CypherHackz.Net » Wordpress

Troj/PHPShll-B malware in WordPress wp-config.php file!

CypherHackz — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:08:59 +0000

Suspicious codes found in WordPress wp-config.php file

A Sophos Senior Threat Researcher, Paul O Baccas found a malware codename, Troj/PHPShll-B in a WordPress wp-config.php file that was installed in one of their IT department friend’s website.

This malware was first detected by SophosLabs automated systems as Mal/Badsrc-C from the downloaded index.html file.

Further analysis, Paul saw a suspicious piece of code written in base64 string format in the wp-config.php file. When translated, the code will only be served if the User-Agent is Internet Explorer.

Sophos now detects and disinfects this modified code as Troj/PHPShll-B.

They believed it is most likely the code was injected via compromised FTP credentials. Sophos also recommends WordPress users to regularly auditing their WordPress wp-config.php file and make sure to use strong login passwords to avoid the account being compromised.

I have checked all my eight WordPress blogs wp-config.php files and luckily there are no weird strings or suspicious codes found in them. How about you?

via Troj/PHPShll-B: Malware injects itself into WordPress installations

Original post: Troj/PHPShll-B malware in WordPress wp-config.php file!
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Part of CypherFS Network.

VaultPress Review – Ultimate WordPress Backup Solution

CypherHackz — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 03:06:05 +0000

VaultPress – A WordPress backup solution by Automattic

I received my VaultPress Golden Ticket a few weeks ago. I thought the ticket has no expiration date but I was wrong. Nearly to its expiration date which was yesterday, I decided to use and install VaultPress in one of my blogs.

And here is my VaultPress review…

What is VaultPress?

VaultPress is a WordPress plugin developed by Automattic, the same person who created WordPress. This plugin will backup all your files and data such as uploads, plugins, themes and database and transfer them to VaultPress server. All the processes are done automatically and in real-time!

Let’s say you published a new article with a JPEG to your blog, VaultPress will backup the article together with the image file to VaultPress server. And you don’t have to worry anything because VaultPress will keep monitoring of any changes that has been made on your blog and will sync them with their server.

Sign Up VaultPress

Plans and pricing for VaultPress

Currently VaultPress is in private beta release and you must have the Golden Ticket to sign up. The ticket can be requested from the Apply for VaultPress page and as an early customer, you will receive a discounted price to use VaultPress. Alternatively, you also can contact me directly to get the VaultPress Golden Ticket. I can send you the ticket via email.

VaultPress Plans & Pricing starts with Basic which is $20USD per blog per month ($15USD if you have the Golden Ticket). But all payments will be credited into your credit card which I don’t prefer very much. I prefer to use PayPal for the payment. Hope they will put PayPal under payment method in future.

Using VaultPress

One VaultPress plugin for one WordPress blog

After the payment has been made, you will need to have a WordPress.com account to enter VaultPress dashboard. From the dashboard, you can download the plugin and install it into your WordPress blog.

Once installed, VaultPress will start doing his work. It will begin transferring files starting from uploads, plugins, themes and lastly the database. All files under these folders will be transferred to VaultPress server.

VaultPress backup in progress

But in my opinion, it is better to start the backup with the database first. The database is the most important thing for a blog. Without the database, the blog is nothing. So it is better to start the backup starting with the database.

During the backup process, you can see the progress either from your WordPress dashboard or from your VaultPress dashboard. It will take a few hours to complete, especially if you have many files and the database is too big.

VaultPress Dashboard shows the details of the last snapshot of your blog

But as long as you install VaultPress, just leave it to do his work and don’t worry about your blog. It is really a peace of mind when you have VaultPress to take care your blog from the inside.

Conclusion

Unlimited backup archives by VaultPress

VaultPress is the ultimate WordPress backup solution. Just install it, and forget about it. It will do his work in real-time and sync the backup even when you changed a setting in your WordPress blog.

This is the first time I don’t have to worry about my blog. If something goes wrong, I know that I have a complete and the latest backup of my blog.

I can request another Golden Ticket and thinking to use it for my CypherHackz.Net blog. And yes, if I want to have VaultPress to take care my blog, I need to add another extra $15USD in my monthly budget.

Although the price is expensive, but VaultPress is really worth it. Recommend!

Pros & Cons

+ Backups everything (uploads, plugins, themes, database)
+ Real time backup
+ Unlimited backup storage
+ Downloadable backup archives
+ Stats and activity logs
+ Security and vulnerabilities scanning (Premium and Enterprise package only)

- Expensive
- No PayPal subscription

Original post: VaultPress Review – Ultimate WordPress Backup Solution
Copyright © 2005 - 2012 CypherHackz.Net All rights reserved.
Part of CypherFS Network.

Genesis Framework – What’s your opinion?

CypherHackz — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 06:19:25 +0000

Genesis Framework by Studiopress

It’s been 3 years since the last time I changed CypherHackz.Net theme layout on 26 October 2007. This theme, CypherFS DarkSide was designed and coded by myself. And I think it is time to have a fresh look of CypherHackz.Net and use Genesis as the framework.

Why Genesis? Well mostly because I see there are some of the popular bloggers are using Genesis framework, like Problogger and CopyBlogger. I am not sure why these guy use Genesis but there might be a reason in behind.

I still remember a quote that I learn during my study in year 2002,

To follow the path:
look to the master,
follow the master,
walk with the master,
see through the master,
become the master.

If you want to become like them, you have to follow them and see what they use and learn how they work.

From StudioPress website (the developer of Genesis) here is the list of what Genesis offers you:

Genesis is Search Engine Optimized
Genesis Offers Great-Looking Turn-key Designs
Genesis Gives You Unlimited Everything
Genesis Gives You State-of-the-Art Security
Genesis Lets You Update Your Site Instantly
Genesis Makes Customizing Your Site Incredibly Easy
Genesis has Custom Widgets and Layout Options
Genesis Designers You Can Trust

Currently I’m in the designing process. Most probably after 2 or 3 months OR maybe at the end of this year, I will use new theme with Genesis framework for CypherHackz.Net.

Anyway, I would like to hear your opinion. Have you used Genesis? What do you think? Good, bad?

Original post: Genesis Framework – What’s your opinion?
Copyright © 2005 - 2012 CypherHackz.Net All rights reserved.
Part of CypherFS Network.

Automatic Update Copyright Year in WordPress Footer

CypherHackz — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:10:37 +0000

It is new year guys. Have you update the copyright year in your WordPress footer? Make sure it is year 2011 and not 2010.

Here is a tip that you can use to automatically update the copyright year. Open up your footer.php theme file, and add this line:

The PHP date(‘Y’); function will display the current year so you don’t have to manually update the copyright year every year.

Original post: Automatic Update Copyright Year in WordPress Footer
Copyright © 2005 - 2012 CypherHackz.Net All rights reserved.
Part of CypherFS Network.

W3 Total Cache – Best WordPress Cache Plugin

CypherHackz — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 03:12:38 +0000

*** Happy New Year 2011 to all my readers… ***

Previously, I was using WP Super Cache plugin to cache my blogs. Unfortunately, the plugin had made my blog vulnerable and a hacker was successfully infiltrated into my server through the cache folder created by the plugin. All my index files have been replaced with the hacker message. Since the incident, I have stopped using WP Super Cache.

Right now, I’m using another WordPress cache plugin called, W3 Total Cache. This plugin is the fastest and most complete WordPress performance optimization plugin. Various of popular blogs have using it such as mashable.com, pearsonified.com, lockergnome.com and others.

W3 Total Cache plugin will provide:

At least 10x improvement in overall site performance (Grade A in YSlow or significant Google Page Speed improvements) when fully configured
Improve conversion rates and “site performance” which affect your site’s rank on Google.com
“Instant” second page views (browser caching after first page view)
Optimized progressive render (pages start rendering immediately)
Reduced page load time: increased visitor time on site (visitors view more pages)
Improved web server performance (sustain high traffic periods)
Up to 80% bandwidth savings via minify and HTTP compression of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and feeds

To install, just go to your Plugin page in WordPress Dashboard and search for W3 Total Cache plugin. Click on the Install Now link and it will be installed automatically. Happy caching your WordPress ya…

Original post: W3 Total Cache – Best WordPress Cache Plugin
Copyright © 2005 - 2012 CypherHackz.Net All rights reserved.
Part of CypherFS Network.

WordPress 2.9.1 Released

CypherHackz — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:13:02 +0000

After three weeks the release of WordPress 2.9, the patch version WordPress 2.9.1 has come out to fix 24 bugs found in WordPress 2.9.

As some of you may already notice, one of the bugs has affected the scheduled post feature where by the scheduling posts were not working and this was really annoying.

Like for myself, I use this feature almost of the time. But when this bug came in, I had to post my articles manually during recent New Year’s Eve even though at that time I want to hang-out with my friends.

If you are using WordPress, I really recommend you to upgrade your WordPress to version 2.9.1 either by downloading it from WordPress download page, or automatically upgrade from the notification link on your Admin Dashboard.

Original post: WordPress 2.9.1 Released
Copyright © 2005 - 2012 CypherHackz.Net All rights reserved.
Part of CypherFS Network.

WordPress 2.9 “Carmen” Released

CypherHackz — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:43:12 +0000

A new version of WordPress 2.9 has been released. The codename for the release is “Carmen” in honour of magical jazz vocalist Carmen McRae. You can either upgrade directly from your Dashboard or download it from WordPress website.

What’s new? Yes, of course that is what you want to know right? Well, there is a Trash where we can restore back deleted comments or posts. Probably if you accidentally deleted a comment, you can restore it back by using Trash.

Another interesting new feature is the Image Editor. Although I surely will not use it much but now you can crop, edit, rotate, flip and scale the images directly from the web.

There is a useful new feature in “Carmen” which is Batch Plugin Update. Based from the details given in the WordPress blog, we can update 10 plugins at once but I don’t see any option to do that in WordPress 2.9 Upgrade Plugin page. Maybe I miss something here.

For more info you can visit WordPress blog. They have listed down the changes and new features in WordPress 2.9. So far, I have no problem upgrading to “Carmen”. Hopefully there is no serious bug or security issue in this new version. Kudos to the development team!

An XSLT stylesheet does not have an XML mimetype

CypherHackz — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:51:52 +0000

Today, I found out that my sitemap.xml file got problem. It showed me this error message when I tried to view it.

Error loading stylesheet: An XSLT stylesheet does not have an XML mimetype

http://www.cypherhackz.net/wp-content/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/sitemap.xsl

I think the problem come from the recently Google Sitemap Generator plugin upgrade.

Solution?

To solve this kind of problem, open up your .htaccess and add this line at the end of the file.

AddType application/xml .xsl

Save and upload.

Successfully Upgraded to WordPress 2.7

CypherHackz — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:53:35 +0000

Phew! In about 10 minutes, I have successfully upgraded all my 7 blogs to the latest WordPress version 2.7 , codename Coltrane.

It will be very crazy if I use FTP to upload the files one by one because there are many files need to be uploaded to the server. Especially when I have many blogs need to be updated. So I used SSH access to extract the WordPress .ZIP file and copy all the latest version files from one temporary folder to my blog folders. It is a lot easier and save a lot of time.

Opinion on WordPress 2.7

Personally, I like the new interface of the dashboard. The navigation link is now at the left side of the page with the AJAX dropdown menu. So it is easier for the blogger to navigate from one page to another.

The interface for writing new post is smaller than the previous version. For me, I don’t care too much about the editor page because I always use BlogDesk to write new posts. I recommend you guys to use BlogDesk if you have WordPress. BlogDesk is very powerful desktop blogging client. You can read my BlogDesk review here .

Watch the video

BTW, have you watched the video from WordPress? Maybe some of you have. But for those who have not yet watch the video, you can watch it below.

So, have you upgraded your WordPress?

Cypher: Feel safe after upgraded all my WordPress blogs.

Free WordPress SEO Tips

CypherHackz — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:29:05 +0000

Informations should be free! I love freebies and I know many of you are also like something that is free. Especially girls… (Want to say something, girls?)

Well today, I want to talk about free WordPress SEO tips. Every bloggers who want to get huge traffics from search engines must know how to optimize their website to be search engines friendly. By doing so, your website will get rank better in the search engine results and you will get more traffics to your website.

Guys, I don’t want to say too much and don’t want to take your time to read my boring words. Lets get straight to the point. Carrie Hill and Mary Bowling have taken their time to write an ebook which covers about WordPress SEO. I recommend you to get a free copy of this ebook now and implement the tips to your WordPress blog.

Who knows, maybe after you implement the tips, your website will get more traffics and get more loyal readers. I don’t think you will lose anything by donwloading and read this ebook. It is free man… Go download it and read it now.

Download SEO for WordPress Blogs White Paper