cbatty

@mbrsolution, Thanks for providing the link. Yes that post is similar to my situation, although the questioner does not provide a final result. It gives some scenarios to explore to see if the problem goes away but none applied to my situation (I have no cloudflare or simlar service, for instance).

However, @dag2514 has replied with an interesting story and his (or her) solution, together with a mention of a blog post in tips and tricks that he remembers. Perhaps you know which post he is referring to and can save him the touble of searching for it:)
His experience has made me much less worried, because he is able to reproduce it only under certain circumstances – Thank you @dag2514 it does help!

Since tightening up using many of the other options provided by the plugin, the ‘two users logged in’ scanario has not happened, but I have not been logged in very much, nor for long periods, because I am focussing on preparing articles for the new site offline. I’ll see what happens when more time is spent putting them on the web site. I may have done something already that has changed things, without knowing.

If it happens again I will let you know and will try the @dag2514 method.
I will not mark it as resolved just yet, in case more light can be shed on the subject that would help someone with a similar query.

Thank you both for your continued interest and assistance with this – I hope I will not have to bother you again about it:)

@mbrsolution,

Thank you, I’m not clear what you mean by ‘the following forum post’, but I looked at the post after mine (Brute force information request).
While the post is not at all the same issue because I did not suffer a brute force attack and mine was an isolated intrusion, I saw that it had relevence regarding increasing security.

In that reply you wrote that renaming the WP login page is a very good idea, so I have done that in addition to implementing as many of the security measures provided by your plugin as possible.

So, the mystery of the intrusion and whether anyone can fake their IP to be the same as the website they are visiting remains. It would be interesting to know how it was done but I appreciate the answer could be more useful to would-be hackers than to those defending their websites.

The use of my own username is solved, I had not noticed that it was visible on the front end and I have changed the nickname of the admin user and made that name visible now.

For others worried that a hacker knows all the admin’s details, there is also the option of creating a new admin user and deleting the original.

By going slowly and carefully through the options in the plugin I now have tighter security for my website. Suggestions gleaned from reading other posts in the forum have helped me understand vulnerable areas better.

Time will tell how effective the security measures are.
Thanks again.

Thanks for replying @dag2514
One ip was mine, the public ip. The other IP was the ip of my website, which is the server my host provides, of course.
No-one at my hosting provider was logged in at the time. I asked them to check my server Afterwards. They did not log in to wordpress at all.
That’s what I meant when I said “I asked my host to scan the site for unusual activity and signs of malware but they found nothing.”

So now I’m thinking I should be concerned that the AIOWP Security plugin was indeed showing that someone else, who was on the same ip as my website, WAS logged in to my wordpress site?

I got such a fright to get that message, so when it said I could force the other to log out, I just did it and also logged out myself as fast a possible. I did not stop to take a screenshot, unfortunately.

I have since logged in again to see if there is anything in the log files. There is not.
I do not know whether I need to do anything else to secure the website.

My Pleasure – It’s not often I know the Solution to something:)

More Notes: I had errors before you issued the beta version.

I have not yet tested it on the larger site that didn’t work with the non-beta version – nor on a different not-so good host, but when I have done so, I will tell you the results on the thread:
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/copying-file-has-been-failed-and-will-be-skipped/
where you posted the solution to the error.

That thread demonstrates the importance of developers keeping plugins up to date with all the WP core updates as they can be quite radical and, among other uses, this plugin allows website owners to test first and replace plugins and themes that are no longer supported or updated before updating the WordPress core, and avoid breaking their sites.

Thank you @renehermi for this extremely useful plugin – long may you continue to support and develop it…

P.S. If you are able to edit the title of this Thread may I respectfully suggest it should read:
How To Delete Plugin And All Staging Sites
The current title implies a directive to remove it, and that in turn implies that the plugin is no longer operational, but you are obviously currently working on it and updating instructions are in the current www.ads-software.com version.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by cbatty.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by cbatty. Reason: Corrected wording for clarity

Hello @mikejds , I noticed this has not been answered yet.
1.– Delete first the staging site via plugin
*Log into your Live Site Admin where you installed the plugin.
WP Staging should be in the side bar on the left. Click ‘Start’.
Any Staging site you have created will be listed with the name you gave it when you created it.
Next to the name are 3 buttons: Delete, Edit, Open.
Click ‘Delete’.

2.– Enable Wp Staging Option: Remove Data on Uninstall
*Go to WP Staging >Settings, Scroll down to the ‘Remove Data on Uninstall’ option, tick the box and SAVE the settings.

3.– Delete the plugin
*Will remove the plugin

Step one is also useful if you want to create a new staging or development area but need recover space on your hosting.

Note – I’m replying as a user, I do not know @renehermi but hope this is useful and that he will correct me if I am wrong. I am using the beta version mentioned by him but presume these options are available in the older version somewhere.
I hope the plugin will continue to be supported – so very useful!
In particular to test new plugins and themes as well as updates including WordPress core before deploying on live site.
Thanks @renehermi,
C

I have just installed wp-staging on a live site.(latest version) I am also getting copy file failed error after successful copy of database. The plugin folder permissions are 755

I read your solution above:
‘Make the owner of the files the same as the server owner. Usually www-data.’
I’m sorry, I don’t know what that means or where to do it.

Please explain or provide a different solution.

Thanks

@dwinden

My iTsec settings panel has re-appeared! Hurrah – all thanks to your advice.

For the record, in case anyone has a similar problem –

I changed the Theme – no change, went on to do the series of plugin deactivations one by one as directed and found the culprit.

It was a very old social sharing plugin that has disappeared off the face of the earth and is no longer supported or updated. I propmtly deleted it.

I learned a lesson.
Even if you quickly update plugins at every prompt, it’s worth checking that plugins or themes that don’t hassle you with updates are still around and updated.

Thsnks agsin dwindon, for your help.
Please feel free to make this resolved.
cbatty

@dwinden
Thanks for getting back, and so soon,

I will do all you suggest on my backup site this evening – I have to attend to a job now and the afternoon is almost over. I will returm later or tomorrow with results.

I have just noticed you use the @ sign – it must flag this up, I’m guessing. I’m Not much of a forum or social media user so not in the habit:) will try to remember…

cbatty

Hello again dwinden,
In addition to the above … This extra detail may be a clue.

There is only one place that I can look at -I can see the log page, by accessing it from the side menu, but clicking the detail link opens a blank pop up with no detail in it.
I can see there are many attempts to access worpress files that do not exist resulting in 404erros, and some lockouts. The attacks are mostly from different ip’s but several from one ip came today.

I see my own ip on one 404 error
for this – I attempted to look at an image and was directed to 404 – I was logged in at the time.
Here is the error I triggered.
2016-06-21 10:12:48 myip##.115 /wp-content/thesis/skins/woo-commerce-skin/images/bg-button.png ://my—website.com/wp-content/thesis/skins/woo-commerce-skin/css.css

I have also flushed the DNS (cleared my DNS’s Cache by command)

Needless to say, I can’t look at my settings to see if I set something that prevents me before I updated the iThemes Security plugin to version 5.6
I hope this helps you to understand what is going on and that you have a solution.

Cbatty

Thanks dwinden,
Sorry rather long – I’ve been tryng to figure it out on my own.

I have taken your advice with no result, I’m, sorry to say.
I don’t think it is browser related.

I have tested in different browsers like this:

I cleared the cache, restarted firefox etc. Then tried Windows explorer, which a rarely use and only for such tests.
I then installed chrome – brand new browser –
No joy.

I have done so over time to make sure.
I habitually clear all cache, cookies etc on closing my browser too.

The settings page has nothing showing either on the live website nor on the copy I made in localhost (apache server)
both environments run PHP 5.5 and sql version 5.5.40

Please, Any other idea why I am getting nothing?

Tahnk you for your time,
CBatty