Games Affected by PHP Vulnerability, Causing Outages and Maintenance
- Multiple games, including Final Fantasy 14 and Umamusume: Pretty Derby, are experiencing outages due to a serious PHP vulnerability.
- Final Fantasy 14 temporarily disabled new logins while implementing security enhancements; server backup options remain offline.
- Umamusume: Pretty Derby went offline completely for maintenance, while Path of Titans is down for precautionary measures.
This week, a significant vulnerability in the PHP programming language has led to outages for numerous online games, including Final Fantasy 14 and Umamusume: Pretty Derby. The threat posed by this vulnerability may trigger considerable security breaches for the vast array of applications and websites built on PHP. Consequently, it has been recommended that these online services go offline until appropriate fixes can be distributed and implemented.
An official announcement on the Final Fantasy 14 lodestone website indicated that security “enhancements” were being applied to the game’s patch servers. As a result, new user logins were temporarily halted. Although logins have been re-enabled, the feature allowing users to back up their saved data remains unavailable.
In contrast, the horse racing game Umamusume: Pretty Derby was taken completely offline. The game’s developers cited the use of PHP in its server-side infrastructure as a reason for the sudden maintenance. However, they reassured players that there had been no exploitation of the vulnerability. Currently, both Japanese and global servers are back online, and players will receive a compensatory package of in-game currency.
Meanwhile, Path of Titans, an in-beta dinosaur MMO, remains unavailable as of this writing. Developer Alderon Games announced via their official X account that both the game and its website would be down for up to three days as a precaution. Players have been assured that no data has been compromised during this period.
With fixes now being circulated, it is hoped that the disruptions will begin to subside. Nevertheless, the widespread impact on services across the globe underscores the severity of the situation, prompting various sectors to prioritize the protection of their data and that of their users.
News Courtesy of Eurogamer
