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Hong Kong orders urgent security checks after critical PHP flaws found

thestar.com.my — October 25, 2026 at 12:01 PM UTC

Hong Kong authorities have ordered urgent security checks across all government bureaus, departments, and public bodies after two critical flaws were found in the PHP web programming language, which could allow hackers to remotely execute code and take control of servers. The Digital Policy Office issued a security alert on Thursday requiring immediate comprehensive reviews and patching of affected systems, with instructions to temporarily take offline or isolate systems that cannot be fixed quickly. No related cybersecurity incidents have been reported so far, and the office has completed patching for government website hosting services. The vulnerabilities, rated 9.2 out of 10 in severity, were discovered with help from OpenAI's AI models and have prompted warnings from cybersecurity agencies in the US, UK, EU, and China. Finland and the Netherlands have temporarily shut down government web services, while experts warn the flaws could affect popular websites using WordPress and other PHP-based platforms.

With a significance score of 3, this news ranks in the top 10% of today's 28732 analyzed articles.

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[5.9]

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[5.8]

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[5.6]

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[5.4]

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[5.3]

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[5.0]

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[5.0]

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[5.0]

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[5.0]

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[4.9]

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[4.9]

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1d 21h

[4.9]

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1d 22h

[4.9]

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[4.6]

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[4.6]

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[4.5]

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1d 21h

[4.4]

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[4.4]

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[4.3]

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[4.0]

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[3.9]

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[3.7]

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[3.7]

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[3.6]

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[3.5]

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[3.1]

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[3.0]

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[2.9]

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[2.8]

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[2.6]

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[2.3]

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[2.3]

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[1.9]

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