Familiar with the malware reinclusion process?
-
One of our sites was haXX0red and at the moment I'm thinking it was a non-updated paid for WP plugin using the old version of timthumb.
While not important to my question, the hack included .htaccess files in all the /uploads/ to redirect to a site (tonycar dot com) which I assume installed some sort of malware or spyware.
I changed all ftp and admin log ins, updated the timthumb files and deleted all the .htaccess files, for added measure I've currently made the upload folders read only.
I've requested a review through webmaster tools and the image that WMT claimed to be an issue has been removed as being an issue. That is to say if I clicked on the malware warning in WMT, it told me imagex.jpg was a problem and now it doesn't tell me anything is an issue, though the malware warning still persists.
As I no longer have any indication as to what (if anything) is wrong, I tried going through some contacts at adwords to no avail, though they have said there's a note saying there's no malware currently on the site (I'm hoping that's by them and not just my reinclusion request).
Assuming the all mighty G is now satisfied there's no malware on the site (or being processed by the site), does anyone have any idea how to get rid of the warning?
Alternatively if the warning is accurate, how can I find out what's being effected?
-
It's a waiting game at this point. If they don't find problems then ask for reinclusion again. Wait 24 hours between asking for reinclusion & seeing if Google reports new problems.
-
If Google's stopped telling me what the problem files are, any idea how to find out what they are seeing?
I think I've plugged the problem and removed the suspicious files, but I can't really be sure.
-
I ran into an issue with malware once and Google was very responsive during the process. Each time I asked for reinclusion the request was responded to within 24 hours.
I say "each time" because this particular piece of malware infected random files across an entire dedicated server hosting a great deal of websites. After I became aware that the problem was impossible to solve manually, I wrote a script to detect and remove all traces of the malware. At this point it was my 5th request I believe, and there was no problem with Google approving my request.
There are scanners you can use but during my look at them, I didn't find any reliable free ones. Hopefully you got it all and won't need to pay for anything.
Wonderful people, these malware creators. Best of luck.
-
It should go away on it's own once you removed all the offending malware code from your site.
Call your hosting company and they will scan your site and remove the malware for you. A lof of people don't know that their hosting company will be more than happy in assisting removing hacks or viruses present on your sites at no charge. It's probably still on your site if you're still getting the message days later.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What steps should I take to address damage to my website, including malware insertion and content theft?
The question revolves around the steps required to mitigate damage inflicted upon a website, encompassing issues such as malware insertion and content theft. It prompts a comprehensive exploration of the necessary actions to take in response to these challenges. The inquirer seeks guidance on how to effectively address the damage, indicating a desire for practical solutions and strategies to restore and safeguard their website's integrity. By posing this question, the individual demonstrates an awareness of the severity of the situation and a readiness to undertake corrective measures.
Technical SEO | | ralphbaer0 -
My WP website got attack by malware & now my website site:www.example.ca shows about 43000 indexed page in google.
Hi All My wordpress website got attack by malware last week. It affected my index page in google badly. my typical site:example.ca shows about 130 indexed pages on google. Now it shows about 43000 indexed pages. I had my server company tech support scan my site and clean the malware yesterday. But it still shows the same number of indexed page on google.
Technical SEO | | ChophelDoes anybody had ever experience such situation and how did you fixed it. Looking for help. Thanks FILE HIT LIST:
{YARA}Spam_PHP_WPVCD_ContentInjection : /home/example/public_html/wp-includes/wp-tmp.php
{YARA}Backdoor_PHP_WPVCD_Deployer : /home/example/public_html/wp-includes/wp-vcd.php
{YARA}Backdoor_PHP_WPVCD_Deployer : /home/example/public_html/wp-content/themes/oceanwp.zip
{YARA}webshell_webshell_cnseay02_1 : /home/example2/public_html/content.php
{YARA}eval_post : /home/example2/public_html/wp-includes/63292236.php
{YARA}webshell_webshell_cnseay02_1 : /home/example3/public_html/content.php
{YARA}eval_post : /home/example4/public_html/wp-admin/28855846.php
{HEX}php.generic.malware.442 : /home/example5/public_html/wp-22.php
{HEX}php.generic.cav7.421 : /home/example5/public_html/SEUN.php
{HEX}php.generic.malware.442 : /home/example5/public_html/Webhook.php0 -
Client suffered a malware attack. Removed links not being crawled by Google!
Hi all, My client suffered a malware attack a few weeks ago where an external site somehow created 700 plus links on my clients site with their content. I removed all of the content and redirected the pages to the home page. I then created a new temporary xml sitemap with those 700 links and submitted the sitemap to Google 9 days ago. Google has crawled the sitemap a few times but not the individual links. When I click on the crawl report for the sitemap in GSC, I see that the individual links still have the last crawled date from before they were removed. So in Googles eyes, that old malicioud content still exists. What do I do to ensure Google knows the contnt is gone and redirected? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | sk19900 -
GSC: Change of Domain Not Processed, Despite Saying "Approved"?
Hi folks, I've just completed a straightforward olddomain -> newdomain migration. All the redirects were done on 7th Feb. I submitted the change of domain request on 7th Feb. All seemed fine - as can be seen in the attached. It's now 19th March and our pals at GSC are still saying that the domain migration is ongoing. I've never had this take so long before; 2-3 days tops. Their results are tanking as I can't geo target and more features in GSC are out of action as it's 'locked' due to this migration (I just get a screen as per the attached). Thoughts? Shall I risk withdrawing the request and starting anew? The old "turn it off and on again"? Thanks! hJXKC
Technical SEO | | tonyatfat0 -
Google Webmaster tools: Sitemap.xml not processed everyday
Hi, We have multiple sites under our google webmaster tools account with each having a sitemap.xml submitted Each site's sitemap.xml status ( attached below ) shows it is processed everyday except for one _Sitemap: /sitemap.xml__This Sitemap was submitted Jan 10, 2012, and processed Oct 14, 2013._But except for one site ( coed.com ) for which the sitemap.xml was processed only on the day it is submitted and we have to manually resubmit every day to get it processed.Any idea on why it might?thank you
Technical SEO | | COEDMediaGroup0 -
Same day our sitemap finished processing in G WebTools, our SERP results Tank!
Need a little help troubleshooting an SEO issue. The day our sitemap finished processing in Google Webmaster Tools, almost all of our keyword serp results tanked. Our top 4 keywords routinely were placing from 11 - 33 rank in serp result and now they're not even on in the top 200? Would the sitemap processing have anything do do with this or should I look somewhere else. FYI: Site is build in DNN, sitemap is fine and robot.txt file is good. Open to all suggestions!!
Technical SEO | | Firecracker0 -
Speed up the process of removing URLs from Google Index
Hi guys, We have done some work to try to remove pages from Google index. We have done the following: 1. Noindex tag 2. Make pages returning a 404 response. Is there anyway to notify Google about these changes so we can speed up the process of removing these pages from Google index? Also regarding the URL removal tool, Google says that it's used to remove URLs from search results, does it mean the URLs are removed from their index too? Many thanks guys David
Technical SEO | | sssrpm0 -
Duplicate exact match domains flagged by google - need help reinclusion
Okay I admit, I've been naughty....I have 270+ domains that are all exact match for city+keyword and have built tons of back links to all of them. I reaped the benefits....and now google has found my duplicate templates and flagged them all down. Question is, how to get the reincluded quickly? Do you guys think converting a site to a basic wordpress template and then simply using 275 different templates and begging applying each site manually would do it, or do you recommend. 1. create a unique site template for each site 2. create unique content any other advice for getting reincluded? Aside from owning up and saying, "hey i used the same template for all the sites, and I have created new templates and unique content, so please let me back".
Technical SEO | | ilyaelbert3