The NSA's notice sent ripples through the digital infrastructure of 70+ nations, as the agency’s Deputy Director, John Smith, warned that the two flaws could give attackers direct access to server file systems.
In France, the Paris Police Prefecture went dark at 1 p.m. local time, while the Dutch House of Representatives and the national identity service DigiD pulled their portals offline, all per a caution from the Dutch National Cybersecurity Agency.
The vulnerabilities, first flagged by security firm Calif and OpenAI in August, were revealed to the public a day before the PHP Foundation released a fix, prompting an unprecedented emergency patch drive.
A London voter, expecting to confirm his eligibility online, found his portal down as a precaution, echoing similar frustrations in Paris where a tourist could not request a police escort.
The PHP Foundation has made the patch available, and the NSA expects most sites to resume operation by Friday after a rapid testing cycle, with governments monitoring for any residual exploitation attempts.