AI boosts cybersecurity threat detection after PHP vulnerability emerges

Cybersecurity organizations increasingly rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to spot vulnerabilities and conduct threat analyses, and the role of AI in identifying risks and patching affected code was further cemented by the recent discovery of the “PHP2Shell” vulnerability.

The PHP vulnerability, classified as a high-severity threat with a score of 9.2 out of 10 on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), allowed attackers to compromise web servers by executing code remotely.

Kubra Kalkan Cakmakci, an associate professor of computer engineering at Istanbul-based Ozyegin University, told Anadolu that AI accelerates software debugging and helps evaluate millions of potential errors simultaneously.

“AI was able to analyze multiple layers quickly at the same time when detecting the PHP2Shell vulnerability, while humans can only work on and think through few steps at a time,” she said.

Sensoy stated that AI does not identify such vulnerabilities on its own, noting that initiatives like Patch the Planet have human experts guide the technology to potential weak spots.