On average, a website leverages around 18-20 different plugins in its structure. These plugins enhance the website’s functionality and in some instances extend the applications core capabilities. It’s great for website owners because they can pick and choose from different plugins and check which ones better fit their personal blog or businesses. On the otherRead […]
Tag Archives: Website Security
Domain Validation: SSL’s Other Job
SSL certificates are a hot topic today. Website owners are becoming increasingly aware that collecting information on non-HTTPS secured pages is a bad idea and the larger web ecosystem is definitely moving in the direction of full web encryption. Google has indicated they’re giving a ranking boost to HTTPS encrypted sites with heavier rankings likelyRead […]
Ask Sucuri: What is an XSS Vulnerability?
Question: What is an XSS vulnerability? Should I be concerned about an XSS vulnerability? XSS (short for Cross-Site Scripting) is a widespread vulnerability that affects many web applications. The danger behind XSS is that it allows an attacker to inject content into a website and modify how it is displayed, forcing a victim’s browser toRead […]
Ask Sucuri: Differentiate Between Security Firewalls
Question: How should a website owner differentiate between Firewalls? What do they do? The term “firewall” is not new. It is common terminology in the world of technology and security, and possibly common enough that even non-technical people have a basic understanding of what a firewall is. Its meaning actually extends beyond security. The brick walls thatRead […]
Beware of Unverified TLS Certificates in PHP & Python
Web developers today rely on various third-party APIs. For example, these APIs allow you to accept credit card payments, integrate a social network with your website, or clear your CDN’s cache. The HTTPS protocol is used to secure the connection with the API server. However, if your web app doesn’t verify the TLS certificate, aRead […]
Hacked Websites Redirect to Porn from PDF / DOC Links
We write a lot about various blackhat SEO hacks on this blog and most of you are already familiar with such things as doorways, cloaking and SEO poisoning. This time we’ll tell you about yet another interesting black hat SEO attack that we’ve been watching for the last year. Let’s begin with symptoms: When peopleRead […]
Ask Sucuri: How Does Sucuri Clean a Website?
Question: How does Sucuri clean hacked websites? What is the process? We clean a lot of websites, ~ 400 / 500, daily during our normal load. To understand how we do it, you have to understand where it all comes from. The biggest challenge with providing incident response services (remediation) on compromised websites is that a majorityRead […]
Massive Admedia/Adverting iFrame Infection
This past weekend we registered a spike in WordPress infections where hackers injected encrypted code at the end of all legitimate .js files. The distinguishing features of this malware are: 32 hex digit comments at the beginning and end of the malicious code. E.g. /*e8def60c62ec31519121bfdb43fa078f*/ This comment is unique on every infected site. Most likely an MD5Read […]
Ransomware Strikes Websites
Ransomware is one of the most insidious types of malware that one can come across. These infections will encrypt all files on the target computer as well as any hard drives connected to the machine – pictures, videos, text files – you name it. This means that all of your files are locked. The attackersRead […]
Malicious Pastebin Replacement for jQuery
Website hackers are always changing tactics and borrowing ideas from each other. One of the challenges of website security is staying on top of those threats as they evolve. We wrote in the past about fake jQuery scripts and how hackers use Pastebin.com to host malware. This time, we will show you an attack thatRead […]
