When a website is compromised, attackers frequently leave behind a backdoor – according to our research around 70% of all website hacks include a backdoor. These backdoors are not designed to attack a website or destroy data, instead they allow an attacker to re-enter a targeted website with little to no authentication, providing them with […]
Tag Archives: Website Backdoor
Decoding Complex Malware – Step-by-Step
When cleaning websites, one of the most complicated parts of our job is ensuring we find all backdoors. Most of the time, attackers inject code into different locations to increase the chances of reinfecting the site and maintaining access for as long as possible. Our research finds that in 67% of the websites we clean, […]
Register My Backdoor – Unorthodox Invocation Mechanisms
Backdoors are found in 72% of infected websites, according to our latest reports. Backdoors are files left on the server by attackers in order to retain access to your site and reinfect it later, whenever they see fit. From time to time we come across unique backdoors that don’t involve the usual PHP functions like eval, […]
Bank Phishing Incident Analysis
Everyone has received a phishing scam via email at one point or another. Thanks to modern anti-spam technology, most of these messages are blocked from ever reaching our inboxes. I said most of them. Today I got one that was able to get through the bouncer: The subject (in Brazilian Portuguese and poorly crafted) translates […]
Fake bb_press Plugin Redirects to Mobile Pornography
When a website is hacked, we often find that attackers have injected multiple backdoors, web shells, and malicious code that allows them to regain access if the original vulnerability is patched. This allows hackers to continue abusing the website and server resources. One of the techniques they use is to add fake extensions that perform […]
vBulletin Malware – When Hackers Compete for Backdoor Control
A common pattern we see in compromised websites is the presence of backdoors and other malicious code. During Q3 of 2016, we found that 72% of all compromises that we encountered had a PHP-based backdoor hidden within the site. Attackers experiment with various techniques and types of malware to abuse server resources and distribute spam […]
Unrestricted Backend Login Method Seen in OpenCart
From the attacker’s perspective, creating ways to maintain access to a compromised website is desirable. This allows them to further distribute malware and perform different kinds of malicious activities. One of the ways attackers try to secure their access is by adding admin users, or pieces of malicious code throughout the site. This allows them […]
New XM1RPC SEO Spam and Backdoor Campaign
We have been monitoring a new campaign specifically targeting WordPress sites, using hundreds of them for SEO spam distribution. We call it the XM1RPC campaign due to the common backdoor used across all of the compromised sites. The file is named in such a way as to confuse WordPress administrators who are familiar with XML-RPC. […]
Learning From Buggy WordPress Wp-login Malware
When a site gets hacked, the attack doesn’t end with the malicious payload or spam content. Hackers know that most website administrators will clean up the infection and look no further. Many go on to patch vulnerable software, change their passwords, and perform other post-hack steps. All of this is good, but hackers who follow […]
New Realstatistics Attack Vector Compromising Joomla Sites
Over the past few weeks we’ve seen a large number of Joomla websites compromised with the Realstatistics malware campaign. This mass infection is still evolving and continues to distribute harmful ransomware to compromised website visitors. Today we are providing more context on the new attack vector and exploitation process used to to compromise these sites…. […]
