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	<title>plugin &#8211; WordPress Security Blog</title>
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		<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>How to Handle a Large Number of &#8220;Unfamiliar URLs&#8221; or Accesses to the &#8220;Login Page&#8221; in Your WordPress Access Logs</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10931</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 01:17:30 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10931</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Here’s how to handle situations where your WordPress access logs contain a large number of “unfamiliar URLs” or “login page” entries. Your WordPress site’s access logs may contain a large number of entries showing direct access to program files for plugins you haven’t installed or direct access to the login screen. Web administrators reviewing their server access logs may notice a large number of entries showing direct access to program files for plugins you haven’t installed or direct access to the login screen. Such access logs are actually quite common on WordPress sites. This is because hackers, targeting the vast number of WordPress sites—said to account for 30% of all websites— carry out indiscriminate vulnerability attacks to both discover and exploit sites with vulnerabilities in their code or login passwords. Using automated tools, hackers launch these attacks— which they consider a “bonus” if successful —against a massive number of sites, even those without known vulnerabilities. The fact that these attacks are recorded in the access logs is the reason why you see a large number of entries for “unfamiliar URLs” or access attempts to “login screens.” Therefore, just because such access logs are recorded does not mean it is likely that a hacker has managed to break into your WordPress site (i.e., that the hack was successful and the site was compromised). However, if you notice any suspicious activity on your site, the likelihood of a successful hack increases, so we recommend running a malware scan using a malware detection plugin or similar tool. Is it possible to prevent hackers from exploiting vulnerabilities altogether? For attacks on the login screen or password dictionary attacks (xmlrpc.php attacks), you can take significant countermeasures using security plugins —such as changing the login URL or detecting brute-force attempts and blocking the IP addresses involved. However, it is extremely difficult to prevent in advance access attempts involving indiscriminate attacks targeting vulnerabilities in other plugins. This is because websites are designed to be accessible to anyone, and an attacker’s request is indistinguishable from that of a regular visitor. Furthermore, while it is logically possible to implement countermeasures based on hackers’ typical vulnerability attack patterns, the reality is that every time a vulnerability is discovered or publicized, hackers create attacks tailored to that vulnerability and incorporate them into their tools—resulting in a never-ending cat-and-mouse game. *Implementing countermeasures for each specific attack method is very costly. Identify vulnerability attack methods (in most cases, the site does not have the vulnerability in question) ↓ Design server configurations and program functions to prevent attacks using those methods in advance ↓ Consider implementing these measures in a way that does not affect the site’s speed or functionality ↓ Implementation *Given that tens of thousands of vulnerabilities are discovered each year, following the steps outlined above for every single one is not realistic. *A more practical approach is to pinpoint and fix specific vulnerabilities found on a site as they arise . For this reason, the most reliable and efficient approach is to constantly monitor whether the site contains any of the most dangerous [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10931</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Practical Workflow: From the Public Disclosure of a WordPress Plugin’s CVE to Identifying the Scope of Impact Within the Company and Implementing Emergency Measures</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10925</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 01:37:49 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10925</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain the practical workflow—from the public disclosure of a WordPress plugin’s CVE to identifying the scope of impact within the company and implementing emergency measures. What is a CVE? CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) refers to a common identification number assigned to software vulnerabilities. The format is “CVE-Year-Sequence Number” (e.g., CVE-2024-12345). It is managed by the U.S. nonprofit organization MITRE and is used as a global standard. CVEs are also assigned a CVSS score on a 10-point scale based on the severity of the vulnerability. A CVSS score of 8 or higher indicates a serious vulnerability, as described below, and is considered a vulnerability that should be addressed immediately as a top priority. What a score of 8 or higher means ・The attack is often relatively easy to execute. ・It can often be executed by anyone without any special conditions. ・The impact is severe. ・Arbitrary code may be executed on the server. ・Database contents may be extracted or tampered with. ・Arbitrary file upload: A backdoor (an unauthorized entry point) may be installed on the server. *You can check for vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins with CVSS scores here. You can also check for vulnerabilities using security plugins. Steps to Address Vulnerabilities Standalone vulnerabilities that lead to website defacement—a common target for hackers—often have a CVSS score of 7 or higher. Since hackers indiscriminately target WordPress sites with vulnerabilities, leaving a major vulnerability unaddressed increases the likelihood— over time —that your site will be compromised through that vulnerability, resulting in the most severe type of hacking attack. If you discover that a plugin or other component used in WordPress has a vulnerability, it is important to take the following steps as soon as possible. 1. Check whether an update addressing the vulnerability is available for the plugin. * If no update is available, proceed to step 4. 2. If an update is available, create a test site or use an existing test site to verify the plugin update. Since updating WordPress plugins and other components can sometimes cause issues on your site, it is safer to first apply the update on a test site and verify its functionality there before updating the live site. 3. Apply the update to the live environment to fix the vulnerability. When a vulnerability is discovered, the developer is notified.The developer may release an update to patch the vulnerability. In this case, simply applying the update resolves the issue. 4. If no update is available Development may have already ended, and vulnerability patches may not have been released for a long time. Alternatively, WordPress may have suspended downloads of the plugin itself due to security concerns. In such cases, if the vulnerability is severe, we will take the following measures: ・After investigating the plugin’s usage, if it is not in use or is used only to a limited extent, and deactivating it poses no issues, we will deactivate and delete the plugin. *Note: Since vulnerabilities can sometimes be exploited simply by the plugin’s code existing on the server, please ensure that the plugin is not only deactivated [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10925</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Does Changing the Table Prefix in a WordPress Database Really Help? An Analysis Based on Actual Attack Logs</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10920</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 01:35:40 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[injection]]></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=10920</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Is Changing a Database Table Prefix Really Effective? Let’s Examine This Using Actual Attack Logs. What Is a Database Table Prefix? In WordPress, you can set a naming convention for database tables called a “prefix.” In the `wp-config.php` file, the setting is defined as follows: $table_prefix = 'wp_'; With this setting, all table names will begin with “wp_,” as shown below: wp_commentmeta wp_comments wp_links wp_options wp_postmeta wp_posts wp_terms wp_termmeta wp_term_relationships wp_term_taxonomy wp_usermeta wp_users You can change this table prefix when you first install WordPress or using a plugin. It’s often said that changing the table prefix improves security, but I’ll explain why this is the case and whether it really makes a difference. Why does changing the table prefix improve security? The reason changing the table prefix improves security is that it prevents hackers from identifying the exact table names during SQL injection attacks—attacks where hackers exploit vulnerabilities to retrieve or modify database contents. (This is why SQL injection attacks will fail on the first attempt, even if a vulnerability exists.) For example, an SQL injection attack targeting a table name like the one below will fail: *If the prefix is changed and the actual table name is wpc_users, the SQL injection attack below will fail: SELECT * FROM wp_users WHERE username = '' OR '1'='1' Investigate how many similar attacks exist among 250,000 hacker attacks Based on recent hacker attack patterns collected by our company, we will investigate how many attacks specifically target table names.　 For the data search, we checked whether the tables frequently targeted in attacks—wp_users and wp_options—were included in the attacks. Data from 256,620 hacker attack samples over the past two weeks Number of cases where &#8220;wp_users&#8221; was included in GET or POST data: 91 Example attack queries (partially redacted as they could be used in actual attacks) {"action":"******","*****":",(SELECT EXTRACTVALUE(1,CONCAT(0x7e,(SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(CONCAT(user_login,0x3a,user_pass) SEPARATOR '&#124;') FROM wp_users LIMIT 5))))"} Number of entries containing `wp_options` in GET or POST data: 42 entries\nExample attack query (partially redacted as it could be used in actual attacks) {"action":"******","id":"1\\' UNION SELECT option_name,option_value,autoload FROM wp_options WHERE option_name LIKE \\'%key%\\'-- -"} Total: 133 entries, 0.05% Conclusion Although the number of instances found is very low at 0.05%, attacks that target specific table names are actually taking place. WordPress vulnerability attacks come in waves Although injection attacks using hard-coded table names are extremely rare, when a major vulnerability is discovered, hackers may all resort to similar attack methods. If this vulnerability allows for SQL injection attacks, the probability mentioned above could rise sharply. For this reason, WP Doctor believes that changing the WordPress table prefix does indeed have security value (moderate). Please be sure to use the security plugin we’ve developed. [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware &#038; Virus Detection and Removal]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10920</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>An Explanation of How to Monitor and Respond to WordPress Vulnerabilities Within the Company</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10915</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Jul 2026 01:43:52 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[scan]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10915</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Here, we’ll explain how to monitor and respond to WordPress vulnerability information within your organization. WordPress Vulnerability Mitigation It is said that more than 60% of the reasons why WordPress sites get hacked are due to vulnerabilities in the WordPress core or plugins. In particular, vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins account for more than 90% of these causes, making it extremely important to monitor your WordPress site for vulnerabilities. Basic Methods and Approaches for WordPress Vulnerability Mitigation 1. Do Not Disable the Automatic Update Feature for Minor WordPress Versions The WordPress core includes two levels of automatic updates: one that automatically applies all version updates, and another that automatically applies only security patches. You can configure these two types of updates by going to the “Dashboard” → “Updates” page, where you’ll find the following options: “Enable automatic updates for all new versions” “Enable automatic updates for maintenance and security releases only” Since “Enable automatic updates for maintenance and security releases only” applies only security patches, it is less likely to cause issues even when automatic updates are enabled; therefore, we recommend keeping this option enabled. 2. Plugin Management To prevent hackers from exploiting plugin vulnerabilities and gaining unauthorized access, it is a critical security measure to review and address these issues at least once every few months. If automatic plugin updates are enabled, the plugin developer will fix any vulnerabilities and apply updates automatically, significantly increasing your peace of mind. However, if automatic updates are not enabled, or if a plugin has not been updated for a long time (because the developer has discontinued development), you should check whether it has any vulnerabilities. If vulnerabilities are found, you should either stop using that plugin or take steps to address them. Identify vulnerabilities in plugins that have updates available but haven’t been applied (or can’t be applied), or for which no updates have been released for more than six months. You can check for plugin vulnerabilities on sites like the ones listed below. Use these sites to check for vulnerabilities in any plugins you’re using that meet the criteria above. https://wpscan.com/plugins/ *You can also check for vulnerabilities directly within plugins. Please feel free to use this feature. [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware &#038; Virus Detection and Removal] Address high-risk vulnerabilities as soon as possible If we find a particularly dangerous vulnerability that could allow tampering with the database or site files, we will address it as soon as possible. Hackers use hacking tools that exploit vulnerabilities to easily breach tens of thousands of WordPress sites—the world’s most widely used CMS—one after another.It is extremely important that your site does not have any vulnerabilities that could allow it to be easily compromised during such indiscriminate attacks. If a plugin has a critical vulnerability, you must either apply an update to that plugin or, if no update is available, deactivate the plugin, switch to an alternative plugin, or—if the plugin is essential—create and apply a patch yourself to fix the vulnerability. Generally, since these tasks are quite difficult, we recommend consulting with an [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10915</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>WordPress Malware Infections: Typical Patterns of Malicious Code Embedded in `wp_posts` and `wp_options`, and How to Distinguish It from Legitimate Code</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10908</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2026 01:50:12 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[javascript]]></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=10908</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We’ll explain typical patterns of malicious code embedded in WordPress’s `wp_posts` and `wp_options` tables as a result of malware infection, as well as how to distinguish it from legitimate code. Malware Infection and Tampering of the WordPress Database In the event of a malware infection, it is rare for the WordPress database—including tables such as `wp_posts` and `wp_options`—to be tampered with.However, when a vulnerability that allows database tampering is discovered in a popular plugin or similar software, hackers often exploit that vulnerability en masse, leading to a surge in database tampering across numerous websites. How to Detect and Remove a Database Infection? Unless there is a plugin that executes PHP, almost none of the content stored in the WordPress database can be executed as a program. For this reason, even when hackers tamper with the database to embed malicious code, it is typically not server-side executable code but rather JavaScript script code that runs primarily in the browser. Here’s how you can detect this tampering to some extent using a database connection tool. 1. Connect to the database using Adminer Upload the database connection tool called Adminer to the server and connect to the WordPress database using the database connection information listed in wp-config.php. 2. Search the database for strings characteristic of malware Next, search the database for portions of strings characteristic of malware. The following examples show code commonly used by malware. Search for these code snippets to check whether any malware is present in the database. &#60;script atob( eval( fromCharCode( etc. Please note that not everything that matches this code search is necessarily malicious code. * You can easily check for malicious code like the examples above using the [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan &#38; Security Plugin [Malware &#38; Virus Detection and Removal]. 3. Check for Malicious Code and Remove It You need to determine whether the code found during the scan is malicious JavaScript. Generally, malicious code is characterized by long strings of random letters and numbers crammed into a single line. Since it has the potential to corrupt database data, you must remove it with caution! If the code is malicious, you must carefully remove only that specific section. However, since a single instance of malware code can infect a vast number of records, it may be difficult to remove it manually. In such cases, you may need to use database replacement software to remove it. Additionally, databases may contain records in a format known as “serialized data,” where the number of characters in the string must match exactly or the data will be corrupted. If such data contains malicious code, the process can be particularly challenging—for example, you may need to reduce the character count by the number of characters removed. Example of serialized data (parts like “s:31” indicate the number of characters in the text) a:6:{i:0;s:31:"query-monitor/query-monitor.php";i:1;s:57:"accesspress-instagram-feed/accesspress-instagram-feed.php";i:2;s:19:"easy-captcha/easy-captcha.php";i:3;s:43:"google-analytics-dashboard-for-wp/gadwp.php";i:4;s:33:"instagram-feed/instagram-feed.php";i:5;s:19:""really-simple-captcha/really-simple-captcha.php";}]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10908</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>How can I prevent a site-wide warning from appearing due to a failure in the automatic renewal of free SSL (Let&#8217;s Encrypt)?</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10901</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2026 01:04:03 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10901</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Here’s how to prevent site-wide warning messages caused by failed automatic renewals of free SSL (Let’s Encrypt). What is Free SSL (Let&#8217;s Encrypt)? Let&#8217;s Encrypt is a system that issues free SSL certificates, which verify your site’s domain and encrypt communication by switching it to HTTPS. This service is operated by a nonprofit organization (ISRG) and sponsored by major companies such as Mozilla, Google, and Cisco. Many web hosting services, such as Xserver, ConoHa WING, and Lolipop, use the Let&#8217;s Encrypt system for their free SSL certificates. If a Let&#8217;s Encrypt certificate expires, your website may suddenly become inaccessible one day. If you try to access a site with an expired SSL certificate, a full-screen warning page will appear—for example, “This connection isn’t private” in Chrome or “This website isn’t private” in Safari. Unless you click “Advanced” → “Proceed to this unsafe site,” you won’t even be able to view the site’s content. Let’s Encrypt certificates need to be renewed at regular intervals. With many web hosting providers (such as Xserver, ConoHa WING, and Lolipop), once you enable Let’s Encrypt (free SSL) in the control panel, a tool automatically handles the renewal behind the scenes. However, although rare, automatic renewal may fail due to temporary server issues, changes to the domain’s DNS settings, or ACME challenge failures. ACME (Automatic Certificate Management Environment) is a communication protocol designed to fully automate the issuance, renewal, and revocation of certificates . What should you do if the automatic renewal of your Let&#8217;s Encrypt certificate fails and your site becomes inaccessible? In this case, you will likely receive a notification from your server provider stating that the SSL renewal failed, or you may see a warning to that effect in your server control panel. In such cases, SSL is often restored within a few days by manually reapplying for the free SSL certificate. (If the issue isn’t resolved , you can temporarily switch to HTTP to restore the site’s visibility for the time being.) *Note: Switching your site to HTTP may lower your search rankings and compromise security. We recommend installing a security plugin. However, since Let’s Encrypt is free, its renewal periods are short, and SSL renewals may occasionally fail for no apparent reason. Therefore, if you prioritize the stability of your SSL certificate, you may want to consider switching to a paid SSL service.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10901</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>Steps to Regain Administrator Privileges After the Person in Charge of a WordPress Site Outsourced to a Production Company Has Resigned or Closed Their Business</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10890</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2026 01:38:49 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></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=10890</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Here’s a guide on how to regain administrator privileges after the person in charge of your WordPress site—which you had outsourced to a production company—has resigned or gone out of business. Unable to Update Plugins, etc., Due to Lack of WordPress Administrator Permissions When a WordPress development company delivers a site, they may provide the site operator with a user account that only allows editing and adding posts and static pages—to prevent accidental updates or bugs. (This account lacks the permissions to update or add/modify plugins.) However, it’s common for the development company to go out of business or for the person in charge to leave, making it difficult to log in with stronger permissions (permissions to update WordPress itself, plugins, or themes). This can lead to vulnerabilities being left unaddressed, resulting in malware infections, the inability to use new features, or the inability to update PHP(because the plugins are outdated and do not support the new PHP version). Enabling Login with Administrator Privileges In this case, the quickest solution is to upload database access software to the server, manually change the administrator password, and then log in as an administrator. Upload the PHP program above to the server using an FTP client, access it, and enter the database connection settings stored in WordPress’s `wp-config.php` file to log in to the database. Open the table with the prefix _users (usually wp_users). Create a password for the administrator user (typically created by the development company), hash it using MD5, and save it. This will allow you to log in as this user. *Generally, the administrator user has an ID of 1. You can verify whether this user actually has administrator privileges by checking the wp_usermeta table for the following entry under user_id 1 (the user’s ID): wp_capabilities a:1:{s:13:&#8221;administrator&#8221;;b:1;} If you are able to log in to a site that hasn’t been updated for a long time, we also recommend running a malware scan and vulnerability assessment. [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal] What if you still can’t log in with administrator privileges? If you are unable to log in as an administrator, or if you can log in but cannot update plugins, it may be because code restricting functionality has been added to the theme’s `functions.php` file, or because a permission-restriction plugin is limiting your access.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10890</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Site Looks Normal, but Search Results Are Flooded with Product Pages and Chinese Text—Detecting and Completely Removing SEO Spam</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10886</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2026 01:22:59 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></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=10886</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[The site looks normal, but search results are flooded with product pages or appear in Chinese—here’s an explanation of how to detect and completely remove SEO spam. What Is SEO Spam? If the Google search results for your company’s WordPress site are filled with a large number of unfamiliar product pages or pages in Chinese, and clicking on those links leads to your company’s domain (even if they eventually redirect to another site, this still counts as SEO spam), it is highly likely that your site has been tampered with through a hacking attack known as SEO spam. The specific methods hackers use for SEO spam are as follows: ・Hackers exploit vulnerabilities in your site to gain permissions that allow them to overwrite databases, content, sitemaps, and other elements on your server. ・Hackers place unauthorized content on the site, alter sitemaps, or embed unauthorized links and forced redirection code into pages, causing search engines to mistake these for legitimate pages and index them ・Search results become contaminated with fraudulent pages. ・If users accidentally purchase products, their credit card information may be leaked, or they may download viruses, potentially leading to secondary damage. How do you remove SEO spam? To remove SEO spam, you must inspect and remove the compromised parts of your WordPress site. The following files are commonly compromised: index.php Theme’s index.php wp-config.php Theme’s functions.php Theme’s header.php However, other files may also be compromised, and in many cases, hackers may have installed a “backdoor”—a type of file that allows them to freely alter server content—deep within the system. Since manually opening and inspecting each file one by one is not practical, we recommend using a dedicated plugin to comprehensively scan and remove malware from all files on your site. [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware &#038; Virus Detection and Removal] After removal, how long does it take for the contaminated search results to disappear and return to normal? If the tampering has been completely removed, the contamination in most search results is often cleared within one week to one month. However, this depends on how frequently Google crawls the site, so it is difficult to predict the exact timeframe. Based on our experience, registering a new, cleaned-up sitemap via Search Console does not seem to significantly affect this process. However, if only a few malicious pages appear in search results, setting those pages to be excluded from search rankings via Search Console may cause them to disappear somewhat faster. To temporarily remove pages from search results via Search Console (URL Removal Tool) ・Log in to Search Console (search.google.com/search-console) ・Select “Indexing” → “Removal” from the left menu ・Click “New Request” ・Enter the target URL in the “Temporary Removal” tab ・Click “Next” → “Submit” to complete the process The page will be hidden from search results for approximately 6 months. If you want to permanently exclude it, the page itself must no longer exist. After removing malware, you must patch the vulnerabilities Once you’ve removed the hacker’s tampering, you must first patch the vulnerability that allowed the hacker to gain access. [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10886</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Slider Revolution (RevSlider) case study shows the real risk of &#8220;plug-ins that are out of license or have been moved to paid for&#8221;.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10849</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 May 2026 01:24:48 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[backdoor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10849</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Slider Revolution (RevSlider) case study will explain the risks of &#8220;plug-ins that are out of license or have been moved to paid&#8221; and how to deal with vulnerabilities of such plug-ins. What is the Slider Revolution (RevSlider) case? The RevSlider incident was an incident in which &#8220;more than 100,000 sites were infected, even though the vulnerability fix patch for Slider Revolution had long been available. The licensing and update mechanism was a structural problem that increased the damage. The attack first looked for a vulnerable file in RevSlider and obtained wp-config.php. It was a multi-stage attack that then uploaded a malicious program to the site, planted a &#8220;Filesman&#8221; backdoor, and then altered swfobject.js to inject malware that redirected visitors to soaksoak.ru (a rogue site) on every page. The infected sites could not be fixed simply by removing the plug-ins, but had to deal with multiple backdoors and the RevSlider vulnerability at the same time, making the incident notoriously difficult to clean up. Why were 100,000 sites infected when the vulnerabilities had already been fixed? Because RevSlider was a paid-for plugin, only users who purchased the plugin directly could receive automatic updates on their WordPress dashboard. In some cases, site administrators were not even aware that the plugin was installed if they were using RevSlider in the form of a theme bundled with it, and they did not receive automatic update notifications. Users who continued to use the plugin before it was paid for and could not update it, or who did not activate it and could not update it, were also affected. Vulnerability Countermeasures for Unlicensed or Expired Paid Plug-ins To prevent vulnerabilities, including plug-ins, we recommend that you always check for vulnerabilities in plug-ins, which account for 60-70% of all WordPress hacks. Plugin Vulnerability Search System Plugin Vulnerability Check If you have not yet activated your license, we recommend that you activate your license and update it. If the vulnerability is in a plugin that is difficult to update, the best thing to do is to stop and remove the plugin, but this may be difficult if the plugin is used as a site feature. How to deal with vulnerabilities in plug-ins that cannot be updated or removed, but are critical to the functionality of the site If the vulnerability is in a plugin that performs an important function of the site and cannot be updated or removed, the vulnerability can be fixed by examining the characteristics of the vulnerability and directly modifying the program to close the vulnerability. If you directly edit the program of a plugin, the edited part may be lost in subsequent updates. Vulnerability characteristics may be disclosed in the form of a PoC (Proof of Concept). Examples WordPress Plugin Slider REvolution 4.1.4 &#8211; Arbitrary File Download In some cases, the programmers who found the vulnerability may have disclosed the patch program. We will use this information to directly close the vulnerability. However, this may require advanced security and programming skills, and we recommend that you consult with an experienced engineer.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10849</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>WordPress Malware &#8220;Resurfaces Every Day,&#8221; How to Check for Malicious Processes, mu-plugins, and Hidden Admins</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10827</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 01:30:31 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10827</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain how to identify and deal with the three causes of WordPress malware that can resurface after a certain period of time even if it is removed: malicious processes, mu-plugins, and hidden administrators. What are rogue processes that cause malware to resurface? How to deal with it Once a hacker is allowed to enter your site via a vulnerability, the hacker may have planted a malicious process that keeps executing code in the server&#8217;s memory that will keep reinfecting itself indefinitely. This rogue process is the cause of repeated reinfections. The rogue process can be stopped by executing the following command on the server Investigate the rogue process ps auwwx &#124; grep -v grep &#124; grep -i php Stopping a rogue process kill -9 process ID (number) Free WordPress:Malware Scan &#038; Security Plugin [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal] allows you to investigate and stop unauthorized processes from the WordPress administration screen. Causes of malware resurrection 2 mu-plugins mu-plugins is a program that is always executed at the topmost point when WordPress is run. This program does not appear in the admin panel, so a hacker may have installed a malicious program on your server as mu-plugins. (mu-plugins is not used in early WordPress). The site is reinfected with malware via this rogue mu-plugins. To check for the presence of rogue mu-plugins, connect to the server with FTP software and visually inspect the mu-plugins folder in the wp-content folder for the presence of rogue programs. It is also possible to use a plugin that performs a comprehensive malware scan to inspect the mu-plugins folder and remove the malware. Causes of Malware Resurrection 3: Hidden Administrators Hackers may know the password for administrator privileges or add an unauthorized administrator user to log in to WordPress as an administrator and reinfect it with malware. In this case, log in to WordPress and go to Users > User List to see if an unidentified administrator user has been added. If there is an administrator user that you do not remember, either change the password of that user to disable login, or delete that user (we recommend that you backup your database if you delete the user). We also recommend that you change the administrator&#8217;s password, as hackers may have the existing administrator&#8217;s password. We recommend that the password be a random string of at least 12 single-byte alphanumeric characters. We hope this helps.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10827</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to automatically prevent WordPress htaccess and index.php from being rewritten by malware with a security plugin</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10820</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 May 2026 01:26:30 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></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=10820</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain how to use a security plugin to automatically prevent WordPress htaccess and index.php from being rewritten by malware. Prevent malware (hackers) from automatically rewriting htaccess and index.php When infected with malware, hackers may rewrite index.php and htaccess. Even if this rewriting is removed, it may revert immediately. We will explain how to prevent the rewriting of index.php and htaccess by hackers using plug-ins. First, download, install, and activate a security plugin that protects htaccess and index.php. Free WordPress:Malware Scanning &#038; Security Plugin [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal]. In the WordPress admin page, go to Malware Scan→Security tab→Repair and protect .htaccess and index.php Turn on the checkbox for the function and save the settings. Cautions Please make sure that index.php and htaccess are not already infected with malware. If they are infected and you protect them, they will be automatically protected forever in the infected state. Please make sure that there is only the initial code as shown below, or the security and SEO posts. Initial code of index.php &#60;?php /** * Front to the WordPress application. This file doesn't do anything, but loads * wp-blog-header.php which does and tells WordPress to load the theme. * * @package WordPress */ /** * Tells WordPress to load the WordPress theme and output it. * * @var bool */ define( 'WP_USE_THEMES', true ); /** Loads the WordPress Environment and Template */ require __DIR__ . '/wp-blog-header.php'; Initial code of .htaccess # BEGIN WordPress &#60;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&#62; RewriteEngine On RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}] RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] &#60;/IfModule&#62; # END WordPress The WP DOctor plugin also has a function to initialize and protect index.php and htaccess that have already been tampered with. If your index.php or htaccess has already been tampered with, please use this function! How WP Doctor plugin protects index.php and htaccess automatically This page explains how WP Doctor plugin automatically protects index.php and htaccess. 1 Start of protection Malware infecting processes, etc. with malicious code in an infinite loop rewrites index.php and htaccess at high speed. For this reason, this plug-in rewrites index.php and htaccess up to several hundred times in a row to make sure that they are properly saved with the protected code, and starts protection the moment the code is properly protected. 2 Change the permissions to those that are difficult to rewrite. Next, the plugin changes index.php and htaccess to write permissions that do not allow rewriting of the files. This will make it difficult for malware to rewrite the files. 3 Always monitor index.php and htaccess for rewrites Each time the site is accessed (each time WordPress is initialized), it is compared to the protected content code stored in the database and monitored to see if any rewriting of index.php or htaccess has occurred. If rewriting has occurred, rewrite index.php or htaccess and repeat the process 1 and 2 to protect it again. Should the automatic protection of index.php and htaccess always be enabled? This function compares the code in index.php and htaccess with [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10820</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>The nature of the discrepancy between WordFence saying &#8220;no problem&#8221; and Google Search Console issuing a malware warning.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10814</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Apr 2026 01:59:01 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></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=10814</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[WordFence says &#8220;no problem&#8221; even though the site is infected with malware, and Google Search Console is giving a malware warning. Or conversely, we will explain the discrepancy where WordFence detects malware and Search Console and Safe Browsing show no problem. Why do different malware detection sites give different results? Reason 1: Internal and external inspections may detect different malware. WordPress malware may differ greatly in the malicious code that is inserted when the site is rendered and the malware itself that generates the code. This is because obfuscation, which is often applied to the malware itself, has the effect of hiding the malicious code it outputs. External checking programs such as Google and Sucuri detect malicious code generated by malware externally, while plugins such as WordFence detect malware by inspecting the internal code of WordPress. This may cause the results to be skewed. In general, internal checks are more accurate in detecting the malware itself. However, as we will discuss later, malware is increasing every day, so malware detection patterns may not keep up, and external checks such as Google and Sucuri may detect malware before the internal checks do. Reason 2: Extremely Diverse Malware Malware infecting WordPress is much more diverse than PC viruses. The code obfuscation process changes from site to site, and the content of the malicious code may change. For this reason, various malware detection plug-ins vary greatly in detection power and the malware they can detect. If possible, it may be better to use a plug-in with high malware detection power, or to use multiple malware detection plug-ins for malware inspection only, to improve detection accuracy. Please also use our malware scanning plug-ins, which contain tens of thousands of malware detection patterns. Free WordPress:Malware Scan &#038; Security Plug-in [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal]. Reason 3: Malware that manifests itself only under specific conditions Some malware only manifests itself when accessed via Google, or only when accessed by a smartphone, or some malicious code hides itself during external inspection. For this reason, depending on the service, the results of external inspections may not detect the malware, or the malware may be detected, resulting in a large discrepancy in the inspection results. Reason 4: False positives The first time Google Search Console issues a malware warning, malware is almost certainly detected in many cases. (It is highly accurate.) However, once detected, Google&#8217;s test results are sometimes not easily determined to be malware-free, even after malware disinfection. It is reported that even if you simply place HTML, it may still be detected, so there is a possibility that some cache is being retested and it is being detected incorrectly. In this case, you may need to reapply through the search console and carefully explain what work you did when you reapplied and that the malware symptoms have disappeared.]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10814</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>What to do if you install 2FA or other security plugins for WordPress and can no longer log in yourself.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10780</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2026 01:31:27 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[malware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plugin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[security]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/?p=10780</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[This section explains what to do if you have installed 2FA or other security plugins for WordPress and can no longer log in yourself. If you have installed a security plugin that prevents you from logging in, and you are unable to log in yourself If you use security plug-ins such as two-factor authentication (2FA), login lockdown, or change the URL of the administration screen, you may experience several login failures and your IP address may be rejected, or you may not be able to log in yourself because the URL of the login screen is no longer known. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. If you are blocked by the login lockdown, you may be able to log in again in a few hours, depending on the security plugin&#8217;s time limit setting. In this case, we will explain two ways to get logged in again. 1 Rewrite database information In many cases, security plugin settings are written in the database. Upload database browsing software such as Adminer to your server, connect to the database based on the database connection information in wp-config.php, and view or change the settings in the following way. Find out where to change the database login URL. If you are unsure of the login URL, search the option_name and option_value columns of the wp_option table for strings such as &#8220;login&#8221; to find the corresponding record, as the URL to change is often recorded in the wp_option table. Rewriting IPs for login lockdown You may be able to remove the login lockdown by rewriting the record of the target IP address. Check your IP, search the wp-option table or the database table created by the security plugin with this IP, and see if it is a record of a lockdown IP, and then change the IP number recorded in the database to avoid the login lockdown. Then you can avoid the login lockdown by changing one of the IP numbers in the database. 2 Disable the plugin A simpler method is to temporarily disable the relevant security plugin, log in, and then re-enable the plugin after logging in and rewrite the security plugin settings, etc. If you connect to the server using FTP software and rename the folder wp-content/plugins/security plugins by adding _ to the folder name, the plugin may be disabled and you will be able to log in. Default WordPress login URL https://wordpress url/wp-login.php Some security plugins have complex structures, such that renaming a folder may cause file loading problems, making the entire site inaccessible. In this case, you will need to rename the folder back to its original name, check the relevance of the files, and deactivate the plugin. Do I need to enhance the WordPress login screen? It is highly likely that you do not need to enhance the WordPress login screen with 2FA or other means to begin with. 60-70% of successful WordPress hacks are caused by plugin vulnerabilities. If the login password is strong, there is no chance that a hacker can log in with administrative privileges [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10780</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Examples of wordpress plugins turned into malware due to acquisition by another company or hijacking of wordpress.org accounts and how to prevent it in advance.</title>
		<link>https://blog.website-malware-removal.com/10774</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[wpdoctoradmin]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Mar 2026 01:50:48 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[WordPress Security]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[check]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clean]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free]]></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=10774</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[We will explain actual cases of WordPress plug-ins becoming malware due to acquisition by another company or hijacking of wordpress.org accounts, and how to prevent this from happening in advance. Can plugins distributed from the official WordPress website contain malware? Plugins distributed from the official WordPress website are open source, meaning that their code is available to technicians from all over the world, and they are constantly checked for malware by volunteer private developers, security companies, and WordPress operators. For this reason, although it is rare, there have been several cases where plug-ins (including updates) distributed from the official site have been infected with malware and have been distributed. 1 Display Widgets malware contamination case 2017 Display Widgets was a popular plugin used by about 200,000 sites, but the developer sold the plugin to a third party for $15,000. With the subsequent v2.6.0 release, malware was introduced by that third party, and numerous sites that updated to this version or installed Display Widgets were affected by the malware. (According to one theory, tens of thousands of sites). The timeline of this incident is as follows May 19, 2017. Former developer sells plugin to third party (under the name Mason Soiza) for $15,000 June 21, 2017 New owner releases first update v2.6.0. Malware code is secretly inserted at this point. June 22, 2017 SEO consultant David Cameron Law discovers an anomaly in v2.6.0; reports to WordPress.org that it is downloading over 38MB of external code and sending user IP addresses, viewed pages, domains, etc. to a third-party server June 23, 2017. WordPress.org Removes Plugin from Repository (1st time) June 30, 2017 Attacker releases v2.6.1, which includes geolocation.php but is &#8220;not recognized as malicious code&#8221; and allowed to be reposted. New exploit adds ability to hide spam content from view for logged-in users. July 1, 2017 WordPress.org removed (for the second time) July 6, 2017 Released v2.6.2, keeping geolocation.php and adding ON/OFF option to &#8220;make it look legit&#8221; July 23, 2017 Another user reports spam delivery. July 24, 2017 WordPress.org removed (for the 3rd time) September 2, 2017 v2.6.3 is released. Malware is still intact and even bug fixes are made, deemed &#8220;clearly intentional maintenance&#8221;. September 8, 2017 WordPress.org permanently removed (4th and final) As you can see from the history, when a plugin contains malware, it is discovered within 1-20 days, and WordPress officials have stopped distributing that plugin within 20 days even in this weasel-worded case. This case was the first time ever that a malicious plugin acquirer said it had fixed the problem multiple times, but in fact continued to maliciously introduce malware. 2 Social Warfare Malware Contamination Case 2024 The Social Warfare plugin malware contamination incident was not an acquisition, but a malware contamination incident that occurred when hackers took over the Social Warfare development management screen (plugin upload management and other functions of wordpress.org). This is said to be a strong possibility, and the investigation is still ongoing. June 22, 2024. Malicious code was introduced into Social Warfare, distributed as an automatic update via WordPress.org. June 22, 2024. WordPress.org [&#8230;]]]></description>
		
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">10774</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>
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