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\"\" — “The Fall of the Rebel Angels” by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1562 (oil on oak wood, modified)

What happened yesterday shocked the internet, and many fear this could become our new daily reality as AI models get more advanced.

Two major PHP security vulnerabilities were leaked, leaving millions of websites, roughly 70% of the internet exposed as attackers could exploit them before website owners had time to fix them.

PHP is a programming language behind platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Wikipedia, and millions of other websites.

The vulnerabilities leaked online, if not fixed in time, could let hackers take control of affected website servers without a password, potentially stealing sensitive information, disrupting services, or compromising entire websites.

But how exactly did that happen, why is AI behind it, and why could that become a weekly or daily occurrence?

Over the past two months, researchers from Calif (working with OpenAI) and Google-owned Wiz independently used advanced AI models, including GPT-5.6 Sol and Gemini 4 Argon, to uncover criticalPHP vulnerabilitiesand demonstrate how they could be exploited.

According to the PHP Foundation, developers had already identified signs of one of the underlying problems in 2024. However, they did not fix the problem for various reasons, including disagreements, technical challenges, and a lack of resources.

The problem was that details about the uncovered vulnerabilities leaked online this week. The PHP platform was forced to rush its announcement of the security flaws.

One infrastructure provider also released software containing the fixes ahead of the agreed schedule, potentially allowing attackers to examine them before other organizations could update their systems.

If the details about critical vulnerabilities are out and websites do not have time to implement fixes, they become exposed to attackers who can use AI to find the best ways to exploit these vulnerabilities.

The threat, in this case, was so serious that government, school, and hospital websites were temporarily taken offline as a precaution.

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) issued anurgent warning, recommending that organizations immediately install security updates or take affected systems offline until they could be secured.

The PHP Foundationacknowledgedthat its delay in finding, fixing, and sharing information about this vulnerability representeda structural failure in its security processes.

Many have not realized it yet, but this is the new cybersecurity ‘game’ going on:

On the one hand, AI is helping researchers and practitioners uncover and demonstrate serious cybersecurity risks that could have remained unresolved for much longer.

On the other hand, similar AI capabilities could help malicious actors discover and exploit these and many other vulnerabilities much more effectively too.

It is AI vs. AI.

Meanwhile, we humans, and our imperfect institutions, systems, platforms, and governance frameworks, remain exposed in the middle of the AI crossfire, trying to catch up with the speed of the AI cyber fight.

Another detail of this case deserves special attention:

Researchers relied on leading U.S. AI models to give cybersecurity defenders a head start. But this will become increasingly difficult.

According to a recent U.S. governmentassessment, Chinese AI company Z.ai’s GLM-5.3 model is only four months behind leading U.S. models in cybersecurity capabilities. Unlike some of the most advanced U.S. models, which have restricted access, the Chinese model is openly available.

Today, malicious actors can already rely on AI to find and exploit online vulnerabilities at scale, which would enable them to hack into, access, and control protected databases, documents, personal data, networks, grids, and more.

Unless cyber defense capabilities improve at scale and at a pace similar to that of cyberattack capabilities, there could soon be a situation in which users, website owners, governments, and institutions, including schools, hospitals, power grids, and other systems relying on internet connectivity, will be left scrambling to find solutions while people suffer the direct consequences of the hacks and unauthorized access.

As I write this edition of the newsletter, anothercyber incidenthas been reported: U.S. banks have discovered unauthorized third-party AI agents inside customer accounts. Some are attempting actions that appear independent of user instructions.

This situation was, of course, predictable.

Every single report on AI risk has warned that we might arrive at this point in which AI might fuel cyberattacks and make them much more difficult to control.

We have no choice but to address it and plan for the future.

The most important lessons from the PHP incident, and from cyber incidents we will likely experience in the coming weeks, go far beyond cybersecurity, and professionals across fields and industries should be aware of them:

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The PHP crisis has become one of the biggest internet security scares of the year, and I think everyone who builds, owns, or uses AI-powered websites should be paying attention.

A dangerous weakness that had been hiding in website software for more than a decade is now being tested by hackers across the internet. Cloudflare has seen millions of attack attempts. Governments have taken websites offline. Even some well-protected services have had to act quickly.

And the really frightening part? You could have a perfectly normal-looking website, with everything working as usual, and still have no idea that the software behind it needs an urgent security update.

I wouldn’t panic. But I certainly wouldn’t ignore this.

There are already ways to protect yourself, and some of the newest AI security tools can make the job surprisingly easy.

AI Found Something the Internet Had Missed for 14 Years

PHP is the software running behind millions of websites, including many built with WordPress. It helps websites handle payments, accounts, private information, and other important functions.

Researchers found two serious security holes inside PHP itself. Both were rated 9.2 out of 10 for severity.

Under certain conditions, hackers could use them to run harmful code on a website’s server without even logging in. Your website could be at risk despite having strong passwords and carefully written code.

What makes this story unusual is how the flaws were discovered. Researchers used powerful AI models, including OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol, to help uncover problems that had gone unnoticed for years.

The same AI technology can help attackers look for weaknesses faster, too. That is why the response has been so urgent.

There’s an important difference between an attempted attack and a successful breach. Millions of attempts have been observed, but those numbers don’t mean millions of websites were hacked.

The immediate priority is finding out what’s exposed and fixing it before someone gets in.

Inside the full guide, I will tell you how to check your own website, use OpenAI and Cloudflare’s security tools, protect AI agents and connected accounts, and set up simple safeguards that keep working after this crisis.

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AI-Discovered PHP Vulnerabilities Expose Millions of Websites

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