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Hi @farhannaseem,

Any ability to post remotely through XML-RPC or the REST API to your blog would require a user with at least the “Author” access level. Naturally, this could also be possible through the website itself if somebody has the necessary access. We would recommend reviewing your user accounts with any publishing capability or higher to see if any could have been compromized or look suspicious. If it’s just your admin account with this permission, change your password to something new and complex, then add 2FA.

If this doesn’t rectify the problem and spam blog posts persist, it would be recommended to clean your site. Any plugins with unknown vulnerabilities would be investigated during a professional site clean – which we do offer on our website, as do others – but I can also provide instructions for you to do this yourself here.

Let me know what you find out!

Thanks,

Peter.

Hi @farhannaseem,

As I’ve not heard from you, I will provide some site cleaning instructions in case you come to review this topic again later:

https://www.wordfence.com/docs/how-to-clean-a-hacked-wordpress-site-using-wordfence/

Make sure to get all your plugins and themes updated and update WordPress core too. If you are on an older branch (WordPress 4.x etc) because you wanted to wait before installing the latest version because of Gutenberg or a custom theme compatibility you still need the latest update in that version. Those can be found here:
https://www.ads-software.com/download/releases/
WordPress sometimes patches their older releases if they find a vulnerability so make sure to update your version if needed. We, of course, recommend that you update to the latest version.

As a rule, any time I think someone’s site has been compromised I also tell them to update their passwords for their hosting control panel, FTP, WordPress admin users, and database. Make sure to do this.

Additionally you might find the WordPress Malware Removal section in our free Learning Center helpful.

If you are unable to clean this on your own there are paid services that will do it for you. Wordfence offers one and there are others. Regardless if you choose to clean it yourself or let someone else do so, we recommend that you make a full backup of the site beforehand.

Thanks again,

Peter.