Government websites around the world went offline after AI uncovered critical security vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language, Reuters reported. The problems were serious enough that the U.S. National Security Agency advised organizations running PHP to update immediately or take their systems offline in the meantime. The PHP disclosure was one of several security headaches that landed on the same day.
Node.js, the open-source JavaScript runtime environment, also disclosed that four high-severity vulnerabilities had just been patched in its latest release. One of them permitted remote code execution. Two others would have allowed a TLS validation bypass, which could let attackers get around checks meant to verify a server's identity.
Separately, LiteLLM, a popular open-source proxy for routing requests to multiple LLM providers, said in a post on X on Wednesday afternoon that an attacker had injected malicious code into its software. The malicious artifacts were published to PyPI, Docker Hub and GHCR, according to the post. The code reportedly included an information stealer aimed at cloud credentials, passwords and AI service credentials, plus a remote access trojan that could let hackers run commands on compromised systems. LiteLLM said it has removed the malicious releases and images and advised anyone who installed them to follow the remediation guidance it provided.
An Indian certificate authority, eMudhra, also had its private keys compromised, potentially allowing attackers to issue fraudulent certificates and impersonate legitimate websites. Security professionals have described the resulting cleanup as massive, and larger than Heartbleed, the critical vulnerability in the OpenSSL cryptographic software library. These incidents follow other recent breaches and hacks, including one at the cloud-native database-as-a-service TiDB Cloud, which the company announced on Monday.
Hackers have also been exploiting four patched Plex Media Server flaws collectively called Plex2Shell. Last week, cybersecurity company BeyondTrust warned customers to patch a critical zero-day in its Remote Support product, which had been exploited since August.
The issues were unrelated to one another, but their arrival back-to-back highlights the challenges facing cybersecurity teams. That is particularly important as AI could make it easier for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities once they are discovered.
More cybersecurity news from TechManNews.
