Kathmandu, October 22, 2026 — Most government websites in Nepal have been taken offline as a precaution after two critical security vulnerabilities were discovered in the PHP programming language, raising concerns about potential cyberattacks and data security.
Raj Kumar Maharjan, spokesperson for the Cyber Security Centre, said on Wednesday that websites using PHP had been made temporarily inaccessible to protect systems and information.
“We have also taken government websites offline, like other countries, to protect websites, data and other information,” Maharjan said. He added that the centre was preparing to issue an advisory soon.
The vulnerabilities affect PHP, a programming language used to operate many major websites across the internet. Their discovery has raised concerns about the security of websites built on PHP, prompting administrators of WordPress sites, online shopping portals and other commercial platforms to apply emergency security updates.
Cybersecurity experts have warned that the flaws directly affect major web platforms built on PHP, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and Magento.
