How to Detect & Remove Malware from a WordPress Site?

Having malware in your WordPress site can be a real headache. It not only mess with your site’s security  but it can also slow  down site. It’s essential to catch and remove out any malware to keep your site safe and your reputation intact. Malware in WordPress are malicious programs that harm your website. Like viruses on a computer, they can steal data, inject spam, redirect visitors, or even take control of your site entirely.

These come in many flavors, but here’s a quick rundown of the most common types:

• SEO Spam: Makes your site look spammy to hurt your search ranking.
• Redirects: Send visitors to malicious websites instead of yours.
• Backdoors: Create hidden entry points for attackers to return later.
• Drive-by Downloads: Automatically infect visitors with malware when they visit.
• Formjacking: Steals information entered in your website forms.

These are the following approaches:

• Manually inspecting WordPress files and directories for suspicious code or unauthorized modifications.
• This involves checking theme, plugin, core, and additional files like .htaccess and wp-config.php to  detect the malware.
• It requires technical knowledge  which offers a thorough understanding of the site  structure and potential vulnerabilities.
• Access WordPress files via FTP or file manager, analyze code for anomalies.

This code snippet navigates to your WordPress installation directory and then searches all files within that directory and its subdirectories for the pattern “eval(base64_decode)”.  If the search finds any matches, it’s a red flag that your website might be compromised.

Syntax: Identifying suspicious code within WordPress files and directories using grep command.

• Installing and configuring security plugins like Wordfence, Sucuri Security, or MalCare.
• These plugins can offer features such as the  malware scanning, firewall protection  vulnerability monitoring.
• Configure the plugin settings according to your site’s requirements and schedule regular scans to detect and remove malware automatically.
• Install chosen plugin from WordPress repository, configure settings, initiate scans.

Example: Installing and activating Wordfence plugin for WordPress security.

Step1: Select plugins tab in the top left menu

Step2: Use the search function to find a WordFence Security plugin and click install now button & activate.

• Utilizing online website scanning services such as VirusTotal or SiteCheck.
• These services allow  to scan  WordPress site by entering the URL and generate detailed reports on any detected malware or security issues.
• This  perform scans without installing additional plugins on the WordPress site.
• Visit scanning service website, enter site URL, review scan results.

Example: Visit https://www.sitecheck.sucuri.net and enter your website URL for scanning.

After inserting the site URL if you click the Scan Website button, you’ll get the result within minutes.