Gootloader infection cleaned up

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 208 malicious pages. Your blogged served up malware to 247 visitors.

I tried my best to clean up the infection, but I would do the following:

• Upgrade WordPress to the latest version (one way the attackers might have gained access to your server)
• Upgrade all WordPress themes to the latest versions (another way the attackers might have gained access to your server)
• Upgrade all WordPress plugins (another way the attackers might have gained access to your server), and remove any unnecessary plugins.
• Verify all users are valid (in case the attackers left a backup account, to get back in)
• 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
• Run antivirus scans on your server
• 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
• 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
• 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,
  and Wordfence Security, all do some level of detection, but not 100% guaranteed
• 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)
• Check subdomains, to see if they were infected as well
• Check file permissions

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. PLEASE try to keep it up-to-date and secure, so this does not happen again.

Sincerly,

The Internet Janitor

Below are some links to research/further explaination on Gootloader:

https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/03/01/gootloader-expands-its-payload-delivery-options/

https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/08/12/gootloaders-mothership-controls-malicious-content/

https://www.richinfante.com/2020/04/12/reverse-engineering-dolly-wordpress-malware

https://blog.sucuri.net/2018/12/clever-seo-spam-injection.html

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Conferenza L’Unione Energetica ha un futuro?

Il 27 maggio  2016  dalle ore 15.00 si terrà a Cagliari, presso la Fondazione di Sardegna, la conferenza “L’Unione Energetica ha un futuro? Integrazione europea, opportunità per l’Italia e il contributo delle Regioni”, promossa dalla Fondazione Centro per un Futuro Sostenibile in collaborazione con l’Institute of European Democrats.

L’iniziativa  intende promuovere un confronto scientifico e politico sull’Energy Union, un tema di grande interesse strategico, ancora poco considerato dai decisori e dall’opinione pubblica. L’Unione Energetica rappresenta infatti un’importante chance per dare nuovo impulso all’attuazione della prospettiva di uno sviluppo sostenibile che l’Europa ha contribuito ad avviare.

In particolare la conferenza affronterà i seguenti temi:

• Il contributo dell’Unione Energetica al raggiungimento degli obiettivi di sviluppo sostenibile della UE
• Il ruolo delle Regioni nel progetto di Unione Energetica
• L’impatto dell’Unione Energetica su prezzo dell’energia, sicurezza degli approvvigionamenti e diversificazione delle fonti
• Le opportunità Italiane: un hub energetico al centro del Mediterraneo
• Rischi e opportunità per le Energy Utilities e le compagnie Oil&Gas Europee