Governments and firms scramble to patch critical PHP2Shell flaws as sites face shutdowns

Two critical vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language, dubbed PHP2Shell, were uncovered with AI assistance and affect a large share of web sites. The PHP Foundation released patches for PHP 8, while many operators still run older versions that may not receive updates. In India, the national cyber‑security body Cert‑In has convened meetings with state IT departments to speed remediation of thousands of government portals, and elsewhere governments and corporations have temporarily disabled online functions as a precaution. The flaw was disclosed prematurely, prompting a rapid race among security agencies worldwide, and investigators have noted millions of attempted exploit attempts but no successful breaches have been reported.