Skip to main content Screen Reader Website Version
Get a Quote
Home Web Design SEO Services ADA Compliance Hosting & Support Custom Web Applications Our Work About Blog Contact

HotOpponents Hack

We have seen this one a few times coming from WordPress but we have also seen it in Google Analytics code or simply in a header.php file. HotOpponents is a simple redirect script but really digs down and makes roots for itself throughout your website files and database.  Here’s how we got rid of it in WordPress. Of course, you can always call us and we can clean this for you!

If you’re on a shared server, ask us about dedicated server support: we get you on a super-secure dedicated server for about the same cost as an insecure, slow, shared server (most common setup).

  1. Locate your wp-config.php file and note the database name.
  2. Open PHPMyAdmin and locate the database.
  3. Open SQL Statements and insert the following

    Remember to replace your table prefix here with the one in your database.
    Also, take notice of the GET variables in the URL, sometimes the tp=2 is different. We’ve seen zzz=3 and jp=88
  4.  That should remove the hotopponents script from your database.
  5. Replace ALL wordpress files with a clean version
  6. Next, log in via FTP and quarantine your plugins and theme files.
    1. download all files and search for malware manually – in obvious spots – header.php, index, etc…
    2. Scan your site with https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/ 
    3. Remove any malware. Many times it’s just better to flush plugins and reinstall them all, then just overwrite your theme files with the latest version or a backup.
  7. Download and install WordFence and do a site scan
  8. Finally, update all your passwords (account, (S)FTP, WordPress)
  9. Backup your site.

Nasty little hack/redirect script from some ridiculously infantile folks.

 

More Web Design Blog Content

A Blog you say, Like We Have Time!?

Well, it’s finally happened. A Gainesville Web Design Company made a wordpress blog and started posting to it in “third person” sort of way. Original, we know. We will hopefully have some interesting things to say between keywords, so just sit back, relax, and chew on some web

Linking Your G+ Page To Your Website

We always get asked: Does anyone use G+? Yes. Is it worth it? Again, Yes. Using Google’s products would obviously help your standing with their search algorithm. We don’t know this to be technically true but it certainly seems so in our experience. The more you use and

Answerhub versus WordPress

Recently we worked on a project with intent to use AnswerHub as the primary vehicle for user interaction. After spending some time in AnswerHub’s admin we discovered that they don’t provide anything that you cannot accomplish with easy under the WordPress hood. While AH supplies you with a

Eat More Protien

Meat in your website diet is needed – you’re probably in optimization atrophy … What is meat for your website? Content. Your site need fresh content added to it on a regular basis. Good content. Compelling content. But most of all, it need to be original content. That means

Better Than Notepad: Notepad ++

We love this little program. It’s a replacement for Notepad called Notepad++. It’s like notepad on steroids. Lots of  new, useful functions – essentially, everything Microsoft neglected to put into their product,; open source, once again, has provided a better alternative. Easy find/replace functions, even in files so

What is Lorem Ipsum?

Lorem ipsum is simply Latin text. Gobbledygook, essentially. Well, not really; It does have its roots in latin text from just before the BC to BCE line, so that puts it around 2000 years old. Past that, it’s gibberish.  Sometimes web developers need filler text to create web