Wordpress Blog Hacked!
In one sentence – Upgrade to Wordpress 2.8.4 right now!!
That is unless you want to leave your blog open to being hacked. If you are using an older version of Wordpress, your blog has security vulnerabilities. Thankfully, these security loopholes have been fixed in Wordpress.
If you don’t think this can happen to you, think again!
One of my websites which is based on a Wordpress blog and was running on version 2.0.9 got hacked a while back. I would never have found out if not for Google Webmaster Tools.
So if you have not signed up for that yet, better do so asap as they have some very good tools which will help with optimizing your website/blog.
Once you are signed up check the link in the sidebar: Your site on the web > Keywords
This section shows the most common keywords Google finds on your website.
For me I was getting adult related keyword results which were not on my website. On checking the website source, I could see nothing. On checking the cached version at Google, I found the source had a zillion links to websites using these keywords.
I searched all over for an answer, I checked my files and database as much as I could but could not figure out where the links were coming from.
My Solution
In the end the best solution, albeit a time consuming one, was to re-install WP 2.8.4 with a new database and a new database user. Here’s how:
- Created a new database, a new database user and installed WP 2.8.4 in a sub folder called Blog.
- Replicated WP settings and started installing and setting up the plugins.
- Uploaded the old theme from my computer where I had a clean copy.
- Started copy/pasting the pages and posts content manually.
- Once the whole thing was set up exactly how I wanted it, I deleted the files in the root folder.
- Next step was to move the files from the blog folder to the root folder.
- Next I deleted the old database and any users associated with it.
- Just to be safe also changed the hosting and FTP passwords.
Now the true test – waiting for Google to crawl my website again to see if it will pick up the clean version or if the hack is still there. I will update this post as soon as I have that information.
Upgrading Wordpress
If you’d like to upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress and you are using WP 2.7 + then upgrading is simple. You can upgrade from within WP control panel by clicking Upgrade Now.
However, if you are using an earlier version which was installed manually, then it will have to be updated manually as well.
If you want I can do that for you. The options are:
$47 for the basic upgrade
$97 for the basic upgrade plus plugin upgrade.
Hire Me to upgrade your Wordpress and avoid getting hacked
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I’ve had that annoying yellow bar telling me to upgrade to WP...
Divorce Lawyer Austin says:
On September 30th, 2009 4:02 pm
I havent notice anything with my WP blog better check things out, thanks for the heads up.
Julie Hodges says:
On October 2nd, 2009 6:20 pm
I’m not really funned of updating WP especially if I’ve already installed all the plug ins. But with this latest incident theres no choice but to update.
Charles from Las Vegas Real Estate says:
On November 16th, 2009 4:40 pm
Probably one of the best tings about version 2.7 is the ease of upgrading to a new version. It will definitely encourage WP newbies to upgrade more often.