Strange file in uploads folder

  • Resolved Ate Up With Motor

    (@ate-up-with-motor)


    3 years, 6 months ago

    Hi,

    I noticed this evening that all of my sites using WP-Optimize now had a large JSON file in the uploads directory:
    wp-content/uploads/wpo-plugins-tables-list.json

    This was a substantial file (722 KB) full of a list of weird table names, some recognizable but unrelated to my site (e.g., related to WooCommerce, which I don’t use), some truly bizarre (some stuff about “Vampire_User”). I wouldn’t have seen it all except that iThemes Security logs noted that the file was changed via cron job earlier today.

    Is this file a legitimate part of WP-Optimize? What is it? Why is it in the Uploads folder? (WP-Optimize has its own caching folder under wp-content.)

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • @ate-up-with-motor wpo-plugins-tables-list.json doesn’t contain any specific information about yours or any website. What it contains is a general and anonymous list of plugins and their associated database tables.

    This list is used to compare with your database in order to determine which tables are used by which plugins.

    Thread Starter Ate Up With Motor

    (@ate-up-with-motor)

    Ahh! That makes complete sense, I appreciate your explaining it.

    Is there a particular reason why that list sits in the general Uploads folder? That was a significant source of my puzzlement; I hadn’t seen it there before and was briefly alarmed at the idea of someone uploading files there without my knowledge. (The fact that it seemed to be associated with an existing plugin of course weighed against that, although I have seen hacking attempts that worked in not dissimilar ways.)

    Plugin Author David Anderson

    (@davidanderson)

    > Is there a particular reason why that list sits in the general Uploads folder?

    This is the correct folder for plugins to store changeable data under, because it is the only folder guaranteed in WP to be directly writeable from code. (Of course, on many/most installs, other folders are; but the WP filesystem standard only guarantees that this one is).

    Thread Starter Ate Up With Motor

    (@ate-up-with-motor)

    Ahh, I see. I do wonder if it might make sense to give it its own subfolder (as other plugins that store data files in Uploads), so it’s clearer what it is and to aid management of it. (For example, given its size, I would be tempted to exclude it from routine backups, particularly given that it regenerates even if the file is deleted for some reason.)

    Thanks again for explaining!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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