PHP flaw threatens 92% of Namibian websites

Up to 1 310 of the roughly 1 425 websites hosted in Namibia could be vulnerable because of a flaw in PHP, a scripting language widely used to build websites.The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (Cran) has advised website operators to patch their systems.The figures come from Builtwith, a tool that tracks the software and frameworks websites run on. It counts 1 425 websites hosted in Namibia, of which 1 310 use PHP. That means up to 92% could be exposed to the exploit.Cran and the Namibia Cybersecurity Incidence Response Team (Nam-CSIRT) issued the warning on Friday."These vulnerabilities could allow unauthenticated attackers to remotely execute malicious code on affected web servers without requiring valid login credentials," the joint statement warned."Successful exploitation may result in unauthorised system access, exposure of sensitive information, disruption of services and potential compromise of connected systems," it added.PHP versions 8.1 and older are especially affected, as no upgrades are available. PHP 8.2 to 8.5 versions are to be upgraded with the package provided by the PHP organisation in order to patch the vulnerability, officials said.Cran and Nam-CSIRT advised the review of websites, web servers, applications and third-party products that use PHP and immediate upgrades.Internet-facing systems are to be prioritised, access controls to be reviewed and cyber infrastructure to be monitored for signs of compromise.In the event that immediate security patching may not be possible, Cran and Nam-CSIRT advised restricting or isolating services until it can be done.AI does the workThis follows after the PHP vulnerability was first identified on 11 August.Several European government agencies have been shutting down websites since last Wednesday. The patches were officially released by the PHP on Thursday, 22 October.All signs indicate that the PHP flaw was discovered by artificial intelligence (AI). The cybersecurity firm Calif and Google's cloud security company Wiz note that the vulnerability was discovered with Wiz Atlas, Google's Gemini 4 Argon and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol.“These findings rank among the most severe vulnerabilities discovered in PHP, and arguably in software history,” Wiz's report states.“The underlying flaws had been present for decades, but demonstrating their exploitability required an exceptionally complex chain of steps, at the edge of what human researchers could practically achieve.”Attempts to contact the Namibia Network Information Center (NA-NiC) for official statistics went unanswered.

PHP flaw threatens 92% of Namibian websites

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Namibian Sun 2026-10-28

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PHP flaw threatens 92% of Namibian websites

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Namibian Sun 2026-10-28

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