Digital Office warns Hong Kong government of serious PHP security flaw
The Digital Office has issued a security alert to all government bureaux, departments and public bodies over a critical vulnerability in the PHP programming language. It requires immediate system patching or disconnection. No related cyber incidents have been reported so far.
The Digital Office of the Hong Kong government has expressed serious concern about a critical security vulnerability in the PHP programming language, which is widely used for the back-end operation of websites around the world.
The office has issued a security alert to all government policy bureaux, departments and public bodies, requiring them to immediately and thoroughly review their information systems for any impact. They must complete system patching as soon as possible, or else the affected systems must be temporarily taken offline or isolated to reduce the risk of malicious intrusion.
The Digital Office said it has already completed the necessary system patching for the web hosting service that hosts the homepages of all government bureaux and departments. As of now, the office has not received any reports of related cyber-security incidents.
The Digital Office urged the public and organisations to immediately install patches for all affected systems.
