Japanese websites suspended over PHP vulnerabilities

The vulnerabilities prompted governments and companies around the world to temporarily shut down websites amid fears the flaws could be exploited for cyberattacks.

Japanese ministries partly suspended webpages after PHP vulnerabilities were found. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said there was no damage to government websites.

MUFG Bank, JR West and Zensho also took services offline for emergency maintenance. Some online banking, group websites and app services were unavailable.

The flaws were found with AI help and raised global cyberattack fears. PHP is used by 69.3% of websites with known server-side language, and patches have been released.

TOKYO – Some Japanese ministries’ webpages have been partially suspended as a preventive measure following the detection of vulnerabilities in the widely used PHP programming language, its government said on Oct 22, as websites across the country were halted over the issue.

Confirming the suspensions to parts of websites, including for the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a regular press conference in Tokyo that no damage to government websites related to the PHP flaws has been reported.

Kihara urged operators of websites using the language to apply the patch as quickly as possible or take the webpages offline to reduce risks until the fix can be implemented.

Suspensions had spread among local authorities as well on Oct 22, with the prefectural police in south-western Japan’s Saga saying they had temporarily taken down their website as a precautionary measure.

Some functions on the websites for Osaka Prefecture and the city of Osaka in western Japan were also halted.

The website Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi uses as a lawmaker was also briefly down for maintenance from the night of Oct 21 and restored the morning, an official at her office said.

M oves to address vulnerabilities found in the programming language continued on across Japan’s businesses and service providers, with MUFG Bank and JR West announcing that they were conducting extraordinary system maintenance.

The Japanese megabank said some of its services, including online opening of investment trust accounts, would be unavailable.

West Japan Railway Company said 60 of its group websites were suspended.

Restaurant operator Zensho Holdings, meanwhile, said it had halted app services for its Sukiya beef bowl chain and Hama-sushi conveyor belt sushi restaurant chain as a preventive measure from the night of Oct 21.

The vulnerabilities, which were discovered with the assistance of artificial intelligence and alerted on Oct 21, prompted governments and companies around the world to temporarily shut down websites amid concern that the flaws could be exploited for cyberattacks.

According to a European research organisation, PHP, which is mainly designed for servers, is used by 69.3% of websites worldwide whose server-side programming language is known.

The developer had announced by the early hours of Oct 21 that it discovered two major vulnerabilities. Patches have been released to fix the vulnerabilities. KYODO NEWS