PHP Armageddon: OpenAI, Google's Wiz find ancient holes, panicking the internet

Two critical vulnerabilities were discovered in PHP, a language powering roughly 70% of websites or over 33 million sites, including WordPress-based properties. The flaws date back to PHP version 5 released in 2004 and exist across all subsequent versions. OpenAI's "Patch the Planet" initiative using GPT-5.6 Sol and Google's Wiz team using multiple AI tools independently identified the vulnerabilities before malicious actors did, with patches now issued by the PHP Foundation. The NSA has issued an urgent warning recommending immediate upgrade to PHP 8.5.12 or taking affected sites offline if patching cannot happen quickly. Notably, AI both enabled discovery of these previously overlooked flaws and simultaneously lowers the barrier for hackers to exploit them, creating a race to patch tens of millions of sites before attacks occur.