Check your WordPress site for viruses and malware

time to be free to do what I wantBlogging is supposed to be fun but it isn't always like that. If you are hosting your own blog there is a great chance that one day a hacker may decide to target your site.

I recently wrote how my WordPress blog was hacked and seriously compromised. This is a very important topic, so I am giving it extra attention.

As good as it is, WordPress still has security issues. Upgrading to the latest version is a must if you want to lower the risk of getting your site hacked. Version 2.6 WordPress came out few days ago and if you haven't yet - upgrade. Upgrading is not hard today with excellent plugins like Instant upgrade.

I also found today a useful plugin for WordPress that I am going to recommend. It helps find potential viruses, javascript and iframe injections. The plugin is called WordPress Exploit Scanner.

It's output is fairly advanced. It scans through all files in your WordPress installation and searches for malicious looking code. Basically you want to check if any of the warnings contain links to  sites you are not familiar with. If they do you might want to ask an expert about it.

If you are the only registered user of you WordPress blog, turning off "Anyone can register" option in your General settings of the Admin panel is a nice precaution as this was the source of biggest troubles in the past.

Should he trouble still happen, be sure you have at least weekly backups of your blog. WordPress Database Backup plugin will automate this work for you, so no reason not to use it.

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9 Comments

  1. Felix Gomez
    1 week ago

    Great post! Although I strongly believe the word "hacked" is an over statement.

  2. Zarora
    Jun 24th, 2009

    Nice post........ my blog is efftected with malware...it seems like i have to work from scrach.. i hope the plugins will help me

  3. Eujenio
    Jun 20th, 2009

    Nice Write-up. Thanks.

  4. Abdul Rahman
    Jun 18th, 2009

    I always have a problem with my wordpress blog for having malicious content... and sometimes it has a problem connecting to the database!!!

    i installed exploit scanner today. hope i can resolve this problem.

    thankx for the post... i searched thru google and found this post...

  5. free adware removal team
    Jun 2nd, 2009

    I ran into a problem similar to this one the other day. Firefox asked me to install Adobe Flash Player, even though I already had it installed. I did it and ended up with this XP Antivirus all over my computer. Someone needs to fix this junk.

  6. Peter
    Nov 29th, 2008

    The bottom of my web pages has links to webhost answers and cash load alongside the wordpress link. Can i eliminate the first 2 and are they a danger to my site?

  7. Raj
    Oct 15th, 2008

    Wonderful post, just what i was looking for.

  8. Les
    Jul 17th, 2008

    And remember: Backup, backup, backup - your site and database.

  9. Scam
    Jul 17th, 2008

    Excellent find - I forgot to upgrade one of my old blogs and when I checked it yesterday it had been hacked :(

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vladimir prelovac Hi! My name is Vladimir Prelovac. I am a computer engineer by profession and an adventurer by state of mind.

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