Calculated Fields Form Plugin being identified as a malicious file

Good Evening @webcodestudioz,

Jonathan here from HostGator’s customer service department. Sorry to hear you’re having trouble with this plugin and we’d like to take a look with you to make sure it wasn’t a false positive on our scan. If you could please send an e-mail to [email protected] ATTN : Jonathan H. along with your account information, we’ll have our crew take a look ASAP.

Thanks for your time and for the chance to review with you!

Dear Mr. Jonathan,

A very good evening to you too!

Thanks so much for your response. My website is hosted from hostgator.in (India). Will you still be able to rectify this from your end? Kindly confirm and I’ll immediately put forth and email as advised.

[ Signature moderated ]

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Jan Dembowski.

Hello Again!

Yes, please send over your info and I’ll be glad to get it worked with our IN team.

Thanks so much!

I’ve sent you an email just now with all details.

[ Signature moderated ]

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Jan Dembowski.

Hello @webcodestudioz,

I’m the developer of the “Calculated Fields Form” plugin, I’ve used different plugins for scanning my website (like: WordFence Security, Quttera Web Malware Scanner, Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Hardening) and none of them has reported a vulnerability in the CFF, furthermore, the “Calculated Fields Form” plugin has been installed many times in different hosting with no problems.

Could you create a ticket in my private website with the content of the email you have received from Hostgator, please?

https://cff.dwbooster.com/contact-us

Best regards.

Thanks so much for the message.

I’ve sent you a message a couple of minutes back with complete details through the link you’d suggested.

[ Signature moderated ]

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Jan Dembowski.

Hello Imran Khan,

I’ve answered to your email from my private website.

Unfortunately your hosting provider indicates the file it being classified as malicious, but not the reasons.

The issue may be a false positive in the security rules of your server but with the information provided there is not way to identify it.

Please, ask for additional details to your hosting provider, and contact me through my private website with their explanation.

Thank you very much.

Yes, I confirm the receipt of your email. In fact I’ve also been receiving emails from Hostgator. They have been very actively involved in trying to resolve this issue and I really appreciate their efforts.

As of now, a telephonic conversation has been scheduled with Hostgator India for tomorrow. I will try go gather as much details as possible about the reason why this plugin was identified as malicious and update you with the same.

I’m really thankful to you for showing so much interest to help me solve this issue.

Best Regards
Imran Khan

Hello,

Thank you very much for keeping me informed, please, send me a private email with the details of the telephonic conversation.

Best regards.

I had a telephonic conversation with HostGator a few minutes back. The details have been mentioned in response to your email with Ticket ID.

I have been using the plug in for a while now for my customers to calculate the amount of wallpaper required. Hostgator also quarantined the plug in files saying it was malicious content. I spent over 40 minutes on the phone with them. Basically they were most unhelpful, implying the HostGator Security Department would not make mistake and it was malicious content. They were not willing to provide support and the final person said I was to send back the email to the email address that sent it requesting they review it. As I told him no one would get back to me as sending back to mail out was never helpful. As expected, so far no one has go back to me despite follow ups.
If anyone actually resolves this with Hostgator I would appreaciate an update via this forum. Thanks Fran
PS
Location of page customers use:
https://rosewall.com.au/diy-help/wallpaper-calculator/

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by travelgenee.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by travelgenee.

Hello @travelgenee,

The issue you are reporting has happening to other users with the websites hosted in HostGator, we have checked our code with experts in security, followed all WordPress recommendations concerning to the security, and checked the plugin using the most popular plugins for security, and none of them have found a security issue in the “Calculated Fields Form” plugin.

We’ve contacted to HostGator too, but unfortunately we’ve not received a respond.

The issue maybe a false positive, but if HostGator does not indicate what security rule is failing there is no way we can modify our plugin to prevent the conflict.

Please, insist with HostGator to get a real answer, and create a ticket in my personal website with their answer:

https://cff.dwbooster.com/contact-us

Note: You had installed the 1.0.78 version, the current version is the 1.0.80. Please, install the latest version and ask to HostGator analyze the new files.

Best regards.

It’s very strange that I’ve not heard from Hostgator for a week now. The last correspondence I received from them was to confirm the receipt of my admin credentials. I’d even sent them a follow-up email to which I’ve not received any response.

Generally they are quick in responding, but this time.

Hello @webcodestudioz and @travelgenee,

I’ve been chatting for hours with HostGator (I recommend both do the same from this URL: https://support.hostgator.com/articles/pre-sales-policies/security-abuse/hostgator-security-scans-and-quarantines pressing the “Live Chat” link at bottom, to force HostGator take action, at least to know exactly what the issue is.), and I include here some of their answers after sending them the link to this thread of support:

>>Hi Mike. Based on the information that we,ve got, it seems that there is no known issue that is currently reported. But based on the information you’ve sent, someone is already escalating the issue and will take further investigation of this matter.

>>Since there is a thread about such report thru the link you have provided. Normally you will receive an update on the same thread. But with those customers under hostgator who shared this issues will normally receive update to their e-mail.

>>I understand that you need resolution as quick as possible Mike. We are trying to find the cause of this because so far on our end we couldn’t find any glitch that may cause this issue to occur. But it is already being escalated, Hopefully we can find something that could fix this issue as soon as possible.

Best regards.

Hello @webcodestudioz and @travelgenee,

I’ve published an update of the plugin trying to guess what HostGator is considering as a problem in the plugin, I say guess because HostGator has not sent the details.

So, I recommend both to deactivate the copy of the plugin installed on your websites and delete the plugin’s directory (/wp-content/plugins/calculated-fields-form), the process does not affect the forms created previously, and finally, install the plugin again but this time using the latest version (https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/calculated-fields-form/).

Best regards.