What can be terrifying than finding out that you have lost your control over your Joomla site? Isn’t it true? Yes, there are nearly 800,000 people who are using this forum, and there is no doubt that for a webmaster, the biggest nightmare is to lose the site just because of a hack. Undoubtedly it is the truth that it is not possible to make your website 100% hack-proof, but you can make your site less vulnerable to hackers.
Even a single whole in your website can pave a path for these black hat hackers. If you own a website, then for sure, you might have users, and along with you, their data is also on stake. Therefore, it becomes your duty to keep on updating your site so that it can be malware-free.
Furthermore, do not think that you can quickly mend the damage done to your site by a hacker. Sometimes there are cases where the damage is permanent. But, if unfortunately your site gets hacked, then here are some vital things that you must keep in mind. Learn how you can detect any malware in your Joomla site, and further how to repair it efficiently.
How To Discover The Hack In Joomla Site?
For identification of hack, first Scan your Joomla site to know the malware location and malicious payloads. Astra’s integrated security service ensures timely monitoring of a hacked Joomla site and also helps in the identification of a hacked Joomla.
Once you identify the hack, check for any modification in files, including your core files too. SFTP helps you in manually checking your data. In case Google or any other website security authority blacklists your Joomla site, then first check the security status using Joomla’s diagnostic tool.
If you want to check for Google transparency, go to Safe browsing site status where the following data is available.
- Website safety details which give data about malicious redirects, download, and spam.
- Testing details such as the most recent google scan from which the malware is discovered.
You can also use free security monitoring tools such as Google webmaster central, Bing webmaster tools, and Norton Safe web for checking the security reports for your website.
Know The Process Of Fixing The Hack
After you identify the hack and the malware location, Compromised user, and the threat assessment, Clean full website, you can also compare the old backup files with the infected files to know how much modification is needed and, after that, remove the malicious changes.
Using a database admin panel, clean the hacked Joomla database; for this purpose, use PHPMyAdmin or tools like Search – Replace- DB or Adminer. The following step after the completion of this is to secure all user accounts. Hackers leave multiple backdoors so that they can regain access after the website is cleaned. These backdoors are embedded in legitimate-looking files but usually located in wrong directories.
Therefore it is advised to thoroughly clean your files from backdoor else your Joomla site will be in danger of reinfection.
1. How to clean the database?
Start by cleaning the infected database. SQL injection of Joomla can create new database users.
To avoid further infections, use the following.
- Sanitization of the user inputs
- Try to restrict database access to the account
- Block database error disclosure to locally only
- Wherever possible use type casting
2. Make the Server More Secured
If you are thinking that you did the installation on your Joomla site securely, and there is no chance of getting hacked, then you are wrong.
Although installation is secure, maybe the servers are not! Therefore these are some of the key points to remember:
- Make sure that you have closed all open ports
- Eradicate the unused subdomains
- Ensure to analyze the configuration concerns daily
- Use a VPN, or go to subnetting, in case you are sharing a server
- Remember to block the faulty messages leaking information
- Try to give robust and random passwords to database, and FTP accounts
- Use a security solution or the firewall
3. Remember To Set Permissions
The essential thing that you must ensure is none of your users can upload executable like .php .aspx etc. Just the image files must be allowed to be upload on the server.
Next, you should move towards setting the file approvals for the server. Furthermore, make sure that no one can overwrite your PHP files. In addition to this, the most vital thing is to make use of the famed file extensions. Alternatives are always available, as Joomla files are a significantly vast CMS. You should do this because the popular extensions are better in giving the update in cases of any hack.
4. Checking the Modified Files InJoomla
A maximum number of times, these black hat hackers modify your files so that they can inject spam. Furthermore, it can benefit the hacker, but it is terrible for you. Therefore, you might require reinstalling, and for this scenario, you must have a backup of your Joomlawebsites.
Furthermore, you must also check the user logs, and if you find any unknown IPs, then immediately remove it.
Conclusion
These were some of the vital things that you might learn even if your Joomla site is safe. There are many hackers out there who can make you a target anytime. Therefore, be safe, and keep the data of your users secured too!