If you come across Chinese characters on your WordPress website, there's a strong possibility that your site has fallen victim to a cyber intrusion. This is a prevalent form of hacking referred to as the "Chinese Search Results Spam" hack. In this type of attack, malicious actors insert harmful code into your site's database or files, resulting in the display of Chinese spam content on your website. Typically, this spam content is unrelated to your website's actual content and might contain links leading to malicious websites.
1. Isolate the Site:
If you have access to your web hosting control panel, take your site offline to prevent further damage. This might involve temporarily disabling your website by renaming or moving the WordPress directory.
2. Change All Passwords:
Change the passwords for your WordPress admin account, hosting control panel, and any other related accounts. Use strong, unique passwords.
3. Scan for Malware:
Use a security plugin or online tool to scan your website for malware. There are several plugins available for WordPress, such as Wordfence and Sucuri, that can help identify and remove malicious code.
4. Restore from Backup:
If you have a recent backup of your website, consider restoring it to a clean state. Make sure you back up any compromised files and database for later analysis.
5. Update Everything:
Once your website is clean, update WordPress, your themes, and plugins to their latest versions. Outdated software can be a common entry point for hackers.
6. Check File Integrity:
Review all your website files for suspicious changes. Pay special attention to files like index.php and wp-config.php. Compare them to the original versions to check for unauthorized modifications.
7. Remove Unwanted Users:
Check your WordPress user accounts and delete any unfamiliar or suspicious accounts. Ensure that your own admin account is secure.
8. Scan Server Logs:
Review your server logs for any unusual or suspicious activity. This can help you identify how the hack occurred and whether there are any lingering issues.
9. Install a Security Plugin:
After your site is clean, install a reputable security plugin to help prevent future hacks. These plugins can provide firewall protection, malware scanning, and other security features.
10. Monitor for Suspicious Activity:
Regularly monitor your website for any unusual or suspicious activity. Set up security alerts or use a website monitoring service to notify you of potential issues.
11. Consider Professional Help:
If you're unsure about the extent of the hack or how to clean it up, consider hiring a professional web security expert or a web security company to assist you.
12. Change Hosting Credentials:
If you suspect that the hack might have compromised your hosting account, change your hosting account credentials as well.
13. Implement Strong Security Practices:
Going forward, make sure you follow strong security practices, including using complex passwords, keeping software up to date, and regularly backing up your site.
Remember that recovering from a hack can be a complex process, and it's crucial to address the issue promptly. Additionally, it's important to identify and fix the vulnerability that allowed the hack in the first place to prevent future incidents.
Some Technical Stuff to prevent further attacks:
Some directives that can prevent ( or at least try to ) this from happening again .
.htaccess file in the root directory of WordPress.
#Disallow indexes
Options All -Indexes
# protect wp-config.php
<files wp-config.php>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</files>
# WPhtC: Protect .htaccess file
<files ~ "^.*\.([Hh][Tt][Aa])">
order allow,deny
deny from all
</files>
robots.txt
Disallow: /wp-*
Another thing you can do is to force users (and yourself ) to use SSL ( HTTPS ) when login to admin:
define('FORCE_SSL_LOGIN', true);
Hope this helps you safe from any further attacks.
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