Artificial intelligence helped to discover critical vulnerabilities in cybersecurity, which forced governments and some of the world's largest companies, including Amazon, to take urgent action to protect their systems. This was reported by the BBC, reports News.bg.
The flaws affect PHP - a programming language on which a huge number of websites are built. According to estimates by cybersecurity company Wiz, the vulnerabilities could affect about 70% of the internet.
The weaknesses were discovered by researchers from cybersecurity companies Calif and Wiz. Experts say they could allow attackers to take control of web servers and access sensitive information.
Alan Woodward, a professor at the Surrey Cybersecurity Centre, said the vulnerabilities allow malicious actors to “inject their own code into the web server“ and “do virtually anything they want“.
This could include stealing personal data, infiltrating other parts of the network or creating a “backdoor“ that could allow re-access to the system at a later stage. Woodward said the number of potentially affected websites was around 30 million.
As a precautionary measure, several European countries have temporarily suspended certain public web services, and Wikipedia has restricted access to parts of its site. The measures are in line with recommendations from a number of governments, including the US, that websites should be shut down if vulnerabilities cannot be fixed immediately.
Wiz, whose researchers were involved in discovering the flaws, described the vulnerabilities as the “most serious” ever detected using artificial intelligence. OpenAI, whose technology was used in the discovery, described the case as “one of the most significant security issues in recent memory”.
The UK government said it was working to identify potential security risks.
What is PHP and why are the vulnerabilities so serious
PHP is used by a range of online platforms, including online stores, Wikipedia and WordPress — a content management system that powers many websites, including blogs.
Paul Spain, CEO of Gorilla Cyber Security, explained that when a user opens a site like Wikipedia, PHP processes the code that gathers the necessary information and presents it in a form that is easy to read on the Internet.
However, the vulnerabilities discovered could allow attackers to take control of affected web servers without the need for authentication and steal confidential data. This puts various services and platforms built using PHP at risk.
Spain warned that artificial intelligence could make such attacks easier and faster. He predicted that the vulnerability could affect “millions and millions“ websites.
AI speeds up software flaw detection
The researchers used advanced artificial intelligence tools that can analyze code and find flaws significantly faster than humans or older systems.
“Modern software is incredibly complex, and some vulnerabilities can go undetected for years,“ said Salil Kanhere, a cybersecurity researcher at UNSW Sydney.
“The bugs themselves weren't new; what changed was our ability to detect them,“ he added.
Details of the discovery were leaked online this week. This forced PHP developers to urgently announce the existence of the security breach and the scale of the problem.
In a blog post, OpenAI noted that the incident “shows how artificial intelligence can uncover security flaws“, but also how it can “help attackers quickly create attack tools and exploits“.
Authorities call for immediate action
A British government spokesman urged all organizations - both private and public, regardless of size - to follow guidance to protect their systems.
The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), as well as relevant authorities in the European Union and Australia, have already urged PHP users to implement the necessary fixes.
“In cases where immediate remediation is not possible, organizations should "are considering disconnecting the system from the network until the risk is fully neutralized," the NCSC said.
The warnings highlight the need for rapid action to mitigate the risk while developers and organizations work to patch the vulnerabilities.