A critical vulnerability in PHP, a programming language widely used around the world, was disclosed, forcing companies to take emergency measures. Government officials urged the rapid application of security patches, and some services decided to suspend operations temporarily or conduct emergency maintenance.
Two critical vulnerabilities were disclosed in PHP, which is widely used on websites and elsewhere. The security team had announced in advance that it planned to release an update to address them at 11:00 p.m. Japan time on the 21st. Both vulnerabilities were rated 9.2 under CVSS v4.0, and users were urged to update promptly because the vulnerabilities could allow unauthorized code execution from outside.
In response to calls from government officials, companies and service operators expanded their precautionary measures. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi posted on X herself, strongly calling for action by the end of the night. She also cited temporarily suspending websites as an option to reduce risk when applying a security patch is difficult.
Shueisha's official website became inaccessible, and the company announced that related content had been temporarily suspended. FM Yokohama suspended part of its official website and related program sites, saying it would announce when they would resume. Mercari said it might conduct emergency maintenance to address vulnerabilities in external software, explaining that, if carried out, all functions on both the web and app versions might become unavailable.
Hankyu Railway also announced the temporary suspension of some services to address vulnerabilities in its web systems. The official app of Ramen Yamaokaya has also become temporarily unavailable after the development company reported a critical vulnerability. None of the companies has confirmed unauthorized access or information leakage.