{"id":220,"date":"2022-03-10T09:26:02","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T14:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/2022\/03\/10\/gootloader-infection-cleaned-up\/"},"modified":"2024-06-25T01:12:37","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T05:12:37","slug":"gootloader-infection-cleaned-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/2022\/03\/10\/gootloader-infection-cleaned-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Gootloader infection cleaned up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Dear blog owner and visitors,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This blog <u>had been<\/u> infected to serve up Gootloader malware to Google search victims, via a common tactic known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) poisioning. Your blog was serving up <b>381<\/b> malicious pages. Your blogged served up malware to <b>493<\/b> visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I tried my best to clean up the infection. In the past, I had experience in doing this so I had an idea how to clean it up. And my own brush with online crime accusations taught me how critical it is to have knowledgeable legal support. The team at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newjerseycriminallawattorney.com\/white-collar-crime\/internet-crime\/\">New Jersey Criminal Law Attorney<\/a> provided the guidance and expertise needed to navigate the complex legal landscape. I would also do the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Upgrade WordPress to the latest version (one way the attackers might have gained access to your server)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Upgrade all WordPress themes to the latest versions (another way the attackers might have gained access to your server)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Upgrade all WordPress plugins (another way the attackers might have gained access to your server), and remove any unnecessary plugins.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Verify all users are valid (in case the attackers left a backup account, to get back in)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Change all passwords (for WordPress accounts, FTP, SSH, database, etc.) and keys. This is probably how the attackers got in, as they are known to brute force weak passwords<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Run antivirus scans on your server<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Block these IPs (5.8.18.7 and 89.238.176.151), either in your firewall, .htaccess file, or in your \/etc\/hosts file, as these are the attackers command and control servers, which send malicious commands for your blog to execute<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Check cronjobs (both server and WordPress), aka scheduled tasks. This is a common method that an attacker will use to get back in. If you are not sure, what this is, Google it<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consider wiping the server completly, as you do not know how deep the infection is. If you decide not to, I recommend installing some security plugins for WordPress, to try and scan for any remaining malicious files. Integrity Checker, WordPress Core Integrity Checker, Sucuri Security,<br><br>and Wordfence Security, all do some level of detection, but not 100% guaranteed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Go through the process for Google to recrawl your site, to remove the malcious links (to see what malicious pages there were, Go to Google and search site:your_site.com agreement)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Check subdomains, to see if they were infected as well<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Check file permissions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Gootloader (previously Gootkit) malware has been around since 2014, and is used to initally infect a system, and then sell that access off to other attackers, who then usually deploy additional malware, to include ransomware and banking trojans. By cleaning up your blog, it will make a dent in how they infect victims. <b>PLEASE<\/b> try to keep it up-to-date and secure, so this does not happen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sincerly,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Internet Janitor<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Below are some links to research\/further explaination on Gootloader:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"1ySbhX002B\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sophos.com\/en-us\/2021\/03\/01\/gootloader-expands-its-payload-delivery-options\/\">&#8220;Gootloader&#8221; expands its payload delivery options<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;&#8220;Gootloader&#8221; expands its payload delivery options&#8221; &#8212; Sophos News\" src=\"https:\/\/news.sophos.com\/en-us\/2021\/03\/01\/gootloader-expands-its-payload-delivery-options\/embed\/#?secret=ROC8VNyVh4#?secret=1ySbhX002B\" data-secret=\"1ySbhX002B\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"gId9iZAj4V\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sophos.com\/en-us\/2021\/08\/12\/gootloaders-mothership-controls-malicious-content\/\">Gootloader&#8217;s &#8220;mothership&#8221; controls malicious content<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Gootloader&#8217;s &#8220;mothership&#8221; controls malicious content&#8221; &#8212; Sophos News\" src=\"https:\/\/news.sophos.com\/en-us\/2021\/08\/12\/gootloaders-mothership-controls-malicious-content\/embed\/#?secret=D9nprYmsVR#?secret=gId9iZAj4V\" data-secret=\"gId9iZAj4V\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.richinfante.com\/2020\/04\/12\/reverse-engineering-dolly-wordpress-malware\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"5MplAX7yEd\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.sucuri.net\/2018\/12\/clever-seo-spam-injection.html\">Clever SEO Spam Injection<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Clever SEO Spam Injection&#8221; &#8212; Sucuri Blog\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.sucuri.net\/2018\/12\/clever-seo-spam-injection.html\/embed#?secret=ZymKvsW1Jw#?secret=5MplAX7yEd\" data-secret=\"5MplAX7yEd\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"gootloader.html\">This message<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear blog owner and visitors, This blog had been infected to serve up Gootloader malware to Google search victims, via a common tactic known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) poisioning. Your blog was serving up 381 malicious pages. Your blogged &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/2022\/03\/10\/gootloader-infection-cleaned-up\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/clusterbleep.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}