WordPress Injection Attack

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By Dan Nedelko

March 3, 2009

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Last Updated on July 30, 2017 by Dan Nedelko

March 4 2009 Update My plan has worked out very well and everything is back to normal without too much of an interruption My request for Google site review took a total of 12 hours and it was completely handled through Google Webmaster Tools Google spidered the entire site for about 6 hours checking every existing page on the site from Mountain View California Around 6pm EST I was given a new notice in my Webmaster Control panel that the notice would be removed with the next update which took place about 90 minutes later

Id like to thanks a few people who gave me some good advice If this does happen to you make sure that you

  1. Remove any old plugins may have or update them
  2. Ensure the source of the plugin is using best practices for PHP coding If the plugin is not listed In the Official WordPress Plugins Directory then be careful
  3. Add the following plugins WP Security Scan and WordPress Firewall Thanks to Ruud Hein for the suggestion
  4. Backup your content themes and plugins on a regular basis so a roll back is easy in the event that you are attacked again
  5. Be careful of who you send your site to on Twitter See the end of the post for the official Twitter email I received and this was the source of the attack
  6. This one is obivious but make sure you WordPress version is current as many security fixes are implement in point releases ie 271
  7. Secure you Web Server or have your System Administrator or Web Host ensure that everything is in order

Update

I woke up this morning ready to get to work and as per usual I check my sites indexes in Google Yahoo and MSN Even though its a beautiful sunny day outside I was shocked to see the following

Bad News for Tuesday MorningBad News for Tuesday Morning to be sure So the question is what do I do and how do I get this bad message off my Search Listing

Im not too concerned to be honest except for the fact that my site is vulnerable to this injection attack I would love to smack the hacker that instituted this attack

So first things first

What is this message all about Well when I viewed the source of my site I saw what is called an obsfucated injection attack on the footer of every single one of my pages This is a bit of a pain since I am using WordPress MU with a number of plugins

That means that  the hackers could have injected their little code block into my theme my plugins into the core WordPress MU files Not a pretty thought to have to go through all of those areas to remove these individual code blocks Bottom line my site got hacked What steps do I take to repair the damage thats been done

poll id=3

My plan to remove the PHP injection attack

  1. Identify which files on the web server are compromised
  2. Identify if the compromised files are plugins comments themes or WordPress Core files
  3. If the compromised file is a plugin then determine if the plugin should be removed completely is it the source of weakness or simply a victim and should be reuploaded and reactivated
  4. Upload a clean version of WordPress MU core files This prevents me from having to wade through all of the compromised files
  5. Go through comments and identify any potentially malicious links to malware sites I am very lucky since I have recently moved the domain to a new server since my previous horrible host disabled access to the phpMySQL instance through the cPanel yes EMC Web Hosting Sucks NEVER use them This will not be a huge issue
  6. Go through my theme which is a customized version of Revolution Theme by Brian Gardner I frequently backup this theme since it is a a simple matter  of uploading the theme to the web server
  7. Visit Google Webmaster Tools and submit a request for Google to audit my site to remove the malicious tagging on my site
  8. Audit the entire site to ensure the malicious code in completely removed
  9. Back up the theme again ensuring I have the ability to restore clean code in the event that I am on someones hacking list
  10. Harden WordPress MU to ensure that this does not happen again

Thats my plan I am about half way through it but there are some serious issues at play here since it is not only Google which is tagging my site as malicious bad for business Check out the number of blocks which exist

Google Malicious Message

I'm not Malicious but Google thinks I am

Im not Malicious but Google thinks I am so next step is to click on the SERP thats when Firefox jumps in

After clicking the SERP Firefox jumps in and says I am bad too!

After clicking the SERP Firefox jumps in and says I am an attack site How fascinating but just wait Its not over yet when I get to the site

Firefox toolbar warningFirefox toolbar warning

So clearly the powers that be and the tools on my computer are working hard to identify malicious sites It is very clear that this site could be malicious and even though it was through no intent on my part the bottom line is that my site was hacked and turned into an attack site This is a good line of warnings to any user and in the time frame that I am repairing the site and hardening my WordPress to ensure this does not happen again I dont really mind having these messages there

They are good for users

Update Twitter just sent me the source of this injection attack

Uh oh We found a bad apple in your Twitter feed

We detected a link in your account pointing to a phishing site or other harmful material that we identified as malware Heres the troublesome post

BlogDuJour hey there try out my blog your unsafe link was here I am in the process of redesigning now but should be back to normal soon
March 02 2009 2207

We removed this update from Twitter Please be mindful of others in the Twitter community and post only safe links on Twittercom

Thanks Twitter Support


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Dan Nedelko
Dan Nedelko is human being spinning around on this big blue marble with the rest of you, interested in Media // Music // Art // Family // Business // Founder of Honeypot Marketinghttp://hny.pt, Jacohmi, and Genuine Media & Development.
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About Dan Nedelko

A human being spinning around on this big blue marble with the rest of you, interested in Digital Marketing // Music // Art // Family // Business // Founder of http://hny.pt

  • Hi Dan,

    This has happened quite a few times to us, as we have over 70 sites around the internet.

    What a pain…You can always tell because your tags are missing when looking at the posts dashboard.

    I like to call it “rogue code”…Uhhh!

    We have done all the things you’ve suggested except installing WordPress Firewall.

    Also, I had never heard about the bad Twitter sharing before…Hmmm

    Thanks for this article!

    Kimberly 🙂

    Reply

    • Hi Kimberly,

      Thanks for the tip about the tags. I’ve also narrowed down the plugins as well and am much more careful about adding a plugin which I have not looked at in depth. Hope to see you back here soon and thanks for your input.

      – Dan

      Reply

    • Hey Kimberly,

      Since you run quite a few WordPress blog maybe it would be useful for you to subscribe to my RSS feed. I have a series of useful articles coming up that might interest you.

      Thanks
      Dan

      Reply
  • RaiulBaztepo says:

    Hello!
    Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
    PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language 😉
    See you!
    Your, Raiul Baztepo

    Reply

  • Good article. Hope it works!!

    I have a client’s site that has been getting filled up hidden injected links in the footer for months. I am at my wits end with it. I have been through the code with a fine tooth-comb (I’m not a hard-core code monkey, but I know my way around), I have deleted any number of plugins, installed as many preventative plugins, I have changed every username and password, done a complete reinstall of WP …and guess what – the hidden links keep coming back. Hopefully these plugins will finally see them off.

    Reply

    • Hey Dave,

      These should help alot – I’m also going to email you directly but you’ll want to look at the server config. Years ago I had an account with Neureal, whose servers were hopelessly out of date. No matter what I did injections kept happening. You might want to try out a new host or have them lock some things down.

      Especially openbasedir restrictions – add them – locking that down removes some functionality but helps alot.

      Reply

  • Hi Dan

    Thanks for this and for the email. I am onto the server config advice now. Hosrting could be an issue – I use Heart in the UK. They are a bit ‘pile it high sell it cheap’, but the support is good and they know what they are doing – I tend to think the problem was of my own making. For those wanting to learn, read on…

    Historically, the site was first put up some years ago when I was still merrily creating several sites a day, full of enthusiasm for the ease and power of WordPress. Whereas, these days I tend to change everything including the WP-admin folder name, most of the file names and always delete the admin user name straight away and otherwise alter a lot of the out-of-the-box defaults, back then I did not.

    It is not so feasible to retro-fit some of those practices unfortunately and once some nasty little germ has blown a hole in your installation, prevention doesn’t work any more and a cure cannot always be easily found.

    Cautionary advice for everyone out there:

    1. Consider adding .htpasswd and .htaccess protection to the wp-admin directory.
    2. Try changing the wp-admin folder name. See: http://wp123.info/modifications/change-wp-admin-folder-name/
    3. I would add the login lockdown plugin to Dan’s two excellent suggestions: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/login-lockdown/

    Reply
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