A PHP flaw shows how thin the web's defences are
PHP is an old programming language, but it still runs a big part of the web. A serious PHP flaw led the AI safety newsletter Transformer to write: "The cyberpocalypse is here — sort of." The "sort of" matters. It is a warning, not a disaster.
The follow-up came from Reuters. The director of the PHP Foundation says it is "under-funded," with only one full-time staff member. One person, for software that so many websites depend on. The story got 137 points on Hacker News.
The same Transformer edition covers Anthropic's coming IPO, OpenAI's amendments to SB 53 (California's AI safety law), and AI safety advocates turning on Anthropic. The open question now: who pays to protect shared code like PHP?
As AI makes finding bugs cheaper, the weakest link is often old shared code with almost nobody behind it. Billions go to AI labs while a piece of the web's foundation runs on one salary.
