CERT-IS reports no local PHP attacks, says threat remains

Iceland’s cyber security response team has received no reports that two serious PHP vulnerabilities have been exploited in the country, but activity linked to the flaws has been detected abroad, mbl.is reports.

CERT-IS warned two days ago that the vulnerabilities in PHP, a programming language used by many websites, could allow attackers to take control of vulnerable systems over the internet.

Magni R. Sigurðsson, head of CERT-IS, said Amazon and Cloudflare had observed significant activity related to the vulnerabilities and were monitoring for possible exploitation. There have been no public confirmations of attacks using the flaws, he said.

Magni said CERT-IS had received neither reports of exploitation nor information that the vulnerabilities had been used against Icelandic websites. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency maintains a list of vulnerabilities confirmed to have been exploited in attacks; the two PHP flaws were not on the list the last time he checked.

That does not mean the danger has passed, Magni said. It could take several days for the first attacks using the vulnerabilities to be confirmed.