Weird SQL fail with website link

  • My error.php log keeps showing 2 errors that looks like someone trying to sell me something on their website. Have no idea where this is coming from. Here is one error, other looks similar.

    [10-Oct-2024 05:14:46 UTC] WordPress database error Illegal mix of collations (utf8mb3_general_ci,IMPLICIT) and (utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci,COERCIBLE) for operation ‘like’ for query SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS  wp_posts.ID

                                                                                     FROM wp_posts

                                                                                     WHERE 1=1  AND (((wp_posts.post_title LIKE ‘%Oracle – Valid 1z0-1038-22 Valid Study Plan ?? Go to website ? https://www.pdfvce.com ? open and search for ? 1z0-1038-22 ? to download for free ??1z0-1038-22 Latest Study Guide%’) OR (wp_posts.post_excerpt LIKE ‘%Oracle – Valid 1z0-1038-22 Valid Study Plan ?? Go to website ? https://www.pdfvce.com ? open and search for ? 1z0-1038-22 ? to download for free ??1z0-1038-22 Latest Study Guide%’) OR (wp_posts.post_content LIKE ‘%Oracle – Valid 1z0-1038-22 Valid Study Plan ?? Go to website ? https://www.pdfvce.com ? open and search for ? 1z0-1038-22 ? to download for free ??1z0-1038-22 Latest Study Guide%’)))  AND (wp_posts.post_password = ”)  AND ((wp_posts.post_type = ‘attachment’ AND (wp_posts.post_status = ‘publish’)) OR (wp_posts.post_type = ‘page’ AND (wp_posts.post_status = ‘publish’)) OR (wp_posts.post_type = ‘post’ AND (wp_posts.post_status = ‘publish’)) OR (wp_posts.post_type = ‘product’ AND (wp_posts.post_status = ‘publish’)) OR (wp_posts.post_type = ‘testimonial’ AND (wp_posts.post_status = ‘publish’)))

                                                                                     GROUP BY wp_posts.ID

                                                                                     ORDER BY (CASE WHEN wp_posts.post_title LIKE ‘%Oracle – Valid 1z0-1038-22 Valid Study Plan ?? Go to website ? https://www.pdfvce.com ? open and search for ? 1z0-1038-22 ? to download for free ??1z0-1038-22 Latest Study Guide%’ THEN 2 ELSE 6 END), wp_posts.post_date DESC

                                                                                     LIMIT 0, 10 made by require(‘wp-blog-header.php’), wp, WP->main, WP->query_posts, WP_Query->query, WP_Query->get_posts

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  • That looks like spam via the public search to me. The search term obviously contains characters that belong to different character sets. This causes the error message.

    Does your website use the public search? Is there an input field for it? If so, you should perhaps look into adding anti-spam protection here.

    If you are already using a plugin that somehow influences the search, deactivate it as a test.

    First impression may look like a SQL injection, but it’s just SEO spam trying to generate backlinks to their URLs using your search result page.
    It’s works very easy: they link to your website’s search function with the spam text includings links and keywords as search string, and your search page returns something like “nothing found for: {here comes the spam text}”

    Make sure your search result page is NOINDEX, and maybe also NOFOLLOW.
    Check your Google Search Console if those search results are already indexed. If so, remove from the index all URLs beginning with: yourdomain/?s= and yourdomain/search/
    Maybe use a security plugin or filter snippet to suppress unwanted search queries (and/or the output of those searches), like containing links or emojis.
    Or block searches with external referrers, in the .htaccess or with a WAF / security plugin.

    And:

    To fix the “WordPress database error Illegal mix of collations”, the easiest way is to use this plugin: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/database-collation-fix/ – but make a backup first, as the plugin recommends in the FAQ.
    The error itself is mostly harmless, and is caused here by the emojis in the search string.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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