Canada Shuts Down Government Sites Over Global PHP Vulnerability
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon announced the temporary shutdown of federal and provincial websites to patch a global PHP vulnerability allowing remote code execution.
Canada's Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon announced on Wednesday that several federal government websites were temporarily taken offline to protect citizen information and systems. The action followed guidance from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security regarding a global vulnerability in PHP, a widely used programming language. The Federal Bureau of Investigations warned that the flaw could allow malicious actors to execute code remotely, potentially compromising sensitive networks.
The security risk triggered widespread precautionary shutdowns across Canada. Provincial governments in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia took various webpages and services offline. In Newfoundland and Labrador, affected sites included the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and Memorial University. In British Columbia, Elections B.C. temporarily disabled its website during advance polling, though officials confirmed no systems were breached and the 'where to vote' application remained functional.
The vulnerability is a global issue, with the Finnish government reporting partial website unavailability and major platforms such as Wikipedia and Cloudflare implementing fixes. The PHP Foundation released urgent updates and instructions to secure the language. Minister Solomon stated that affected federal websites will be restored once patches are applied, noting that other governments and organizations worldwide are taking similar protective measures.
