One of the objectives of Fixhackedwebsite security tool is to help enterprise administrators clean their business websites, check for hacks (if any), and remove the discovered malware infections. In this page, we present you with the guidelines using which you can clean as well as fix your Drupal-powered website.
Please note: These recommendations do not include the remedy for any malware infection you might experience. Rather, they provide standardized measures to follow (a checklist, to be more precise), when searching for malware attack on websites.
Clean Hacked Drupal Site Operation Overview:
Most measures include cleaning up an infected website. So let’s take a brief overview of the steps involved in the process before delving into the details.
I. Check if your website has been hacked
- Using Fixhackedwebsite to check your Website
- Check for changes in your files on our website
- Audit logs for applications
II. Removing The Hack
- Clean up your compromised files
- Clean Foundation of Data
III. Recommended actions post-hack
- Review & Reset
- Setup BackUps
- Search Computers for the Administrator
- Adopt multiple preventive steps
I. Check if your website is hacked: This is obviously the first step: use Fixhackedwebsite to search your website. To do this, use your credentials to log in to Fixhackedwebsite > > select the domain you want to scan > > select the vulnerability tab > > press Start Search button. Fixhackedwebsite will show a message showing whether your website has been hacked or not. If you hack your website then
- Check For Changes To Your Website Files: Typically there are traces left behind by hackers when a website gets hacked – like changed files – which show the status of your website. So always check whether or not the files have been updated inside your website. When things are the same then your website is possibly safe; if not, it’s time for cleaning up the website.
Where to Find Updated Files? Just. Simple. Compare your current website files with the (good) backup files and check if there are any discrepancies between them. In this end, you can use resources such as git status (a file version control system).
To use Git for testing changes related to the website
- Link to your server over SSH and execute the git status command as follows:
- Identify new files and equate them to the previous ones.
- Navigate your site tab, and look for anything odd.
- Audit user logs: Next, search for any user behavior that is unusual. Especially for account administrators. Sign in to the Drupal admin interface to search for malicious users > > Select Users in the menu > > Check the list > > Remove any new (or suspicious looking) users. See also Legal Users’ Last Access Date. Because this will mean some irregular behavior on your users’ part.
II. Removing The Hack: Not that you (if any) have found the exploit, it’s time to disable it. It typically includes two critical processes: website file cleaning and database cleaning.
How to remove malware from your Powered Drupal websites?
Log in via SFTP or SSH to your web server > Search for suspicious files you previously noted > Confirm whether they are indeed malicious > remove any unfamiliar or suspicious code from your custom files after double checking.
Note: make sure you have taken a site backup before introducing the modifications.
You have should:
- Search for backdoors (installed by hackers or otherwise) that may have been abused and disabled for hacking purposes.
- Check if Google, McAfee, Yandex and other such authorities have blacklisted your website, and let them know that your website is now clean.
III. Recommended Post-Hack Actions: Make sure you are taking the right security steps now that some of the flaws are revealed. Although website hacks can be painful and frustrating, they are a learning experience and can teach you a lot about malware detection , prevention, and removal of malware.
What safeguards can you take to get your website back on track?
- Upgrade and Reset: Due to obsolete technologies most website hacks occur. Therefore make sure to update the website and other extensions it can support. Login to Drupal Admin interface > > click Reports>>check Available Changes to update Drupal Extensions. Also, you should reset user credentials, clear any active sessions and also clear cache.
- Configure Backups: Take a backup of this now that your website is safe. Note that your security posture is key to a sound backup plan. Back it up in offsite locations, maintain continuous backup while the website runs, as well as backup on cloud and external hard drives.
- Test The Restore Process: A backup process that isn’t well enough tested is a backup process that can fail when deployed in real time. So check the backup / restore process as many times as you can to make sure it works well.
- Check Your Administrator Computers: Use the correct antivirus software to search all your administrator computers that are used to access the Drupal dashboard. Since an infected admin machine can well end up once again infecting your website. So don’t miss out on this stage.
Certain security measures: Some of the other protections include:
- Carrying out regular security reviews – regular security reviews will go a long way in identifying malware, stopping malware, and eliminating malware.
- Implementing good password policies – the passwords should be an perfect combination of alphabets, symbols and special characters, making them impossible to conjecture.
- Restricting Login Attempts – restricting login attempts will significantly minimize unlawful user access.
Enforcing Automatic logouts after an inactivity period – never require inactive session without interruption. Strengthen automated logouts. - Deploying SSL / TLS Encryption – encrypt your website using SSL / TLS certificates that guarantee data security, server authentication and data integrity.
- Properly managing user permissions – users should not be granted access to more than they deserve. The super admin elite will have unlimited access to the whole web site.
- Deploy Specific Protection Tools-capable of defending your website from DDoS Attacks, Brute Force, and other such common website target attacks.