Technology
• Analysis
AI-enabled hacking: experts warn of 'vulnerability tsunami' after 'Black October'
After the PHP vulnerability episode dubbed "Black October", cybersecurity leaders warned that ai-enabled hacking will expose more fundamental weaknesses in global internet infrastructure in the months to come.
By Haut Monde Post
• October 24, 2026
• 2 Min Read
The alarm went out not when the flaw was found, but when security figures realized what it meant: AI tools will expose more fundamental weaknesses in global internet infrastructure in the months to come.
"Black October" and the PHP flaw
The name "Black October" comes from the discovery itself: researchers turned to AI to pinpoint critical flaws in a coding language that powers millions of websites, weaknesses that could have sat unpatched for years. The vulnerability was announced on 21 October.
- •Massive bugs turned up in PHP, and the millions of sites running on it may have been open to hackers for years
- •Some experts estimated 70% of all sites on the internet were at risk of hacking
- •Wiz researchers wrote that this was among the most severe vulnerabilities discovered in PHP, and arguably in software history
The underlying flaws had been present for decades, but demonstrating their exploitability required a chain of steps at the edge of what human researchers could practically achieve.
Warnings from tech leaders
Sam Altman said on a Thursday evening that he no longer believed all bugs could be patched. Jason Clinton, Anthropic's deputy chief information security officer, predicted a "vulnerability tsunami" in a post on X the same evening.
"There won't be enough time to patch critical infrastructure," Clinton said.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff agreed and called the situation a "code red". Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said AI can find flaws at a pace the security community cannot match, warning the next two years will be fraught with tools that have infinite patience to hunt for vulnerabilities.
Exploitation attempts climb
Prince said Cloudflare recorded thousands of exploitation attempts in the 10 hours before the announcement. After it, the numbers rose steeply: tens of thousands within 45 minutes, hundreds of thousands within two hours, and millions now.
Attempts to exploit the PHP vulnerability have already begun.
Agencies urge immediate patching
The NSA issued an alert recommending any site that runs on PHP implement the patches immediately, saying malicious cyberactors may seek unauthorized server access.
"Such an access vector could help attackers steal sensitive data, disrupt services or move deeper into a network," the warning read.
Government and private websites across the US and UK temporarily went offline to patch the bugs. For any site still running PHP, the NSA's recommendation stands: implement the patches immediately.
