Hacked plugin v2.1.4

Hello @pibeca

Thank you for the support topic, Looks like something else created cc1.php file as it’s not part of vendor lib.

There is also a recent GitHub issue open on sabberworm/PHP-CSS-Parser lib which is being used by AMP plugin

To debug this further can you please send your site health information using this form, also please include a google drive link of (uploaded as zip) hacked plugin version in another section (last form field) of the form.

Also, please make sure you are using WordPress plugins from well-known sources such as WordPress plugin repository avoid the premium plugins available online for free download.

Additionally, please download and install security plugins such as Wordfence or Sucrui to protect your site from further attacks.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Milind More.

Also, do not publicly share details of any supposed vulnerability. If there is a vulnerability, then it should be responsibly disclosed (privately). Milind provided a good method to do so. Alternatively, DMs in WordPress Slack could also be used.

The issue reported to PHP-CSS-Parser was not confirmed. It may be that the PHP-CSS-Parser library is just a target for where to put malicious code from another plugin’s vulnerability.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Weston Ruter.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Weston Ruter.

Hi @milindmore22, thanks for your quick response, I don’t know what caused the code injection, but the code in the new files look like the GitHub issue you mention. We downloaded the plugin from the repository through wordpress admin (as we always do), so it was a complete surprise when it got hacked. I compared our problematic version with the one in the repository and this last one didn’t have the hacked files. We had also installed previous to the injection both Wordfence and Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall plugins and none of them stopped it.

I will for sure complete the form you linked and provide the hacked code so you can debug this further.

@westonruter Thank you for your indications, but as you know (and we developers sometimes forget) a normal user does not have the knowledge of where to ask for support or how to ask for it, and much less has access to WordPress Slack (or even know what Slack is or how it works!) or know who the developer is as they downloaded the plugin through the WordPress admin (it can sometimes be considered a miracle that they got here to these forums!), so I will kindly ask you to step down your high horse on this one. These support forums are what we have always used when we had a problem with great success, so I didn’t think this was not the “appropiate” channel to communicate a problem as big as this. For what I’ve read, the Slack channel is also not for support, and support is what we needed.

I am painfully aware of the severity of saying that a plugin has been hacked or what can happen if a vulnerability is made public. As I stated before, I don’t know what happened or how the plugin has been compromised, what I know is that we have been dealing with it, cleaning the wordpress time after time and the hack replicating through the code for almost a week until we found the hacked files, and now the website seems to be back on track.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by pibeca.

Hi again,
@milindmore22 I just wanted to let you know that I have filled in the Google forms you provided. Thanks again!

I didn’t mean to come off as being on a high horse. You’re right that the WordPress forums lack a method for private communication with plugin developers, and that’s unfortunately. Just if we can move this to a non-public communication channel that would be ideal, even just plain old email.

Hello @pibeca

Thank you for the site info and for providing the zip file, We tried to investigate the file that is being injected but we didn’t find any security vulnerability with the AMP plugin, also we haven’t had any other reports of the plugin being the source of hacking.

Here are a few suggestions/information

• We think that vendor libraries that are being used by AMP plugins are soft targets to hide scripts.

• We will recommend you to keep your plugins and themes updated, also please make sure they are present on www.ads-software.com we found one of the plugin from your site is no longer supported (not disclosing it here on public forum )

• We will also recommend performing a security audit on all plugins and themes to find security vulnerabilities or contacting professionals to do so.
• Also, try to find similar plugins that are active both sites to find the culprit.
• Additionally please contact your hosting provider to set up a Network security firewall or update its rule to make it more strict

you can get a slack invite using this link to connect with us privately on #amp-wp channel.

Hopefully, this will help!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Yui.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Milind More.

@westonruter I am open to discuss anything you need privately, I just didn’t know what were the proper channels, just let me know and will give you my contact info. You being able to check this problem goes in the best interest of us all, the work you are doing is amazing and we appreciate it!!

Hello @pibeca

My previous reply was held for moderation, so wanted to confirm you have gone through that, also wanted to check if you are able to find the security vulnerability?

@pibeca
FYI link: https://developer.www.ads-software.com/plugins/wordpress-org/plugin-security/reporting-plugin-security-issues/

As we didn’t receive a response I’ll mark this as resolved. Feel free to open a new support topic if you require any further assistance.