The authorities of Australia and New Zealand on Thursday issued warnings about critical vulnerabilities in the PHP programming language, which could lead to the leakage of personal data and other confidential information.

PHP is a server-side programming language that is now widely used to create websites and online services, including government ones.

The discovered vulnerabilities could allow attackers to remotely execute program code on servers without prior authorization, posing a threat to systems that handle personal data and other confidential information.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre assigned the warning a critical alert status.

The authorities of the Australian state of New South Wales have already begun installing updates on affected government websites as a precautionary measure amid the identified threat, with no information leaks reported so far.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) of New Zealand has also urged organizations to immediately install updates and check systems for signs of possible unauthorized access. The NCSC said that it was aware of active exploitation of the vulnerabilities but did not specify whether attacks had been recorded in New Zealand.

@Sputnik