WordPress Malware Removal Help

If you are in need of WordPress malware removal help, read on as we will cover the top methods of fixing your website. Unfortunately malware on WordPress is quite common not due to the WordPress Core but it is typically caused by third party plugins and themes.

Scan Your Site to Determine if Malware Exists

First, you must identify whether malware exists on your site. An easy way to check is to use an online URL scanner such as Google’s Virus Total. Enter the URL of your WordPress site and hit ‘Scan It!’. Utilizing a large database of definitions Virus Total will provide you with a detailed report of what it finds.

Another method is to use a WordPress plugin malware scanner such as Wordfence which will scan all of your site files and provide a detailed report of any findings. If suspicious files are found Wordfence will produce a list that you can work through.

Sanitize & Clean Affected Files

The next step if you have determined that malware does indeed exist on your WordPress installation is to sanitize the affected files to remove the malware. Using the report(s) from the scanner(s) above carefully review the list of affected files. Determine which if any of the files you can delete (these would be new files that were generated by the malware). Those that are infected core files need to be sanitized appropriately. This involves opening the affected files in a code editor and removing the malware. Run the scan(s) again to make sure that no instances of malware still exist on the site.

Patch Your Site

It is important to determine how the site was infected with malware. The best way is to research the type of malware using clues in the affected files. You may have to temporarily disable features from a plugin or theme until the developer releases a patch, or you patch it yourself.

Change WordPress & Database Passwords

Finally, once your site is no longer infected and has been patched the WordPress passwords for all users as well as the database password should be changed as they could have easily been compromised.