WordPress Hacked with Infestation of Random PHP files

  • Hi,

    I have what seems to be an infestation of ‘hack / backdoor?’ files on my iPage server which hosts several WordPress installations acting principally as static CMS websites. These files exist in every single one of my WordPress installations. I have no idea what they do nor how they got there and I can’t find anyone with a similar problem through by Googling. My current strategy is to delete them and install hardening / security plug-ins for each domain – also to change passwords on my FTP server. I’d love to hear from anyone else if they’ve experienced similar, and if anyone can offer any further insight.

    I’ve written .php script which searches for these files, which appear to have a characteristic size of between 5KB and 6.5KB, and dated 2012, even for recent installs. This is an example of the files found in just one of my installations…

    ../wp-content/plugins/mojo-marketplace/classlocale.php
    ../wp-content/plugins/mojo-marketplace/updater/wraplocale.php
    ../wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/classgeneral.php
    ../wp-content/plugins/w3-total-cache/lib/Minify/Solar/wrapperlocale.php
    ..gpm/wp-content/plugins/appointment-booking-calendar/TDE_AppCalendar/light/classlocale.php
    ../wp-content/plugins/appointment-booking-calendar/wrappergeneral.php
    ../wp-content/plugins/appointment-calendar/wrapperlocale.php
    ../wp-content/plugins/appointment-calendar/menu-pages/font-awesome-assets/fonts/wrappergeneral.php
    ../wp-content/plugins/appointments/loadlocale.php
    ../wp-content/plugins/appointments/includes/support/classapi.php
    ../wp-content/plugins/birchschedule/assets/js/jscolor/wrapgeneral.php
    ../wp-content/plugins/birchschedule/wraplocale.php
    ../wp-content/themes/twentytwelve/entry-archive.php
    ../wp-content/themes/twentytwelve/css/content-nav.php
    ../wp-content/themes/twentyfourteen/sidebar-nav.php
    ../wp-content/themes/twentyfourteen/languages/content-archive.php
    ../wp-content/themes/twentythirteen/content-meta.php
    ../wp-content/themes/twentythirteen/css/entry-archive.php
    ../wp-content/themes/gpm/content-funcs.php
    ../wp-content/themes/gpm/images/sidebar-nav.php
    ../wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/paste/wp-locale.php
    ../wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/image/ms-meta.php
    ../wp-includes/SimplePie/func-general.php

    You can see that they are quite randomly distributed and often buried deep in the directory structure.

    [hacked code removed – please don’t post that here]

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

  • Assume you’ve seen these – as they are frequently posted:

    https://codex.www.ads-software.com/FAQ_My_site_was_hacked
    https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/268083#post-1065779
    https://smackdown.blogsblogsblogs.com/2008/06/24/how-to-completely-clean-your-hacked-wordpress-installation/
    https://ottopress.com/2009/hacked-wordpress-backdoors/

    Additional Resources:
    https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Hardening_WordPress
    https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/scanner/
    https://www.unmaskparasites.com/
    https://blog.sucuri.net/2012/03/wordpress-understanding-its-true-vulnerability.html

    Thread Starter funkiegh

    (@funkiegh)

    Hi WPyogi, thanks for your reply. Yes, I’ve seen most of those. I’m mostly interested in the specifics of this attack, what it is intended to do (there doesn’t seem to be any problem with the sites) and if anyone has had similar. It’s why I’d posted some small code snippets to aid recognition.

    Did you find out any more about this? I just noticed one of those odd files (content-meta.php) inside a custom theme on an old site that I completed last May. I can’t find any evidence (other than that one file) that anything is amiss, but would like to investigate further. I have found no results on the internet except yours, here. Any ideas? Thanks!

    Thread Starter funkiegh

    (@funkiegh)

    Hi, the only information I’ve managed to find is from Googling the scan data from my host, who confirmed the infection. Just type “JCDEF.Obfus.CreateFunc.BackDoorEval-26.UNOFFICIAL FOUND” into Google and you’ll find lots of references to Pharma hacks. In fact that’s how I started noticing these files as I was investigating a Viagra link that suddenly appeared on my website in the header area. I got rid of the link by removing hack code from my functions.php file but I couldn’t figure what all these other files were doing. Maybe they are back-doors. Anyway I cleaned them all out, tightened my security, added some security plugins and I’ve not had any problem since. They were quite easy to find as all were between 5KB and 6.5KB in size and dated in 2012 – are yours similar?

    I have been scouring the site, but all I can find is that one file I mentioned above. I have seen no evidence of any hack except this file. I have scoured the site, the DB, everything (I think). I have never had my header changed or anything that I can detect other than this one file (which doesn’t even seem to have any executable code in it, just a bunch of terms and numbers in parenthesis after them, which are perhaps hits or weights). I continue to look at it. Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.

    I’m having same issue too. Accroding to iPage’s technical support, it is CryptoPHP infection and I have to remove the malicious files or remove the malicious content from the files.

    Got the same problem on 4 iPage WordPress sites. iPage took the sites offline until they are cleaned up. Their site scanner takes 4 hours to scan 4 websites, I assume they must have to queue scanning jobs, on my second scan so fingers crossed this should be it.

    i have the same thing with ipage and have suffered through multiple closures of my accounts. the funny thing is that they only run their scan on the same day each month (the 25th in my case), and they don’t alert me when they close my account. in some instances, it has been a day or more before i realized dozens or more of my sites were offline. i have asked for their help in identifying what is going on, but they just tell me to change my password.

    what i find interesting is that everyone who has dealt with this particular problem is also using ipage shared servers. coincidence? i don’t think so. i set up a test account that was as secure and squeaky clean as it could be and they flagged it on the 25th of the month again. definitely time to find another host.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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