Malware

What is .htaccess Malware? (Detection, Symptoms & Prevention)

The .htaccess file is notorious for being targeted by attackers. Whether it’s using the file to hide malware, redirect search engines to other sites with black hat SEO tactics, or inject content — the range of possibilities for misuse is vast, making it a prime target for hackers. .htaccess malware can be hard to pinpoint

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New Malware Campaign Found Exploiting Stored XSS in Popup Builder < 4.2.3

In January, my colleague reported about a new Balada Injector campaign found exploiting a recent vulnerability in the widely-used Popup Builder WordPress plugin which was initially disclosed back in November, 2023 by Marc Montpas. In the past three weeks, we’ve started seeing an uptick in attacks from a new malware campaign targeting this same Popup

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From Web3 Drainer to Distributed WordPress Brute Force Attack

Two weeks ago we discussed a new development in website hacks: Web3 crypto wallet drainers. We’ve been closely following the most significant variant which injects drainers using the external cachingjs/turboturbo.js script. Our SiteCheck website scanner has already detected this version on over 1,200 sites since the beginning of February, 2024. Since our last post, this

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New Wave of SocGholish Infections Impersonates WordPress Plugins

SocGholish malware, otherwise known as “fake browser updates”, is one of the most common types of malware infections that we see on hacked websites. This long-standing malware campaign leverages a JavaScript malware framework that has been in use since at least 2017. The malware attempts to trick unsuspecting users into downloading what is actually a

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Web3 Crypto Malware: Angel Drainer – From Phishing Sites to Malicious Injections

Since January 2024, there has been a notable surge in attacks by a novel form of website malware targeting Web3 and cryptocurrency assets. This malware, spread across multiple campaigns, uses crypto drainers to steal and redistribute assets from compromised wallets. The strategy involves either injecting drainers directly into compromised websites or redirecting site visitors to

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Remote Access Trojan (RAT): Types, Mitigation & Removal

Remote Access Trojans (RATs) are a serious threat capable of giving attackers control over infected systems. This malware stealthily enters systems (often disguised as legitimate software or by exploiting a vulnerability in the system) and opens backdoors for attackers to perform a wide range of malicious activities on the victim’s computer. This blog post is

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Fixing Website Hosting Issues: “This Account Has Been Suspended”

Experiencing a “This account has been suspended” warning on your website can be both confusing and alarming. This message means that your hosting provider has put your site on a temporary hold. The reasons for an account suspension can range from malware infections and spam content, excessive resource usage, unpaid web hosting bills, or policy

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The Dangers of Lateral Movement & Website Cross Contamination

One of the most frequent problems that we observe in website hosting environments is “cross contamination” — the lateral movement of an attacker between websites. Cross-site contamination occurs when a site is infected by neighboring sites within the same hosting environment due to poor isolation on the server or account configuration. In this post we

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Thousands of Sites with Popup Builder Compromised by Balada Injector

On December 11, 2023 WPScan published Marc Montpas’ research on the stored XSS vulnerability in the popular Popup Builder plugin (200,000+ active installation) that was fixed in version 4.2.3. A couple of days later, on December 13th, the Balada Injector campaign started infecting websites with older versions of the Popup Builder. The attack used a

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MageCart WordPress Plugin Injects Malicious User & Credit Card Skimmer

One of our analysts recently found an interesting malicious plugin injected into a WordPress / WooCommerce ecommerce website which both creates and conceals a bogus administrator user. It was also found injecting sophisticated credit card skimming JavaScript into the website’s checkout page. This plugin includes an interesting sample of malicious code which goes to great

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