by

The Great Hack Of 2011

Sep 16 2011
@ 1:29 am
in Community, Experiences, Tech & Design, Tech & Stats

So a bunch of us WordPress addicts and some other GoDaddy customers got hacked a couple of days ago and some are still having issues. This hack affected this blog as well as some of the blogs of our Social Fabric community members.

This post details what we did to fix the issue on the CB blog. If you’re having similar problems with your site, hopefully these steps can help you as well.  Unfortunately it’s not a super simple fix and also not a one-size-fits-all fix either.

Here is what we did:

  1. I cleaned up the .htaccess file, this can be found using an FTP client or using your hosting company’s file explorer (it should be located in the root directory of your site)
  2. I patched what was probably the cause (I say probably because there isn’t a real good way to say it’s definitely the cause)
  3. I asked Google for a review (This can take a while and is the most frustrating)

This third step is perhaps the most important. Once you clear up the source of a site hack, Google may still have your site flagged as containing malware. Until you ask for a formal review, Google and other search engines may continue to flag your site for inappropriate content.

I hope this helps you out, catch me on Twitter @cwhittl if you have any questions and I will do my best to help!

Also here is an explanation of the issue and some general tips for WordPress security (it can be a little technical so don’t worry it just background for those that might care)
http://blog.sucuri.net/2011/08/timthumb-php-security-vulnerability-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg.html

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5 responses to The Great Hack Of 2011

  1. Anne-Marie Kovacs said on September 16, 2011 Reply

    This happened to me, twice in 2010. WordPress + GoDaddy = invitation for hackers. I moved away from GoDaddy. Not a problem since.

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      whitt said on September 19, 2011 Reply

      Yeah we are definitely working towards that..

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  2. Trudy said on September 16, 2011 Reply

    What were the signs and symptoms of your hack?

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      whitt said on September 19, 2011 Reply

      Hi Trudy sorry about the lag in me replying… We we’re moving this week and just got back to a place with WIFI…
      The symptoms are 2 part.
      1) If you search for your site via google (actually go to the google site and search for your site) when you click the link it takes you somewhere other than your site.
      2) If this happens for long enough google will detect it and flag your site as malicious.

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  3. Monica said on September 18, 2011 Reply

    Thanks Whittle and Jay for fixing this so quickly! You all were ON it! :) High five.

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