Suspected hacking

[John Lester]

According to google's webmaster tools there is a suspected instance of hacking on my site.


Dear site owner or webmaster of http://www.braintalkcommunities.org/,
We are writing to let you know that we believe some of your website's pages may be hacked. Specifically, we think that JavaScript has been injected into your site by a third party and may be used to redirect users to malicious sites. You should check your source code for any unfamiliar JavaScript and in particular any files containing "counter.php" style="visibility: hidden; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px" width="10" height="10". The malicious code may be placed in HTML, JavaScript or PHP files so it's important to be thorough in your search.
The following are example URLs from your site where we found such content:
http://www.braintalkcommunities.org/BTC_disclaimer_rev.html
In addition, it's also possible your server configuration files (such as Apache's .htaccess) have been compromised. As a result of this, your site may be cloaking and showing the malicious content only in certain situations.
We encourage you to investigate this matter in order to protect your visitors. If your site was compromised, it's important to not only remove the malicious (and usually hidden) content from your pages, but also to identify and fix the vulnerability. A good first step may be to contact your web host's technical support for assistance. It's also important to make sure that your website's software is up-to-date with the latest security updates and patches.
More information about cleaning your site can be found at:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=163634 (http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=163634)
Sincerely, Google Search Quality Team

So I visited the page in question (disclaimer url above) and received a "connection reset" message (it did not redirect at all). I attempted to download the file via ftp but it kept refreshing the request without downloading it. I also tried to dl the file via cpanel's file manager with the same result (continued refreshing of the request).

To be safe I did the following:
Deleted the page in question via cpanel's file manager (couldn't do it via ftp ... kept refreshing the request)
Removed all references to the page in question (it had 1 link in my footer in all of my styles ... no other reference to it anywhere on the site)
Searched all templates via the acp for "counter" and "counter.php" and "style="visibility: hidden" found 0
Searched the db via phpmyadmin for "style="visibility: hidden" found 0
Searched the db via phpmyadmin for "counter.php" found 0
Checked my access logs and error logs and found nothing relating to "counter.php" or the page in question. NOTE: I did find a few references to the old version of that page that hasn't been on the server in a couple of years.
Checked .htaccess files and found nothing pointing to "content.php". Verified online .htaccess files with offline copies (matched exactly).
Downloaded clean 4.1.12 pl 3 from vbulletin.com.
Uploaded new clean 4.1.12 pl 3 over writing existing files
Ran "suspect file version" and came back with expected results (I have a couple dozen non vb pages) and 1 unexpected but apparently normal result (index.php does not contain expected content ... or whatever sorry I have since left my acp and don't recall the exact message), I say this is normal because I compared the new fresh clean file with the backup offline file I have on my pc and they are identical expect for the date.My question is this, should I do anything else to ensure that I don't have any malicious JS on my site?

I'm not worried about not having the disclaimer, it was outdated and I am working on the new version as it stands. I will most likely make it a php page vs html (for the headers n footers :D ).

[TheLastSuperman]

Whenever your hacked it's best to check for all types of Malicious files/codes etc instead of simply assuming it was one "file" as it were, for that try the info outlined here: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blogs/michael-miller/3934768- especially run the queries to see if anything comes up.

On the one file you had trouble deleting, open a support ticket with your host and mention this to them, ask them to verify that the file was removed entirely - they may at that point decide to run some server-side scans it depends on your host and what importance they place on matters such as this.

[nhawk]

I'd also suggest checking php.ini to see if allow_url_fopen is enabled. That's a huge security risk and should be disabled.

[John Lester]

Whenever your hacked it's best to check for all types of Malicious files/codes etc instead of simply assuming it was one "file" as it were, for that try the info outlined here: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blogs/michael-miller/3934768- especially run the queries to see if anything comes up.

On the one file you had trouble deleting, open a support ticket with your host and mention this to them, ask them to verify that the file was removed entirely - they may at that point decide to run some server-side scans it depends on your host and what importance they place on matters such as this.

Did those steps and did not find anything malicious. Host confirms that the file was deleted through the cpanel's file manager at the time I deleted it. They will get back to me once they finish going through the server to let me know if there are any issues.

Thanks, forgot all about those queries :)

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I'd also suggest checking php.ini to see if allow_url_fopen is enabled. That's a huge security risk and should be disabled.

I have asked my host about this and am awaiting a response :)

[John Lester]

Forgot to update the thread, host came back and said everything was clean after I had deleted the page in question. It was a very old (12+ years old) page coded by someone else. Now our privacy policy is in a custom made php page and template :)