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70% Of The Internet Is At Risk Of Being Hacked
Buggin’ out // Illustration by Kate Walker
Using AI, security researchers discovered a major bug in the software powering about 70% of websites… and rushed to patch it before hackers could exploit it.
Why It Hurts: The power of AI is reshaping cybersecurity — companies can now discover issues that were previously too complex to detect, while hackers can exploit those same vulnerabilities. As the tech’s capabilities multiply, companies, organizations, and governments will need to work overtime to fix vulnerabilities before a catastrophic hack strikes.
Behind The Code: Yesterday, cybersecurity teams worked around the clock to prevent the internet from being destroyed, according to WSJ.
PHP, the code that undergirds most websites, was found to have a critical vulnerability that could let hackers “take control of any system running its software” in a matter of seconds to hours, depending on the system’s complexity.
Dubbed “PHP2Shell,” the bug could allow bad actors to steal personal information or hack anyone using an affected website.
An informal team of security researchers and software engineers worked together to quietly fix the issue before hackers caught wind of it. They developed a patch scheduled to roll out today.
But hackers discovered the vulnerability, forcing the team to release the patch early and warn the world to update their sites immediately.
Hundreds of major websites, including government sites and major media companies, went dark yesterday to upgrade their systems.
Final Patch: PHP2Shell — which Wiz co-founder Ami Luttwak called “the most severe AI vulnerability that was ever found” — was first discovered by Ryan Austin, a researcher at security company Calif, using OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol during an OpenAI-funded audit of PHP’s source code. Fascinatingly, the flaw was flagged by a researcher decades ago, but was considered “too difficult to exploit and was largely forgotten.”
It just goes to show how quickly the cybersecurity landscape (and the world as a whole) is shifting. The unfortunate truth is that the internet is hardly ready for the future.
The Future: Quantum computing is poised to make current cybersecurity protocols obsolete, so maybe Congress will consider pumping the brakes on that tech before the world can even handle AI-powered hacks.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.