WordPress site security and protection against malware or malicious code have become more important than ever in 2023. It's well known that WordPress is used by over 40% of websites. An estimated 64 million websites currently use WordPress. More than 400 million people visit WordPress sites every month. As a result, WordPress hacking is on the rise in 2023.
If your WordPress site is redirected to another website, you could be the victim of malware causing redirects to abnormal sites in order to generate traffic and advertising on those sites.
This article brings you all my personal tips for fixing a malicious redirect problem on a WordPress site or a hack problem in general. The article is aimed at those who need urgent help to fix hacked WordPress sites.
I often meet customers with the following questions, if you are asking yourself the same questions, then this guide is the solution for you:
- Why does my website redirect to a spam site?
- Why is my website redirected to another site?
- How can I prevent my website from redirecting to another site?
🔴 My WordPress site is redirected to a spam site
It's not uncommon for people to wonder why their website redirects to other sites. The cause often lies in a hack of your WordPress site, resulting in malware infection redirecting visitors to malicious sites they own. The aim is to perform what is known as "black hat SEO", or the acquisition of advertising impressions on these sites. Attackers exploit security holes in your WordPress plugins or theme, sometimes injecting malicious scripts that can render the wp-admin interface inaccessible. These problems can arise from infected plugins, .header.php, footer.php or .htaccess files. These types of hacks, where the WordPress site URL redirects to another site, are fairly easy to fix.
Don't forget that the consequences of such a hack on your site can be devastating:
🔍 Loss of organic positions (SEO) : Google doesn't play with its reputation! If your WordPress site is compromised, it could be blacklisted by Google, and your acquired positions will gradually deteriorate. Access to your site via browsers like Chrome may even be accompanied by a warning that your site may be hacked.
🛑 Suspension by the Host : Your web host, such as OVH or O2Switch, may suspend your site if it detects too many connections to it.
👥 Violation of Privacy: An infected site is capable of causing theft of customer data and violation of user privacy, as attackers are often given administrator access to your site.
🏷️ Brand Image : Visitors redirected to sites offering illegal or undesirable products can lose confidence in your e-commerce site, and this can damage your brand image.
💰 Loss of income : Every user redirected to another site is a missed opportunity for your users to convert on your site without a hitch.
⭐️ Hacked WordPress website - Hack signs, types and symptoms
To detect an infection on your WordPress site, be alert to the following signs and symptoms:
- Abnormal redirection from your website to another site.
- 404 error displayed on WP-admin page when trying to connect to dashboard.
- Inability to access dashboard or website interface.
- Unable to connect to website administration area.
- Error: "ERROR: There is no user registered with this email address" when connecting to wp-admin, even though you haven't changed your administrator password.
Types of hacks :
- Every time someone visits your website, they're redirected to dubious links such as pharmaceutical sites, adult sites and so on.
- When the website is opened by entering the URL in the browser, it opens correctly. But when it is opened following a Google search, it is redirected to malicious websites.
- The website is only redirected when opened from a mobile device or when opened from a desktop computer, depending on the type of malware present.
- Hackers display push notifications to your visitors. These push notifications usually lead to pornographic sites.
- Geography-specific: in some cases, some of your visitors may see a redirect.
and some don't. This may be because hackers program the malware to work only in certain geographical areas. The exact location to which the malware redirects can also be geographically adapted by hackers.
In concrete terms, this means :
- Adding a fictitious administrator to the website: check your list of administrators if you still have access to your back-office, and if you find any abnormal admins, you're the victim of a security flaw: deleting the administrator won't be enough, as the hacker can recreate him at any time, reusing the same flaw.
- Injecting or downloading malicious code into WordPress.
- PHP code execution
- Hackers often name malicious scripts to make them look like legitimate files, camouflaging their presence among main WordPress files such as wp-content/plugins, wp-content/uploads, .htaccess, wp-includes, wp-content/themes or wp-config.php.
Site redirect chains have become commonplace, with many WordPress sites redirected to malware-infected domains, such as ibuyiiittraffic[.com] and i.cuttttraffic[.com]. This type of redirect causes a 404 error in the webmaster's wp-admin of the infected site. Hackers infect these sites using methods such as backdoors or malicious Java scripts, often induced by SQL or CSS injection. This represents an example of a malware redirection "chain", where sites are redirected several times before reaching the attacker's desired domain.
In other cases, redirection can occur simply by clicking anywhere on the page or by accepting certain authorizations.
For the price of a McDonald's, access the resource
The rest of this content is available to you for just €10.