nl/2026/10/23/dutch-cybersecurity-center-investigating-first-signs-hackers-abused-php-issues
Official source this is based on is https://www.ncsc.nl/en/alerts/update-php-vulnerabilities-remain-a-reason-for-immediate-patching, which mentions they're investigating signs of exploits and that they have at least one confirmed exploit that happened abroad.
It's still a complex exploit, mind, but not an unusable one.
more references to exploits in the wild.
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/amazon-threat-intelligence-identifies-php2shell-exploitation-prior-to-public-disclosure-in-madpot/
It'd be far better for the internet to eliminate any remaining vestiges of PHP.
"But the reason it was not crazy for me was that I actually donβt have any system running PHP myself." - OndΕej SurΓ½
Has a bit of the same vibes as our tech overlords forbidding their children from using their products.
You know, except that OndΕe does this stuff for all of us and we get to use it for free.
Is it just a matter of time until the internet goes offline?
Well yes, obviously, the heat death of the universe will happen eventually.
In the near future for us? Probably not, too much relies on it.
When exactly? I don't know, and anyone who does is not telling.
Username relevant.
Yes, and experts have been saying that for a few years. It's so large an attack area that sooner or later a bad actor may succeed.
The counter argument is that it is also very compartmentalized and surprisingly nimble. Even with major physical infrastructure being destroyed by Iran, Ukraine, Russia, China, etc., the internet itself is basically fine.
As long as there's two computers and a single twisted pair left, you've technically still got an internet
Internet is dead and after this AI shit ramps up to full speed, even the dead remains will become useless.
What a very relaxed and laid back guy Mr. Sury is! And his statements are fundamentally informative.
I'm glad he's running the internet.
Just seems likely with AI and terrorist groups. If it's not hacked then couldn't the internet cables in the ocean just be destroyed?
Russia is working on it. If thatβs not what you want, help Ukraine as much as you can.