University of Iceland shuts Uglan and other websites over PHP vulnerabilities

The University of Iceland has temporarily restricted access to Uglan and its websites because of serious security vulnerabilities in PHP software, mbl.is reports. The university’s rector, Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir, informed students in a notice.

The notice said Uglan and university websites, including hi.is and english.hi.is, were affected. However, hi.is appeared to remain accessible at the time of the report, while Uglan was unavailable.

The university has not said how long the shutdown will last. It plans to send an update later today.

Cybersecurity agencies in several European countries have recommended shutting down systems that use PHP, including Iceland’s CERT-IS. The government cybersecurity response team has issued an update on two vulnerabilities and urged website hosts to install updates immediately.