I will caveat this by saying I am not an IT expert. On the other hand, the aftermath of the disclosure of the PHP flaw last week is something that has affected most people as users of the internet, and quite possibly many of you who have your own websites. It's a big enough story that it needs addressing, at the same time as ensuring that the information conveyed is accurate.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
PHP, you will no doubt now know if you didn't already, is a computer language used in web development. It is so extensively employed that you will have seen the figure of 70 percent mentioned frequently in the last few days. That is, the vulnerability that has been exposed in PHP affects 70 percent of the internet. There is now a patch, but the vulnerability found leaves websites open to the possibility of bad actors directly accessing a site's servers or files without needing a password or login. That could include customer details.
Websites across the internet have been taken down temporarily over the past week as a precaution while the patch is applied.
What You Need to Do
The key question is: who is affected and what do you need to do, both to find that out and to make good the vulnerability?
This is where it is really important to get expert advice, but the following may help.
The vulnerability affects versions of PHP prior to 8.2. That is, your first task is to find out what version of PHP your website uses. The advice I have seen most frequently is for people to contact your webhost and get confirmation of whether your site uses PHP and what version.
WordPress Users: Take Action
The reason this is most likely to affect many of us is that WordPress.org websites use PHP, as does WooCommerce. Many authors will use one or both of those and may do so through their own host. It may therefore be helpful to consult this announcement from WordPress about how they are handling the situation. You can also find further guidance on what to do now at TrustOps.
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