How to stop URLs on WordPress site redirect browsers to web pages that install malware

Get the Safe web browsing warning and Google black listing your website is not a good surprise for any genuine webmaster. It happened to couple of my websites and struggle for two three days to clean the websites and solve the issue. I will explain exactly what I did so, if you are going through the same situation this article may be helpful.

Here is my situation: warnings and clues I was getting ... 

• Get the Safe web browsing warning when you try to access your web site from Google Chrome or Firefox. Also, Google search result may put the warning next to your site.
  
• Even though Google is complaining that your website is redirecting, it won't redirect you, because it only does that for certain bots.
  
• First, go to Google Safe Browsing Page and get the following clues about what is going on with your website. You can access Google Safe Browsing page for your website by  the following link. Dont foreget to replace www.example.com with your site URL.
  http://google.com.au/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=www.example.com
  
  In my case
  
• First Warning: Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including riotorio.com/.
• Second Warning: 1 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including 91.121.198.0/.
• It will also tell you weather your site hosting any malicious software. In my case it was not hosting any.  No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.
  
• Secondly, you need to go to Webmaster Tools and get some more clues about your situation. Also, we required Webmaster Tools to request a review in the last step. So, if you haven't add your website to Webmaster Tools do it so.
  
  Here are the couple of information I gathered from Webmaster Tools.
  
• Some of the URLs on this site redirect browsers to web pages that install malware. This indicates that the server(s) that host pages for this site may contain altered configuration files (such as Apache's .htaccess file).
  
• General Problem
  When Google last tested this page, no content was returned from your server. Instead, the browser was redirected to a malicious web page. It is likely that your server configuration has been modified.
  

Are you in the same situation. Then you may continue and there is a change that you may able to get your site back to normal. Even if it is not the exact messages following steps will give you a general idea. 

• First thing First. Back up your word press site completely, including all the files, posts, database. WordPress plugin XCloner - Backup and Restore will help you to do that. Remember, this copy is infected but in any case if you don't have any other backup and clean up process breaks down your site at least there is a infected copy that you can start up again.
  
• Then use one or more Online Website Scanners to scan your website to double check that your web server is not hosting any viruses. Most probably results will be negative except for  Stop badware scanner results.
  
• Then install the Exploit Scanner WordPress plugin. This step is bit tricky. It scans the entire WordPress website and give all the possible code that hackers can hide the redirection. eval(base64_decode, script, iFrames are key ares you need to look. I scanned all my pages with Exploit Scanner and kept the result aside. Don't start visiting all those pages and deleting the line which this plugin indicates. Instead, just try to read the url and the file name and guess which plugin or page is having suspicious code.
  
• Here is what you need to do. Uninstall all the plugins that you are not using or  Exploit Scanner indicates that there is a suspicious code segment. if you re do the scanning you can see that no of suspicious codes are shrinking.
  
• In my case,  Exploit Scanner showed me that wp-settings.php file has a  eval(base64_decode, but non of the plugins instillation able to remove that. I can easily remove that lines manually but I am not sure is it something needed. Then I noticed that there is a new version of WordPress.  So, I updated the site from WordPress 3.3.0 to  WordPress 3.3.2. Bingo  wp-settings.php is clean. No more major issues.
  
• Log in back to Webmaster Tools and request Google to review your site. I got it cleared with in couple of hours. 

Hopefully, you will be able to remove all the malicious code which black list your site. 

• One more tip. Don't forget to look into  .htaccess file for any unwanted redirection. Look for any suspicious URLs.

Good Luck! If you have any questions or better way to do this drop a comment.
 

[FirstLook] Download Install Experience FireFox 4.0 Beta

Finally downloaded installed and played with Firefox 4.0 Beta. First impression, it is Google Chrome with Firefox theme. Installed smoothly and loaded withing seconds for the first time. Firefox always been a better browser.

Downloaded the 10.8Mb FireFox Setup 4.0 Beta 7.exe file and installed it within couple of seconds. Pretty neat and procreational look and feel (Similar to Google Chrome) is a plus point. Website loading time is impressive.

Incompatibility Add-on Check when it start for the first time. - I really did not worry about it at this stage.
Combines status bar and address bar alloved FF4.0 Beta to get rid of bottom status bar completely.

It gives the ability to group tabs and name it but for some reason when I try to exit the tab group screen it crashes and needed to start it again and again. It is all good still it is in beta and this is normal it beta versions.

Over all Firefox 4.0 Beta is smooth, faster and better. You can try it without any problem.

Internet Explorer 9 Beta looks Great

What is best Internet browser? What is the most fastest and secure browser? Some of the questions and arguments going around. I am not going to talk about browser war. This is all about the Internet Explorer 9 Beta. Has Microsoft has done a pretty good job this time? Lets find it out.

Download and Installing IE 9 Beta

It was a pretty smooth and fast installation and required to restart the computer as usual. Download and Installation took less than 5 minutes. IE9 is only supporting later version of Windows (Windows 7 and Windows Vista). It dose not support Windows XP. I think it is a good move as Microsoft badly need to move forward with Windows 7.

First Time
It was a pretty quick start and gave options to disable the plugins and add-ons to make it load faster.

IE9 Looks and feel

IE9 looks pretty similar to Google Chrome. Simplified interface provide the maximum space for the website. Compact search and URL to one box with Security view Compatibility view reload page and stop loading buttons. You can customize the search to your favorite search engine. Unlocking the toolbar will give you a option to resize the address bar.

IE 9 Tab Hacks
IE9 given the maximum functionality to its tabs. You can arrange the tabs as you want and you can drag a tab out side, so it will open as new window ( Just like in Google Chrome). Double click on the tool bar will open a new tab for you.

Memory usage

Without any add-ons and plugins memory usage is pretty low comparing to Google Chrome and FireFox. However, it totally depend on the open website and number of tabs. I tried my best of control these factors by opening the same webpage and number of tabs.

Overall Microsoft has done a good job in IE9 in terms of Loading time and look and feel of the web browser and user friendliness. Security level of IE9 is yet to be revealed.



If you are interested and running Windows Vista or 7 download IE 9 and give it a try. 

Will BookMarklets replace Browser Add-ons

When Google release its web browser most of you missed the Addons and tool bars. Browser Add-ons and toolbars give more functionalities and shortcuts to your browser. In Google Chrome you lost all these. Is there any way that I can add add-ons to Google Chrome? What is a Bookmarklet? Will Bookmarklets replace the browser add-ons?


What is a Bookmarklet?

The word Bookmarklet derives from two words; Bookmark and applet.
As it says Bookmarklet is a applet that can be run through book mark or hyper links. It can be simple as word counter, time display to complex tools that can change how you blog.

Still if you do not have a idea about what is a bookmarklet and how it works try couple of simple bookmarklets available. You can find lot of bookmarklets in here. They are quite simple and want to try out some complex one in Gmail or blog editor. Try Bookmarklet for Zemanta. You will love it.

Advantages of Bookmarklets

Can be used in any browser (IE, FireFox and even in Chrome)
Only run when you need it.
Keep you browser clean as you do not have to install anything.
Can be complex and used for any kind of functionalities.

What you think about Bookmarklets?

Google to take Chrome out of Beta!

Chrome

As of today, it is still in Beta but Google's vice president Marissa Mayer said Chrome will be out of Beta before the end of the year.

This will probably be one the fastest product developed by Google that will be taken out of Beta given Gmail is still officially in Beta for last 5yrs??

Google Chrome news was accidentally leaked on September 1, 2008 and it was officially launched on September 2, 2008

Surprisingly, Chrome is not yet available on Mac!

How to: Block URL (websites) you don’t want to visit

You can easily block list of URLs (websites) with out using any software. I have tried this in windows XP and it works fine.

Why you should block any websites?

1. Even it is your personal computer there is great chance of going to these nasty website that install adwares, spywares and all these unwated stuff in your computer. Some websites are using banner advertisements from different websites. These websites should be blocked.

2.You might be managing couple of uses or computers and you don’t want them to go to certain URLs.

Cool if any of these are your requirement then you can follow this. Secret is in the C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\. Path might be different from windows version or the way you install your windows.

You will find couple of files there; protocol, service, network and host. File you will be required is host (there is no extension for that file). If you don’t find it you can create it (Right click > new > create a text document and remove the extension).

Sample host file will look like this.

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.1 www.myspace.com
127.0.0.1 www.youtube.com


Create exact file and add any number of URL in the same format (127.0.0.1) and save it. Sometimes you might have to restart the machine but it worked for me without restarting.

Cool all the URLs listed there will be blocked.

CrazyCool : GhostZilla - Browse Web In Style

How about a invible internet browser.
wow u can browse internet without getting others attention.
This is acctually not just a dream.

Ghostzilla - Invisible Browser

It is an internet browser. It is more than invisible. It can hide on your
desktop. It can stay inside outlook, word or any other program. So,
it is hard to figure out what acctually you are doing... Are you writing an
email or surfing the internet....Support Tabbed Browsing.

How cool is that? And it is Crazzy ...
but plzzz dont use it at work or school COZ your administrator might be
watching you and what processors running on your machine...

Cool and crazzy fetures.....
1. It opens inside the program on your desktop.

Hardly you can say that you open a webpage. It open with notepad.
2. As soon as you move the cursor away from the gostzilla window it disappear. It removes from the task bar as well to bring it back you have to move your cursor from left end to the right end of your screen and left to right.
3. It wont display the pictures unless you move your mouse on top of the image area. All the images and text are in gray colour.

But it is not 100%. If you go to the Task Manger you can see the processors related to to gostzilla. Which means it can hide from the people in front of the screen but not from Network admins.

Update: I have notice that after installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 this program gives few issues. First thing I have notice is Gostzilla does not disappear when mouse take away from the window. It stay the same. It is kind of stuck in the same place.

Download GhostZilla