Government websites and online services across Europe and Asia were taken offline as a precaution after critical vulnerabilities were discovered in PHP, a programming language used by a large share of the internet.

Axar.az reports, citing Reuters, that developers released urgent security patches on Wednesday, October 21, urging users to update immediately. Cybersecurity agencies warned that hackers could exploit the vulnerabilities, with some technology companies reporting signs of active exploitation.

The vulnerabilities were discovered by cybersecurity company Wiz using artificial intelligence tools, including its own research system and models from Google and OpenAI. According to Wiz, the flaws had remained hidden in PHP’s codebase for more than a decade.

The disruptions affected several countries. The Netherlands’ National Cyber Security Centre and multiple public-facing services went offline, while Denmark suspended some services, including its national school communication platform. France’s Interior Ministry placed its websites into preventive maintenance, and Finland took government public network services offline as a precaution.

PHP underpins many widely used platforms, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and Magento. Experts warned that the scale of its use could leave large numbers of websites exposed until operators install the security updates.

The PHP developers urged all users to apply the fixes immediately.