Will AI expose the rickety infrastructure of the internet?
techcrunch ·
A critical vulnerability in the decades-old PHP programming language has forced website owners to urgently patch their sites or take them offline. This incident, dubbed the "PHP-ocalypse," highlights the fragile state of internet infrastructure built on open-source technology. While human researchers discovered the flaw using AI-assisted tools during an OpenAI initiative, the event underscores how large language models can now easily identify such security risks. The widespread nature of PHP affects approximately 70% of websites, creating a massive attack surface for potential hackers. Experts warn that as AI agents become more capable, the race between finding vulnerabilities and exploiting them will intensify. There are significant concerns about smaller entities lacking the resources to defend against these automated threats compared to well-capitalized tech giants. Consequently, this event may lead to increased link rot as many sites choose to shut down rather than update, raising broader data privacy and security fears.
techcrunch