Erro descoberto pela IA coloca parte da internet mundial em risco de ciberataque
Sites de governos, hospitais e escolas já foram colocados offline para que os especialistas possam atualizar os sistemas de segurança. Primeiros ataques informáticos já foram registados, levando a divisão de cibersegurança da UE e FBI a lançarem alertas.
O erro foi descoberto pela inteligência artificial e já levou a entidade de cibersegurança da União Europeia, a NSA e o FBI a reagirem.
Segundo a Reuters, o CERT-EU, a equipa de resposta à cibersegurança da UE sugeriu às organizações e entidades que coloquem os sites “offline” caso não consigam corrigir as questões de segurança a tempo.
Os programadores do PHP afirmaram que um conjunto de novas atualizações que corrigem duas vulnerabilidades críticas previamente identificadas já se encontrava disponível e encorajaram todos os utilizadores a aplicá-las imediatamente.
Os governos dos Países Baixos, Finlândia, Alemanha, Bélgica e França foram alguns que seguiram estas recomendações, interrompendo o tráfego dos sites governamentais. No Reino Unido, sites do governo escocês e da BBC também foram afetados.
Nos EUA, a OpenAI, proprietária do Chat-GPT, considera que o erro descoberto por modelos de inteligência artificial “é uma das vulnerabilidades com maior impacto dos últimos tempos".
OpenAI models helped researchers—operating as part of our Patch the Planet initiative—discover critical security flaws in PHP, an open-source programming language used to run an estimated 70% of websites.
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) October 21, 2026
Over the past two months, we led a coalition of maintainers, researchers, and security providers to prepare fixes and protections ahead of disclosure. This duration was necessary because the fix was quite intricate and required a major change to the PHP engine. Every site using PHP can now safely upgrade their version to stay secure, in addition to applying mitigations from various security vendors.
Due to the severity of these flaws and PHP’s widespread use, we consider this bug to be one of the most impactful vulnerabilities in recent memory. It also marks a new phase, where AI can find security bugs with internet-scale impact.
This is an example of the Defender’s Window in action: to our knowledge, frontier AI was able to find this vulnerability ahead of attackers, giving defenders time to prepare.
https://t.co/TW3jrSbB3f
A Cloudflare, uma das gigantes tecnológicas de infraestrutura e segurança online, refere que já começou a registar os primeiros ataques informáticos que exploram a vulnerabilidade exposta pelo erro de PHP.
Cloudflare has deployed default web application firewall (WAF) protections for newly disclosed PHP vulnerabilities before public disclosure. The rules use request and response signals to stop exploit attempts and prevent exposed data from reaching attackers. https://t.co/OQG4x6x858
— Cloudflare (@Cloudflare) October 21, 2026
Two critical vulnerabilities have been identified in PHP, a widely used programming language that powers websites and web applications. These vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619) could allow malicious cyber actors to remotely execute code in PHP core, potentially compromising sensitive data and networks.
— FBI Cyber Division (@FBICyberDiv) October 21, 2026
The FBI urges organizations to take the following steps now:
➡️ If an immediate update is not feasible it is recommended that organizations take the system offline until it can be fully mitigated.
➡️ Immediately update affected PHP installations following the guidance on https://t.co/rDrPSxB3zX. Inventory where PHP runs in your environment, prioritizing internet-facing systems and vendor products that bundle PHP.
➡️ Monitor web servers for suspicious activity, including PHP processes unexpectedly launching command shells or downloading files. Ensure appropriate process-monitoring capabilities are in place to help identify potential exploitation.
➡️ If you find signs of compromise, isolate affected systems, preserve your web server and PHP logs, and report it to your local FBI field office or https://t.co/iqgVZIbCru. Those reports help us identify the actors involved and warn other organizations before they become victims.
For the latest information, follow PHP’s announcement on https://t.co/rDrPSxB3zX, CERT-EU Security Advisory 2026-018, and CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Effective Immediately, all organizations using PHP for their systems are advised to be prepared for an update addressing two critical vulnerabilities. PHP is widely used for web applications. These vulnerabilities often provide a direct path to the server's file system or database. If an immediate update is not feasible, it is recommend that organizations take the system offline until it can be fully mitigated. NSA will follow up shortly with more specific guidance.
— NSA Cyber (@NSACyber) October 21, 2026
