AI tools have just revealed a serious problem in PHP, the programming language that powers the majority of the internet. Understanding this issue helps explain why some of the sites you visit may suddenly disappear.

Security firm Calif used OpenAI’s GPT‑5.6 Sol model, and later the firm Wiz employed Google’s Gemini 4 Argon together with GPT‑5.6 Sol, to discover the vulnerabilities in August. Wiz estimated that PHP runs about 70 % of the world’s websites, from online stores to government portals.

According to Rahat Masood, a senior lecturer in cybersecurity at the University of New South Wales, the flaws let attackers enter a server without any username or password. Once inside, they can steal sensitive information or change website content at will.

The U.S. National Security Agency told organisations to apply the patch immediately or shut the vulnerable systems down. Many governments, media outlets and other services followed that advice, taking their sites offline while the fix was installed.

These AI‑found PHP bugs show how a single code weakness can affect everyday websites and put personal data at risk. Promptly updating software is the only reliable way to keep the sites you rely on safe.