Open Source · OpenAI · Cloudflare · Japan · Axios
AI uncovers large flaw in web's foundational code
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Security officials are sounding the alarm over two critical vulnerabilities in a programming language used to run millions of websites, marking one of the most consequential cybersecurity discoveries yet made with AI.
Key facts
- What they're saying: Matthew Prince, the CEO of Cloudflare, a global connectivity and internet security company, said the company saw thousands of attempts to exploit the flaws in the 10 hours
- What's happening: There are two problems hackers could easily exploit in an open-source programming language known as PHP that's used on nearly 70% of all websites
- Security researchers have been skeptical of AI-generated vulnerability reports, many of which have turned out to be minor bugs or false alarms
- Threat level: If exploited, the PHP flaws would allow malicious hackers to take control of vulnerable web servers without needing a password or other credentials
Summary
The bugs, which researchers found partly with an OpenAI model, proves AI can uncover critical flaws humans missed for decades, raising the stakes for defenders racing to fix vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them at machine speed. What they're saying: Matthew Prince, the CEO of Cloudflare, a global connectivity and internet security company, said the company saw thousands of attempts to exploit the flaws in the 10 hours before it was publicly announced. "That jumped to tens of thousands in the 45 minutes post announcement, hundreds of thousands within 2 hours, and millions now," he wrote on X. What's happening: There are two problems hackers could easily exploit in an open-source programming language known as PHP that's used on nearly 70% of all websites.