An AI-assisted discovery of vulnerabilities in a widely used programming language led governments and other organizations in Europe and the U.S. to take their websites offline temporarily Wednesday as they scrambled to make security updates.

PHP is an open-source, server-side scripting language widely used to build dynamic websites and web applications. It helps websites process user requests, communicate with databases, manage logins and display content that changes according to user activity.

As a casual internet user, you might be wondering what exactly the barrage of jargon like “RCE via OOM corruption” means, how concerned you should be, and how exactly a vulnerability this severe flew under the radar for so long.

The vulnerabilities, rated CVSS 9.2 in severity, affect core PHP functionality and could allow remote code execution; immediate patching is 'imperative'.

Several government, school and hospital websites in Europe were taken offline on Wednesday as organizations rushed to protect themselves from two critical security flaws in PHP, a programming language that powers ​a large share of the internet.

Two critical remote code execution (RCE) flaws dubbed "PHP2Shell" have hit the core PHP programming language, triggering emergency warnings from global cybersecurity agencies.

A serious security flaw in the widely used internet programming language PHP has shaken the foundations of countless websites and online services worldwide. Security experts warned of two critical vulnerabilities in the core of the programming language,

By Leo Marchandon Oct 21 (Reuters) - Government websites across Europe went dark on Wednesday as operators raced to patch two critical vulnerabilities in PHP, one of the most widely used programming languages on the web.