Will AI expose the rickety infrastructure of the internet?
Recently discovered vulnerabilities in PHP require immediate patching, according to TechCrunch. This may expose the internet's infrastructure weaknesses.
Original reporting · techcrunch.com
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How this was written. Awesome B2B Growth wrote this article with a language model from TechCrunch’s reporting (model: @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast); it describes that reporting rather than adding to it. The original, linked above, is the full story.
Key points from TechCrunch’s report
- Vulnerabilities in PHP require immediate patching or website shutdowns to be safe.
- Human researchers, not AI models, found the vulnerabilities, but AI may make it easier to find such vulnerabilities in the future.
- The internet's infrastructure may be more fragile than previously thought, with many websites relying on outdated or vulnerable software.
TechCrunch reported a startling announcement about vulnerabilities in the open source programming language PHP, which may require website owners to immediately patch their sites or take them down to be safe.
According to TechCrunch, the vulnerabilities were found by human researchers, not AI models, but the use of large language models and AI agents may make it easier to find such vulnerabilities in the future.
Sean O'Kane called this a 'real reckoning moment' that highlights how the internet's infrastructure is 'held together by glue and dreams', and with widespread access to AI, it may become easier to find vulnerabilities.
Kirsten Korosec wondered if this may be the 'next level of prepper doom' because banks and other institutions could be exploited, and data and privacy concerns may be affected.
The vulnerabilities in PHP have existed for decades, but were only recently discovered by human researchers participating in OpenAI and Wiz's Hack the Planet initiative, who used AI to exploit the bug.
Anthony Ha noted that the fact that this vulnerability has existed for so long, but was only recently discovered, is striking, and that the use of AI to find and exploit vulnerabilities may create a 'panicked situation' where patches must be released quickly.
Kirsten Korosec also pointed out that many people may not even realize their websites use PHP, which is a core ingredient in content management systems used by tens of millions of websites, and that this may be just the beginning of a larger problem.
Questions and answers
What is PHP and why is it important?
PHP is an open source programming language used in content management systems for tens of millions of websites.
How were the vulnerabilities in PHP discovered?
The vulnerabilities were found by human researchers participating in OpenAI and Wiz's Hack the Planet initiative, who used AI to exploit the bug.
What may happen next with the vulnerabilities in PHP?
The use of AI to find and exploit vulnerabilities may create a 'panicked situation' where patches must be released quickly, and may expose the internet's infrastructure weaknesses.
