Email addresses found in images (strange issue)

  • Hi,
    Today I got a message from WebsiteDefender that images on my site contains email address and I have to remove them.

    The message I got from WebsiteDefender:

    One or more email addresses were found on the following pages. The majority of spam comes from email addresses harvested off the internet. The spam-bots (also known as email harvesters and email extractors) are programs that scour the internet looking for email addresses on any website they come across. Spambot programs look for strings like [email protected] and then record any addresses found.
    Below there’s a list with the pages that contains emails.

    From WebsiteDefender:
    wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Over.png?9d7bd4

    List of emails
    [email protected]
    [email protected]
    [email protected]

    I have checked some of my images and there’s nothing in image title, alt text, caption and description. I don’t know why I got that message and how to resolve it. I am using ‘NextGen Gallery, WP Smush.it and WP Smush.it NextGen Gallery Integration’ plugin for managing my gallery.

    Any help will be highly appreciated.

    Thank you,
    Ovais

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • I have checked some of my images and there’s nothing in image title, alt text, caption and description. I don’t know why I got that message and how to resolve it.

    Did you check the images? Any text/ code can be embedded in images and they can be read by bots/ SEs, transmitted, etc. Just download some images and check them. You can remove them manually or just resave the images using an image editor like Photoshop so that they may go away.

    Thread Starter OvaisAlam

    (@ovaisalam)

    Thanks for your reply Krishna.

    I downloaded some images but I don’t know how to check them for embedded codes (sorry for my ignorance) or how to remove that code manually, any leads on how to do that?

    I get ‘image info’ of an (infected?) image and there’s a new line called “data” with base64 encoding there. I decoded it and get following message:

    Binary data detected! Click ‘DOWNLOAD BINARY FILE NOW’ button to download file.

    WARNING!!!!
    ===========
    Be careful what you download. If the file contains a virus, you will infect your machine!!
    HIT ‘BACK’ when done.

    Is it normal or I am just plain stupid?

    Ovais

    Your site URL?

    Thread Starter OvaisAlam

    (@ovaisalam)

    https://denovopress.com

    The Base64 encoding is probably inserted by your theme, or a rogue plugin. So, it would be wise to deactivate all plugins, revert to Twenty Eleven theme and check if the images still have emails/ scripts embedded.

    What photo editing software do you use? How many images do you have on your site? Do you have the same images stored elsewhere?

    Thread Starter OvaisAlam

    (@ovaisalam)

    I deactivated all plugins, used (clean) WordPress theme, uploaded new images from my PC but I am still seeing base64 encoding in my images.

    1. I use Photoshop for editing (but none of the image is edited).
    2. I have 130+ images on my site.
    3. Yes, I have those images on my local server (localhost).

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • The topic ‘Email addresses found in images (strange issue)’ is closed to new replies.

Tags