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	<title>hacked &#8211; WordPress Security Blog</title>
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		<title>Files left sitting in your WordPress directory can be dangerous—here’s why.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10952</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Sep 2026 02:04:59 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[htaccess]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10952</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Here, we’ll explain the security risks posed by various files left sitting in your WordPress directory. Dangerous Files Left in the WordPress Directory When hackers attempt to compromise a site, they may try to access various files stored in the WordPress directory by randomly entering their URLs in an attempt to use them as a foothold for the attack. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you do not leave the files described below on your server. *Blocking access via .htaccess settings is also an effective security measure. 1. Remnants of wp-config.php wp-config.php is WordPress’s configuration file that contains extremely important settings, such as database connection information. For this reason, hackers may attempt to obtain remnants of this file in order to add unauthorized administrators or alter content. (While direct access to `wp-config.php` displays nothing, the contents of these remnants may be viewable.) Examples of URLs that may be accessed: /wp-config.php.bak /wp-config.php.old /wp-config.php~ /wp-config.php.save /wp-config.php.orig /wp-config.php.swp Directories: /.bak /.old /.orig /.save, etc. We recommend that you delete all backup files of `wp-config.php` and similar files from the server. 2. Git Repository Information for Development Please check to ensure that no development folders—such as .git/, .svn/, or .env—have been left on the server. Hackers could potentially use these files to reconstruct the entire source code, including WordPress configuration files. 3. Database Connection Files To easily connect to the database, hackers may have already stolen your database connection information or may search the server for database connection programs to launch brute-force attacks. URLs such as the following are common targets for attacks: /phpmyadmi /phpMyadmin (with some letters capitalized) /phpmyadmin(combination of numbers) /phppma /myadmin /PMA /pma /phpMyAdmin-version-all-languages /adminer.php /adminer-version.php /adminer-version-mysql.php /adminer etc. *Note: The `setup.php` file in PHPMyAdmin (used to configure database connections) may also be targeted. We strongly recommend that you either avoid installing database connection software on the server altogether, or install it in a folder with a random string name and apply Basic Authentication—taking extreme caution during installation. 4. Database Dump Files If database dump files (backup files containing content, administrator IDs, and passwords) are left on the server, they may be compromised. /db_backup.site-domain.sql.gz /db_backup.sql.gz /dump.sql /site-domain.sql /backup.sql /db.sql /database.sql /sql.sql etc. *Even if a hacker gains access to the database, they will not be able to obtain the administrator password.This is because WordPress stores passwords in an encrypted format. However, if a hacker manages to obtain not only the database but also the values for `AUTH_KEY` and `SECURE_AUTH_KEY` (which are written in `wp-config.php`), they can spoof cookies and log in to WordPress as an administrator. I hope this information is helpful. If your WordPress site has already been hacked and malware has been installed, we recommend running a malware scan using a plugin. [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware &#038; Virus Detection and Removal]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10952</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>What to Do If an Unfamiliar Administrator Has Been Added to WordPress</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10942</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 01:43:04 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10942</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[If an unfamiliar administrator has been added to WordPress, we’ll explain how to determine whether that administrator is unauthorized and what steps to take. How to Determine if an Unfamiliar Administrator Is an Unauthorized Account Created by a Hack Administrators added through hacking typically have the following characteristics: ・Administrator privileges ・0 posts ・Unauthorized administrator IDs often have the following characteristics: ◇ Administrator names consisting of random character strings ◇ IDs containing arbitrary character strings such as “12345” or “adcde” ◇ IDs or email addresses containing strings that impersonate legitimate users, such as “wp-update,” “wp-demouser,” or “wp-import-user” ◇ IDs or email addresses containing slightly altered versions of “administrator,” such as “administratoirr” or “administratoir” *Please note that there are many fraudulent administrator users that do not exhibit the characteristics listed above. We hope you will use this information as a general guide. Method 1 for Dealing with Unauthorized Administrator Users The basic method for dealing with unauthorized users is to delete them. If you’re unsure whether a user is unauthorized, changing their password will prevent the hacker from logging in, even if the user is indeed unauthorized. Method 2 for Dealing with Unauthorized Administrator Users: The presence of an unauthorized user indicates that your WordPress site has been successfully hacked The fact that an unauthorized user has been created means that a hacker has already gained access to your WordPress site. • The hacker is exploiting a vulnerability that allows them to modify the database and create unauthorized users. • The hacker has installed malicious programs, such as backdoors, that exploit this vulnerability to modify the database and create unauthorized users. For this reason, it is necessary to remove malware from the entire WordPress site and implement security measures to patch the vulnerabilities. We would appreciate it if you could use the [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware &#038; Virus Detection and Removal], which allows you to easily scan for and remove malware and check for vulnerabilities directly from a plugin. Since many types of malware these days spread beyond the domain folder on the server to infect other sites, we recommend—if possible—that malware scanning, removal, and security measures be performed on all WordPress sites under your server account.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10942</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>What are the countermeasures when the era of AI attacking WordPress arrives?</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10936</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2026 02:07:49 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10936</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Here, we’ll explain how to prepare for the era when AI starts attacking WordPress. Can AI Hack WordPress Sites? It is difficult for major AI systems (such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini) to attack WordPress sites. This is because these AI systems have built-in safeguards that prevent them from generating such requests or malicious code. However, there are examples of open-source models (such as Llama, Mistral, and Qwen) that can be run locally and are susceptible to “jailbreaking”—a process that removes the provider’s security safeguards after the fact. Modified or specialized versions of these models, with little to no security measures in place, are also circulating. However, this does not mean that AI can successfully hack any website—not even now. Existing security measures remain effective even in the AI era. I will explain this point in more detail. WordPress Hacking Countermeasures Required in the AI Era With the spread of AI, the reality is that attacks on WordPress sites are less about “new attack methods” and more about the “automation and sophistication of existing attacks.” In other words, even with AI, the fundamental approach—exploiting existing, known WordPress vulnerabilities—remains unchanged; however, the speed and quality of these attacks may be increasing. Generally, hackers hack WordPress sites following the process outlined below: 1. A vulnerability is discovered. 2. The hacker develops an automated tool to exploit that vulnerability. 3. The hacker obtains a list of several thousand—or in some cases, tens of thousands or more—WordPress sites. *In some cases for step 3, hackers may exploit search engines to pinpoint and acquire only WordPress sites with specific vulnerabilities. 4. Using the tool from step 2, they launch attacks one after another on the WordPress sites from the list obtained in step 3. (Since there are a vast number of WordPress sites, they often simply exploit vulnerabilities regardless of whether the attack succeeds or fails.) AI is likely to lower the barrier to entry for step 2 and make step 4 more efficient. Regarding step 2, AI is now capable of creating vulnerability-exploiting tools based on publicly available vulnerability information and Proof-of-Concept (POC) documents—which detail the specific steps required for a successful attack—even without advanced technical skills. As a result, it is highly likely that the time between when a vulnerability is discovered and when it is exploited to carry out a hack will continue to shrink. Although there is currently little research on exactly how much this timeframe is shortening, Rapid has reported that the frequency of attacks exploiting vulnerabilities has more than doubled. In the recent case of the “wp2shell” vulnerability discovered in WordPress, a PoC was circulating on GitHub within 48 hours of the release of the patch, and multiple security vendors observed actual attacks. *However, since WordPress hacking attacks are carried out sequentially against the vast number of WordPress sites, this does not mean that such an attack will reach your company within 48 hours. Because there are so many WordPress sites, the list of targets is enormous, and the time required to work through that list sequentially is very long—this is [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10936</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Regarding the Issue of WordPress Security Measures Being Overly Focused on Login Protection</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10895</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2026 01:47:45 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[protection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10895</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[I’d like to discuss the issue that security measures for many WordPress sites tend to focus too much on protecting the login process. Are you focusing too much on securing the WordPress login screen? WordFence has reported the following causes of WordPress hacking: https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/03/attackers-gain-access-wordpress-sites/ 1st: Plugin vulnerabilities—nearly 60% 2nd: Login page breaches (brute-force attacks)—nearly 20% 3rd: Vulnerabilities in WordPress core files—nearly 10% 4th: Theme vulnerabilities—around 5 percent— 5th: Hosting server vulnerabilities—around 5 percent— These statistics align with our own experience, as we frequently find that clients have vulnerable plugins installed when we perform malware removal on their WordPress sites. The probability of the login screen being compromised is less than 20% Based on these statistics, the probability of the login screen being compromised and WordPress being hacked is less than 20%. Furthermore, since a brute-force attack is a method that attempts to guess the correct password by systematically trying common passwords one after another, a brute-force attack will generally fail if you use a strong password(a password of 12 characters or more containing a random mix of alphanumeric characters and symbols), a brute-force attack will not succeed. For this reason, the most important security measure for WordPress is not so much securing the login screen, but rather addressing vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins and core files. *You can also use plugins to scan for and remove WordPress vulnerabilities and malware. We highly recommend using them. [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal] Currently, many websites focus their efforts on strengthening login page security However, security measures for WordPress sites are often limited to changing the login page URL, implementing CAPTCHA, or enabling two-factor authentication (2FA). Since many site owners feel secure just by implementing these measures, it is common for their sites to become infected with malware. While login screen security measures are not a waste of effort, it is even more important to constantly monitor for vulnerabilities. If a major vulnerability is found in a plugin or other component, taking immediate action—such as updating it—will ensure your site can be operated safely for the long term. You can also check for high-risk plugins and WordPress Core vulnerabilities here. We hope this information is helpful.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10895</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>A WordPress site you are maintaining may be infected with malware. We will explain how to respond to this situation.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10836</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 20 May 2026 01:42:32 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[error]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[htaccess]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[index.php]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scanner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10836</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain various aspects of how to respond when a WordPress site you are maintaining is discovered to be infected with malware by a client. What is the initial response when a malware infection of a maintained site is suspected based on a notification from a client or a suggestion from a site user? In this case, the first thing to do is to ascertain the status of malware infection. Typical symptoms of a malware-infected site will be as follows &#8211; When you access the site, you are redirected to another site. &#8211; Logging in is no longer possible (403 error on the login screen). &#8211; Many invalid pages are registered in the search results. &#8211; Browser turns red and warns of malware infection &#8211; Unrecognized spam mails are sent from the same domain in large quantities. &#8211; An administrator user is added to the system that I don&#8217;t remember adding. If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, there is a high possibility that you are infected with malware. We use a malware scanning mechanism to examine the site. Use an online malware inspection system or a plug-in to inspect the site for malware. Online Malware Screens https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/ Malware scanning with plug-ins WP Doctor Malware Scanner Pro Mechanical malware scans (especially online malware scans) have limited detection power. We recommend that you do not declare to your clients that they do not have malware just because your malware scan did not find any malware. In fact, there have been cases where the cause was a new type of malware infection, and the site became inaccessible due to the spread of the malware infection without taking countermeasures, resulting in compensation for damages. It is better to clearly identify the cause of the site problems that the client is pointing out and then politely inform the client that malware is not the cause of the symptoms, so that there will be fewer problems later. FTP connection to check for malicious files on the server Connect to the server with FTP software to check for malicious files or tampering with legitimate files. Typical malicious files include the following (1) index.php file contains obfuscated strings (2) htaccess has writings that prohibit access to the php file (3) A php file with a random alphanumeric name (4) There is a file with a name slightly changed from the name of the regular file such as wp-confiq.php. (5) Files with the same name, such as moon.php, are written in various folders (even outside the public directory), and the contents of these files contain obfuscated code. What to do if you are sure that your site has been infected with malware If we discover that a site is infected with malware, we will notify the client and inform them of what to do and how long it will take to restore the site. The basic measures to be taken when a site is infected with malware are as follows &#8211; Remove the malware infection &#8211; Remove the vulnerability that allowed hackers to enter the site &#8211; Provide [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10836</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Latest password policy for using WordPress with multiple administrators and editors (contributors).</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10800</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 01:26:28 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10800</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain the latest password policy (how to determine a unified password) when using WordPress with multiple administrators and editors (contributors). How to determine WordPress passwords, password policy The way passwords are determined has changed over time. Until a few years ago, periodic password changes were recommended, but now it is believed that once a strong password is created, it does not need to be changed, and double authentication is also becoming more popular. Current Recommended Password Policies Length Priority Minimum 12-16 characters. Length is the most important factor for security. Passphrase A combination of words such as correct-horse-battery-staple is effective Change only when a leak is suspected. Change only if you suspect a leak. Unnecessary forced change is counterproductive. Combination of 2FA and MFA (multi-factor authentication) Reduce reliance on single passwords Use of password managers Manage long, random passwords without using them repeatedly for each service. Match against compromised lists Match against databases such as Have I Been Pwned and block In the case of WordPress, the use of passwords similar to user IDs is also a major cause of hacking. For this reason, we recommend that you do not use passwords that contain a string of characters that includes your user ID! Why is it not necessary to change my password on a regular basis? When people are told that they must change their password every 90 days, many try to keep it to a minimum so that it is easy to remember. Here is a typical pattern we have observed in practice Sakura2024! → Sakura2025! → Sakura2026! What is the use of a password manager? The idea here is to have the application remember complex passwords, rather than having a human remember them. Browsers have a function to record passwords, but this is a password manager. There is also software that encrypts and stores passwords, such as https://keepass.info/. What is a check against a compromised list? Hackers also use the list of compromised passwords in a brute force attack to enforce login. This means that even if the passwords are long enough and random enough, the compromised passwords will not be used. One site to check for compromised passwords is https://haveibeenpwned.com/ and others. What happens if my WordPress password is weak? It is said that 20% of WordPress sites are hacked and tampered with due to weak passwords, which can lead to the loss of administrative privileges. Hackers use a list of commonly used passwords and mechanically repeat login enforcement thousands and thousands of times to try to log in. This is called a brute force attack. Please use the [Free] WordPress:Malware Scan &#038; Security Plug-in [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal], a security plugin that can detect and suppress brute force attacks. It is important that you use an appropriate password policy to prevent such brute force attacks and reduce the possibility of WordPress hacking.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10800</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why is it compromised even though the plug-ins are up-to-date &#8211; vulnerability created by &#8220;obsolete plug-ins&#8221;?</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10786</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 01:49:47 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10786</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain why plug-ins can be compromised even if they are up-to-date &#8211; vulnerabilities created by &#8220;obsolete plug-ins&#8221; based on the attack patterns we have detected. There is a possibility of malware infection even though all plug-ins are up-to-date! Even if all plug-ins are up-to-date, you may be infected with malware through other sites on the server, or through vulnerabilities in obsolete plug-ins (which are not updated). In this article, we will explain the dangers of obsolete plug-ins. Obsolete plug-ins are not updated and appear to be up-to-date from the plugin management screen. Even if you are using WordPress and update your plugins for security reasons, they may appear to be up-to-date in the plugin management screen, even though they are no longer under development by their creator and have not been updated for a long period of time. (The official wordpres.org site has also stopped distributing the plugin, so automatic updates will not be applied). If such a plugin is installed on a site and a major vulnerability is discovered, the vulnerability will be left in place for a long time afterwards, increasing the likelihood that it will one day be hacked by hackers. (Although rare, plugins with a large number of installations may be subject to emergency security updates by wordpress.org or volunteers.) The following are examples of suspended plugins that we have detected as targets of hacker attacks 1. MyPixs (version 0.3 or lower) CVE: CVE-2015-1000012 Type: LFI (local file inclusion) Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High) Typical WPScan LFI vulnerability in downloadpage.php where the value of $_REQUEST[&#8220;url&#8221;] is directly passed to include(), which reads arbitrary files on the server without authentication. wp-config.php and other confidential files. No patch and development has been stopped, so immediate removal is recommended. 2. Phee&#8217;s LinkPreview (version 1.6.7 and below) CVE: CVE-2024-13464 (XSS), CVE-2025-27344 (CSRF) Type: XSS CSRF Severity: CVSS 4.3 (Medium) XSS (CVE-2024-13464) and CSRF (CVE-2025-27344) have been reported, both of which are in SolidWP status with no patch available. CSRF is a Patchstack that may allow attackers to force highly privileged users to perform unintended operations. Patchstack, a relatively new vulnerability (reported in 2024-2025), which is still left unfixed at this time. 3. WP Mobile Detector (version 3.5 and below) CVE: CVE-2016-4833 Type: Arbitrary file upload → RCE (remote code execution) Severity: Critical Astra Security can remotely upload arbitrary files to a web server by exploiting the resize.php script, allowing it to function as a web shell (backdoor) and hijack the server. CISA has also issued an advisory CISA. 4. Site Import (version 1.0.1 or lower) Type: RFI (remote file inclusion) + LFI (local file inclusion) AcunetixRFI vulnerability that allows an attacker to include and execute external malicious PHP files due to insufficient input value validation for the url parameter in admin/page.php. PoC (proof-of-concept code) is also available, which allows remote shell upload and Exploit-DB, which has been proven to both upload remote shells and read local files via directory traversal; no patch to fix and removed from official repositories. Prevents vulnerability attacks on deprecated plugins. The only way to prevent vulnerability [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10786</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>I have all my plugins up to date and WordPress is infected, what is the real route of entry?</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10769</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Mar 2026 01:31:28 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10769</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[There are cases where WordPress is infected with malware even though WordPress itself and all plugins are up-to-date. We will explain the real route of entry in this case. Intrusion route 1: Unauthorized login to the management screen Twenty percent of the time, WordPress is hacked and tampered with because hackers are able to determine the password for administrative privileges and log in. Once a hacker is able to log in to the WordPress administration panel, they can do almost anything they want on the server, including defacing the site, installing unauthorized plug-ins, and uploading viruses. Hackers can use a variety of common password dictionaries to find out the login password for administrative privileges in what is called a brute force attack, in which the login enforcement is automatically repeated tens of thousands of times. We recommend that you use a password that is at least 12 characters long, is a random string of characters, and contains at least one single-byte alphanumeric character (upper and lower case) and one symbol. It is also dangerous to use a password that is close to your administrator ID. Intrusion route 2: Unauthorized login via test site The above unauthorized logins are equally dangerous with respect to test sites. Even if you think that the test site is undetectable, its URL or folder can be discovered by a search engine. We recommend that the administrator password for the test site be a random string of at least 12 characters, including at least one upper and one lower case alphanumeric character and one symbol. Intrusion route 3: Infection via another site on the server Some recent malware spreads infection automatically by scanning the folder structure on the server. If there are multiple sites sharing the same parent (Root) folder on the server, malware infection may spread through other sites. For this reason, it is necessary to remove unnecessary sites from the server, and to take security measures such as increasing the strength of the administrator&#8217;s password for all sites on the server, updating and vulnerability scanning to close the vulnerabilities. The following plug-ins can be used to easily perform vulnerability countermeasures and malware scanning of all sites on the server. We hope you will make use of it. Free WordPress:Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal]. Intrusion route 4 Vulnerability of the server itself In some cases, more fundamental vulnerabilities in the server&#8217;s OS (Linux), server configuration software, etc. can be exploited to infect a site with malware. Vulnerabilities in operating systems and middleware (Apache, Nginx, PHP, etc.) are discovered on a regular basis, and continued use of older, unpatched versions can allow an attacker to exploit these holes to gain entry into the server itself. Key measures include Regular OS and software updates, disabling unnecessary services and ports, configuring firewalls, strengthening SSH connections, installing a WAF (Web Application Firewall), regular log monitoring and tamper detection etc. However, on shared servers, these measures are taken by the server management company. (In many cases, the site operator is required to update the PHP version [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10769</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why you may not notice that your WordPress site has been tampered with and how to create a mechanism for early detection.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10756</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2026 01:21:36 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10756</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain why you may not notice that your WordPress site has been tampered with and how to create a mechanism for early detection. Why you may not notice that your WordPress site has been tampered with. Increasingly, WordPress sites are hacked and defaced and go unnoticed for long periods of time. The reason for this is that malware may have mechanisms in place to hide the defacement of the site from the administrator, or it may only manifest itself in rare instances. Such stealthy malware often has the following features Symptoms appear only when the site is accessed from Google search results. Once symptoms (such as misdirection to other sites) appear, COOKIE is used to prevent symptoms from appearing for a while. The system is designed so that users who are logged in with administrator privileges do not experience symptoms. Even if illegal links are inserted in the site by SEO spam, they are hidden by transparency or extremely small display on the appearance of the site. What should I do if I receive a complaint from a customer that the site jumps to an incorrect page without their permission, or that they cannot view the site? If you receive such a complaint, the site administrator can check the symptoms and find that the symptoms do not occur while logged in, or the malware may have already been configured to prevent the symptoms from occurring when accessed from your IP address. In such cases, we recommend that you first check to see if the symptoms really do not occur by using the following methods. 1. Log out of the WordPress site. 2. Delete all cache and cookies in incognito mode or in your browser. 3. Access the site again to check for any unauthorized behavior. 4. Delete all browser cache and cookies again. 5. Enter the URL of your site into a search engine and click on the link in the search results to see if any malware symptoms appear. 6. Check the above on your smartphone as well (some malware may only show symptoms on smartphones). We also recommend using an external inspection site such as Sucuri SItecheck. (This site simulates access from Google to externally detect malware on your site, so you can think of it as automatically performing the above checks.) https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/ https://malware-scan.website-malware-removal.com/ The best way to detect malware is to exhaustively inspect every file from the inside of the site External inspection tools, such as Sucuri, have much lower detection rates than those that exhaustively inspect files from within the site. In general, the code that creates the output (the malware itself) is always present somewhere, rather than the code that expresses the symptoms of the malware&#8217;s output, and is characterized by very long code, making it much easier to detect. Please use a plugin that performs a comprehensive scan of your WordPress site for malware from the inside. Free WordPress:Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal]. Automatically scans for malware infection and notifies you automatically. Free WordPress:Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10756</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>We will explain 5 blind spots that are more dangerous for WordPress operators who think they have security measures in place.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10717</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2026 01:35:14 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10717</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain five blind spots that are more dangerous for WordPress operators who think they have security measures in place. They are taking security measures only for the login screen. Around 20% of WordPress hacks are caused by weak passwords for administrative privileges, which allow hackers to take away administrative privileges. Hackers use brute force attacks, which are often used to test the administrator&#8217;s password one after the other to see if it can be used to log in. In fact, the most effective way to counter this attack is to strengthen the password for administrator privileges rather than increasing the security of the login screen. Since it takes more than a thousand years to match a strong password, which is logically a random string of 12 or more characters, with a brute force attack, it will be impossible to break a strong password. A strong password is a random string of nonsense characters that contains at least one uppercase and one lowercase symbol. We also hope you will note that changing the URL or captcha of the login screen is effective in preventing brute force attacks, but it alone will not prevent the vulnerability attack, which is the biggest cause of WordPress being hacked, as described below. Only enabled plugins care about vulnerabilities. It is said that 60% of the causes of WordPress being hacked are vulnerabilities in old plugins. Therefore, it is an extremely effective security measure to always be aware of the vulnerabilities of your plugins and update them on a regular basis. However, although WordPress allows you to enable and disable plugins, there are many vulnerabilities that can be exploited even if they are disabled. For this reason, we recommend that you remove deactivated plug-ins if possible, or update deactivated plug-ins as well. Please use our vulnerability database to check the vulnerability of plug-ins. No security measures have been taken for the test site or other sites on the server. We often see cases where a company has taken all the necessary security measures for its main WordPress site, but has neglected to secure its test site or other WordPress sites on the server. However, many of today&#8217;s malware reads the folders on the server from the top and spreads itself to other WordPress sites. This can lead to the spread of malware to other WordPress sites that have good security measures in place. We recommend that you remove abandoned sites from your server and implement security measures for all WordPress sites on your server. Five free WordPress security measures Backups are a good thing! Some people think that if they keep a backup of their WordPress site, they can revert to that point in time in the event of a malware infection, but in reality, the site may already contain malware at the time of backup, or the vulnerability at the time of backup is an entry point that hackers can quickly use to re-infect the site. Hackers can use the vulnerability to re-infect the system repeatedly. For this reason, it is not always safe to [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10717</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>I&#8217;ll explain exactly what happens if you don&#8217;t update WordPress.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10704</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 01:33:17 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10704</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[People say it&#8217;s dangerous not to update your WordPress&#8230; I&#8217;ll explain exactly what happens if you don&#8217;t update your WordPress. Why updating WordPress itself and plugins is important for security If you run a WordPress site, you are often told that updates are important for security. This is simply because updates often close vulnerabilities that are exploited by the program&#8217;s creators. The following is an explanation of how a site that is not updated can be hacked. 1 A vulnerability is discovered that could very easily allow an unauthorized file to be uploaded onto the server or a database to be rewritten. About 10 to 20 such vulnerabilities are discovered each year, and the information is made public to alert the public. However, it is also a double-edged sword, as many hackers use this public information to study how to exploit the vulnerabilities and hack. Hackers themselves sometimes discover major vulnerabilities that no one else is aware of before others do. Such vulnerabilities are called 0-day vulnerabilities. However, sooner or later, vulnerabilities that are used will be exposed by someone through server logs, etc., and shared as public information. 2 When a vulnerability is disclosed, the creator of the plugin, etc., patches the vulnerability to close it and releases an update In most cases, the vulnerable plug-in producer is notified of the vulnerability and releases a new version of the plug-in with a patch to close the vulnerability. 3 Hackers create tools to attack vulnerabilities and attack a vast number of WordPress sites one after another! Hackers obtain a huge list of WordPress sites from search engines and other information, develop a program that automatically attacks vulnerabilities found in 1 and notifies them if the hack is successful, attack hundreds of thousands of sites one after another, and repeatedly gain unauthorized access to the sites with the mindset that success is a blessing. If they succeed, they are satisfied. 4 Successful attack on your site&#8217;s vulnerability by chance If you do not update your site, the vulnerability will be left unattended on your site and will one day be hit by a hacker who will automatically attack a vast number of sites one after another. The hacker will be notified of a successful attack, and a more dangerous backdoor, a malicious program, will be installed on your server. 5 Hackers perform various hacking activities on the successfully attacked site Hackers can perform a wide variety of activities on a site after a successful vulnerability attack, such as generating a large number of malicious pages, creating users with illegal administrator privileges, altering the theme to misdirect visitors to another site, and using the site as a source of spam mail. At this point, it often becomes apparent to the site operator that the site has been tampered with. 60% to 70% of sites that are hacked are due to plugin vulnerabilities. It is said that 60-70% of sites are hacked due to vulnerabilities in plug-ins (the next most common cause is the hijacking of administrator privileges due to weak passwords). It is very [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10704</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>SSL and CSP do not prevent hacking</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10654</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Dec 2025 01:48:12 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[htaccess]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10654</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Converting WordPress to SSL and setting up a CSP (Content Security Policy) does not prevent hacking. We will explain the reasons for this. Why SSL (HTTPS) does not prevent hacking SSL encrypts notifications between the web server and the user&#8217;s browser so that servers, WIFI, and other devices that mediate data transmission can read the contents of those communications and not know what data is being sent or received. Incidentally, the following information is not protected even if SSL is used (1) IP address of the destination (2) Domain name (SNI) * The URL of the page being accessed and queries under the domain will be kept confidential. (iii) Timing and traffic volume of the connection Therefore, it is possible to prevent WordPress login IDs and passwords from being read and exposed in the process of SSL conversion. Why can&#8217;t SSL prevent hacking? However, most WordPress hacking is done through brute force attacks, in which the administrator&#8217;s password is determined by brute force, or by hackers gaining direct access to vulnerabilities in plug-ins and other vulnerabilities. Such attacks cannot be prevented by encrypting communications using SSL, because the hacker&#8217;s unauthorized communications themselves are not filtered out. Why CSP settings do not prevent hacking Recently, it has become common to set CSP (Content Security Policy). CSP (Content Security Policy) is a mechanism for specifying which JS scripts, images, CSS, etc. from which sources are allowed to be loaded in HTACCESS files and other files. Browsers will read these settings and prevent loading of JS, etc. on unauthorized domains. The CSP setting may prevent users from suffering secondary damage by preventing the browser from loading malicious JS scripts embedded by hackers on the site. However, what CSP can prevent is the loading of malicious scripts, etc., into the content after the hacker has already successfully defaced the site, and the user&#8217;s browser will execute them. (This may not be prevented if the CSP settings and the malicious embedded scripts are on the same server.) CSP is an insurance policy that may prevent users from accessing the site and suffering secondary damage in the event that the site is hacked. How do I prevent WordPress from being hacked? To prevent WordPress from being hacked, it is important to take basic security measures, such as using plug-ins that specialize in preventing hacking, in addition to SSL and CSP settings. Security Plug-ins Free WordPress:Malware Scan &#038; Security Plug-in [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal]. Basic Security Measures What are some meaningful and not-so-meaningful security measures in WordPress? We hope you find this information helpful.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10654</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>7 WordPress security-critical operational policies that production companies won&#8217;t tell you about, and that you must follow after delivery.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10645</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2025 01:53:38 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[protection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10645</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain 7 important WordPress security operation policies that the production company won&#8217;t tell you about, and that you must follow after delivery. 1 Increase the strength of passwords for users on the production site test site Around 20% of WordPress hacks are caused by weak passwords for administrator privileges. Make sure that the passwords for both the production and test sites are a random string of at least 12 characters and alphanumeric symbols, and reset them if they are not. In one case where we were asked to remove malware, the administrator password for the test site was the same as the ID for the convenience of development. In the case of this site, the administrator privileges of the test site were first taken by hackers through a brute force attack, and then a back door was opened and the production site was also tampered with to add unauthorized users, resulting in the spread of malware damage to the entire server. 2 Do not leave test sites unattended Malware today can spread to multiple sites on a server. Therefore, if a test site or any other development data is left unattended on a server, the vulnerability of that site can be exploited by hackers, and the entire server can be tampered with. We recommend that you do not leave abandoned sites that have not been updated for a long period of time (test sites are often such cases) on the server. 3 Regular Updates Some production companies will tell you not to update your site to keep it stable, but this is a huge security risk. This is a huge security risk because the most common reason (60%) for WordPress to be hacked is to exploit vulnerabilities in old plugins or WordPress itself. In some cases, the production companies have disabled automatic updates to prevent updates from being made. The longer this happens, the more likely it is that vulnerabilities will be discovered and the more likely it is that hackers will use WordPress to infect your site with malware. Even if your production company tells you not to update your site, we recommend that you follow the following operational policies. Do not stop the automatic security update of WordPress itself. Update the test site once every few months to make sure it is up-to-date, and keep the production site up-to-date with the latest plug-ins and WordPress itself. If the above is not possible, it may be necessary to pinpoint vulnerabilities on a regular basis and take action to address them. (We also recommend that you update your entire site every year or two to ensure that it is up-to-date.) 4 Neglecting deactivated plug-ins During the production process, the use of various plug-ins may be considered by the production company, and then deactivated, but unused plug-ins may be left unattended. Even if a plugin is deactivated, the vulnerability of the WordPress plugin can be exploited by accessing the program directly. We recommend that you ask your production company why some plug-ins have been deactivated and remove them from the server [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10645</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Operational design to reduce reinfection rate after WordPress malware removal</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10626</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Nov 2025 01:42:26 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10626</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain the operational design to reduce the reinfection rate after WordPress malware removal. Causes of WordPress Hacking The chart below shows the causes of WordPress hacking as researched by WordFence. No. 1 Plugin vulnerability No. 2 Brute force (brute force password cracking of admin rights) No. 3 Core file vulnerability No. 4 Theme vulnerability 5th Hosting server vulnerability https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/03/attackers-gain-access-wordpress-sites/ In our experience, if you take care of 1, 2, and even 3, you can almost prevent WordPress from being hacked, although it is not 100%. Operational design to prevent plugin vulnerabilities from being used in attacks Hackers will target vulnerabilities that are deployed on more sites and that allow them to more easily modify files on the server. (There are tools available to exploit one well-known vulnerability after another, and they use them to attack random sites.) For this reason, it is ideal to keep all plug-ins up-to-date. However, since plug-ins often cause site malfunctions when updated, we recommend the following operational policy as a minimum measure. &#8211; Remove unused plug-ins from the server (not by deactivating them, but by deleting the programs in the plug-ins&#8217; folders). Use only the most selective plug-ins possible. &#8211; Check the site once a month for plugin vulnerabilities. &#8211; If vulnerabilities are found, update the plug-ins as soon as possible. &#8211; Once a year or so, we update the plugins and the entire WordPress site in a test environment, check that they are working properly, and then adapt them to the production environment. Plugin vulnerabilities that are constantly being updated can be checked with the [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal]. Operational design to prevent brute force (password cracking of administrative privileges by brute force) The countermeasure here is very simple. All you need to do is to make the password for the WordPress administrator privileges strong enough to satisfy the following rules. &#8211; Use a password of at least 12 characters that contains at least one upper-case lower-case alphanumeric character and at least one lower-case symbol, and that has no meaning. Such a password cannot be breached by a brute force attack because, in principle, it would take more than 12 million years to break such a password in a brute force attack. Operational Design to Prevent Core File Vulnerability Attacks Although serious vulnerabilities in WordPress core files are very rarely discovered, abandoned sites may use very old WordPress (WordPress version 3 or 4 units), which can be used for hacking. WordPress comes with an automatic minor version upgrade mechanism. WordPress 3.7 introduces &#8220;Automatic Background Updates&#8221; functionality. Therefore, it is important not to stop this feature. // Disable automatic updates *Do not write such a setting define( 'AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED', true ); We also recommend that you update the core WordPress files at least once a year or so in a test environment to ensure that they are working properly before adapting them to the production environment. Do the same for all sites on the server. Malware nowadays often spreads its infection beyond individual domain folders on the [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10626</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>What are some meaningful and not-so-meaningful security measures in WordPress?</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10614</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Oct 2025 01:47:30 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10614</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Our thoughts on meaningful and not-so-meaningful security measures in WordPress will be explained. What are the most important security measures that can be derived from the causes of WordPress hacking and tampering? 60% of the causes of WordPress being hacked are vulnerabilities in plugins and WordPress core, followed by weak passwords for admin rights around 20% of the time. https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/03/attackers-gain-access-wordpress-sites/ Adapted from (WordFence research) For this reason, the most important security measures are 1 Adapt security updates for vulnerable WordPress core files and plugins. 2 Make sure that the password for administrator privileges is at least 12 characters long, including random, meaningless alphanumeric symbols. We recommend that you remove all deactivated plugins, as vulnerability 1 can be exploited even if the plugin is deactivated. We believe that the above two measures alone will almost eliminate hacking. (Hackers look for sites that can be hacked easily, which is why sites that are even slightly difficult to hack are less likely to be targeted by mass-attack hacking methods). You can check for vulnerable WordPress core files and plugins here. You can also check for vulnerabilities from the inside with the [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan &#038; Security Plug-in [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal]. You can also use this service if you wish. We recommend that the above security measures be taken for all sites on the server. In addition, malware today has the ability to spread itself to all sites on the server under the same account. We recommend that you take the above basic security measures not only for important sites, but also for all sites on the server (including abandoned sites). If possible, we recommend that you delete files from abandoned sites. What other vulnerability countermeasures are important? There are other moderately important vulnerability measures that can be expected to reduce the likelihood of hacking by a few percent. These are listed below. 1 Stop the function to display a folder list when there is no index. file in the server →1 Stop the ability to display a folder list if there is no index. file on the server. 2 Login lockdown → Countermeasures to repel brute force attacks that repeatedly enforce login are effective in the initial stage in terms of delaying hackers from seizing administrative privileges. 3 Prevent WordPress and plugin versions from being leaked. →(There is a way to find out if a particular vulnerable version of a plugin is installed by using a special query in Google search, which can be prevented). *All of the above measures are available for free with the [Free] WordPress:Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal]. Aren&#8217;t the other measures important? Many WordPress operators often think that changing the URL of the login screen and implementing captcha is very important, but only around 15 percent of all hacks break through the login screen, and also the password for admin rights is cracked by brute force Brute force attack attacks also have methods that do not use the login screen. Also, as mentioned above, if a strong password is set [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10614</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Automate WordPress security-related maintenance with plugins.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10583</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2025 01:59:44 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[htaccess]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[index.php]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[protection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scanner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10583</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[The paid version of our WP Doctor Malware Scanner Pro introduces features and settings that are particularly useful for security-related maintenance of WordPress sites. Security measures with WordPress plug-ins1 Automatic malware scanning, email notification when malware is detected The paid version of WP Doctor Malware Scanner Pro automatically updates the latest malware detection patterns collected and added from malware removal requests, our dummy sites, and online malware information. files at any given time, and notifies you by email if any malware is found. This means that if you are infected with malware, you will be able to deal with it at an early stage. WordPress Plug-in for Security Measures 2 Automatic Vulnerability Check and Email Notification of Vulnerabilities 60-70% of the time WordPress is hacked, it is because of vulnerabilities in older plugins. For this reason, it is an extremely powerful security measure to constantly monitor for dangerous vulnerabilities that could allow a site to be tampered with, and if a vulnerability is found, to close it by updating the site or by other means. WP Doctor Malware Scanner Pro automatically checks your site for vulnerabilities from our constantly updated vulnerability database, and notifies you by e-mail if a vulnerability is found. WordPress Plugin for Security Measures 3 Detects hacking attempts being made on your site and automatically blocks hacker IPs. WordPress is the world&#8217;s most popular CMS, and it is said that 20-30% of all websites in the world are created with WordPress. For this reason, hackers attack a vast number of WordPress sites with automated hacking tools at random. Most of them will not succeed, but even the rare ones will be able to be penetrated and tampered with if they can find a large number of sites with dangerous vulnerabilities left unaddressed. Monitoring and detecting such hacking attempts, and automatically blocking the IPs that are attempting to do so, stops the hacker&#8217;s vulnerability attack in its early stages, and alerts the hacker that you are monitoring the hacking activity on the site, which greatly improves site security. Other free WAF features The free version of WP Doctor Malware Scanner Pro also includes one of the most versatile WAFs (Web Application Firewalls) available to increase the security of your site. Examples of security functions available for free Login Lockdown Login capture Prevent WordPress version leakage Block access to wlwmanifest.xml Prohibit Index listings Prohibit WPSCAN Ban brute force attack IP to XMLRPC,wp-login Ban on REST API Ban direct access to Include files Ban PHP access to Upload folder Comment protection, protection from spam Ban on posting comments via proxy Comment form capture Repair and protection of htaccess and index.php Process monitoring functionality etc. For more information, please click here. How to purchase the paid version of WP Doctor Malware Scanner Pro The paid version of WP Doctor Malware Scanner Pro can be purchased from the purchase tab of the plugin&#8217;s administration page after the plugin has been installed on your site. You can pay by credit card via Stripe.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10583</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Japanese SEO Spam, a malware that fills Google search results for WordPress sites with Japanese product pages that you don&#8217;t remember creating.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10574</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Sep 2025 01:39:22 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[htaccess]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[index.php]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10574</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain about Japanese SEO Spam, a malware that fills the Google search results of WordPress sites with pages of Japanese products that you do not remember creating. How does malware contaminate Google search results? There are three types of malware that contaminate Google search results with branded product pages that have not been created. (1) The link in the contaminated search results is not from your site&#8217;s domain → (2) The link in the search results is not from your company&#8217;s site, but from another site that has been hacked and altered to create a malicious page. Therefore, it is necessary for the operator of the other domain site that has been tampered with to deal with the problem. (2) The search result links to your site&#8217;s domain in the tainted search result, but the link destination does not exist. → In this case, this is SEO spam that takes advantage of the property of WordPress to create search result pages that do not exist. Not because your site has been tampered with, but because the hacker has taken the liberty of registering a nonexistent search results page with the search engine. It is effective to introduce a mechanism (e.g., outputting a noindex header) to prevent non-existent search result pages from being registered with search engines. (2) The domain of your site is the link destination in the tainted search results, and the linked page leads to an illegal product site. *When you access the illegal page, you will first fly to the site&#8217;s domain and instantly see [string].bookslit[.] sa[.]. com, etc., and you may jump to an unauthorized site. → In this case, it is highly likely that hackers have exploited a vulnerability and entered your site&#8217;s server, and the site&#8217;s data and files have been tampered with. We recommend that you first run a malware and vulnerability check on your plug-ins. Free WordPress:Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal]. If you are unable to log in to the WordPress administration screen, it is possible that hackers have also tampered with the HTACCESS file, which controls server settings. How are contaminated search results registered in the search results? The way a hacker has tampered with your site and registered a malicious page may be by creating that malicious page on your company&#8217;s server, or by tampering with your sitemap and registering the page in Google search results. A sitemap is data that tells search engines which pages are on a site that can be accessed by the following URLs. https://Your site URL/sitemap.xml As an example, a site that has been hacked shows that the sitemap has been falsified and illegal pages have been registered as shown below. In some malware, this page does not actually exist on the server, and when this URL is accessed, a malicious program forcibly redirects the user to another arbitrary site. How to deal with malware Japanese SEO Spam If there are symptoms of such malware, there may be a backdoor somewhere on the server that generates a sitemap, controls [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10574</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Malware restored on the server simply by accessing the WordPress site</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10564</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Sep 2025 01:26:31 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[htaccess]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[index.php]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10564</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain the method of malware restoration on the server simply by accessing the WordPress site. Why malware that has been removed on the server is automatically restored just by accessing the site This type of malware is very common, and in many cases, the malware is parasitic and reinfects the program files that are executed whenever WordPress renders a site page on the system. As an example, the files that WordPress always executes are the following files. (Other files deep within the system may also be infected) index.php wp-config.php wp-blog-header.php theme-functions.php The figure below is a screenshot of an example of malware infecting index.php. In order for WordPress to display the site, it reads require __DIR__ . &#8216;/wp-blog-header.php&#8217;; which WordPress loads to display the site, there is obfuscated malicious code that is executed each time the site is accessed. I have tried to de-obfuscate this code in order to analyze it. After repeating base64 decoding and de-obfuscation several times, the original bare code appeared. We can see that the malware notifies a social networking site called Telegram that it is infected. It is likely that automated hacking tools are used to hack into a vast number of WordPress sites, and only successful sites are notified to Telegram, after which the hackers continue their attack. Thus, malware very often contains Telegram.org links or URLs. The following code shows a text file pulled from several URLs and executed with an eval function. The eval function is a PHP function that interprets text as a program and executes it Most likely the above site is another site that has been hacked by hackers. The malware body is placed on this site, and every time index.php is executed, the malware is pulled from other infected sites and reinfected. Since this malware pulls and executes the malware body on an external server, its function can be changed at any time by hackers. How to get rid of malware that reinfects itself automatically To get rid of this type of malware, index.php wp-config.php wp-blog-header.php theme-functions.php However, since other malware may be installed deep within WordPress, it is often not possible to remove the malware by simply removing the above files. For this reason, you can detect and remove more malware by using a malware scanning and removal plug-in that mechanically and comprehensively scans WordPress files. (If you are unable to log in to your WordPress site, the HTACCESSS file may have been tampered with.)]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10564</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>What are the most important security measures to be aware of in WordPress?</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10539</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2025 01:56:26 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10539</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[This section will explain the most important WordPress security measures to be aware of. Causes of WordPress being hacked The above chart shows a bar graph of the most common causes of WordPress hacking, in order of most common. (According to WordFence, Inc.) Source: https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/03/attackers-gain-access-wordpress-sites/ It can be seen that plugin vulnerabilities are number one at nearly 60%, followed by brute force attacks (brute force attack on administrator passwords) at just under 20%. (In the case of Japan, since many Japanese-made themes are used and hosting is often done on shared servers, the numbers for the two statistics of Theme and Hosting are considerably reduced, with 70% due to plug-ins and over 20% due to brute force attacks, and these two factors can explain over 90% of WordPress hacking. Hacking is explained by 70% of plugins and more than 20% by brute force attacks). Sucuri also found that more than 90% of the vulnerabilities reported in WordPress are plugin vulnerabilities. Statistics show that the most important security measures for WordPress This shows that it is possible to prevent around 20% of hacking by simply making the password for WordPress administrator privileges strong. The password for WordPress administrator privileges should be a string of at least 12 meaningless characters, including upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. This security measure will basically work all the time, as long as the site is SSL-secured, the password will not be leaked to the outside world via the Internet. Plugin vulnerabilities should be checked regularly. Hackers attack a vast number of WordPress sites using tools that exploit one prominent vulnerability after another (vulnerabilities that can easily be successfully hacked and the site&#8217;s files altered). If a plugin installed on your site has a well-known vulnerability, the hack will eventually succeed. In our experience, many sites with well-known vulnerabilities in their plug-ins are hacked within six months to a year. We test plug-ins for vulnerabilities every few months and update them if vulnerabilities are found. It is very important to regularly check plug-ins for vulnerabilities using security plug-ins, vulnerability databases, etc., and update plug-ins if vulnerabilities are found. It is best to regularly update WordPress, the plugin, and the plugin itself without checking for vulnerabilities, but in this case, the update may cause bugs in the site, or you may be asked by the creator not to update the plugin due to compatibility with the original theme. However, in such cases, it is best to update all plug-ins regularly. Even if a plugin is deactivated, it is often possible to exploit the vulnerability, so it is necessary to update or remove the deactivated plugins as well. WordPress sites have an image of being vulnerable to hacking, but the sheer volume of WordPress sites means that many sites have been hacked, and even simple security measures can greatly reduce the possibility of being hacked. Hackers will quickly give up on sites that cannot be easily hacked and move on to the next site, so with the above two measures, WordPress will almost never be hacked.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10539</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>What are the dangerous passwords used on hacked WordPress sites?</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10518</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 01:20:23 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hacked]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[removal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[virus]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10518</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Since there has been an increase in the number of cases where there are certain trends in passwords for users with administrator privileges on sites that have recently been hacked and tampered with, we will explain what character strings should not be used as passwords for WordPress administrators based on this trend. Brute force attacks are becoming more sophisticated. A brute force attack is a hacking technique that uses malicious software to log in to WordPress one after another (sometimes hundreds of thousands of times) with commonly used passwords to find out the password for administrative privileges. Brute force attacks in the past used a dictionary of commonly used passwords and repeated login attempts, but more recently, more complex algorithms may have been added to the attacker&#8217;s algorithm. Recently, we have observed a certain trend in the passwords of sites that request malware removal from WP Doctor on more than one occasion. For example, the following passwords have been used Example Administrator ID mywp-admin Password mywp-admin1234 This administrator&#8217;s password contains the administrator&#8217;s ID, and although long enough, removing the administrator&#8217;s ID from the password results in a very weak password of only 4 characters, 1234. Since the WordPress administrator ID can be easily obtained (WordPress is a system that does not hide the ID), if a brute-force attacker has an algorithm that repeats login enforcement even with a string such as the following, the administrator password can be cracked in a very short time. The administrator&#8217;s password can be cracked in a very short period of time. Algorithm example WordPress administrator ID + commonly used password Brute force attack with WordPress admin rights with a strong password It is said that around 20% of the reasons why WordPress is hacked are due to password vulnerabilities, and since hacking tools are evolving daily, it is possible that various algorithms are being implemented for brute force attacks. For this reason, we recommend that you use a completely random password for WordPress administrator privileges that does not include the administrator&#8217;s user ID or e-mail address, and that is at least 12 characters long and contains at least one upper and lower case letter, symbol, and number. Such a password would in principle take 21 million years to break through, thus preventing a hacker&#8217;s brute force attack from succeeding. If your site has been infected by malware, please use the [Free] WordPress:Malware Scan &#038; Security Plug-in [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal].]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10518</post-id>	</item>
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