Critical issues found but file not visible on server

  • Hi, the Wordfence plugin found many critical issues on my website and indicates the individual paths to the files. However when I access some of those paths via my hosting account′s server, the files are not visible in the indicated location. How would I proceed and what does this mean in terms of security? Thanks

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Plugin Support wfpeter

    (@wfpeter)

    Hi @janiwalkabout and thank-you for reaching out.

    Could I see some of the critical issue warnings that don’t seem to correspond to a physical file location for you? You’re able to include screenshots here on forum replies now, or you can use an external host if you prefer. If there are many, a couple of examples would be fine, but what number is the scan stating as the total?

    Thanks,
    Peter.

    Thread Starter janiwalkabout

    (@janiwalkabout)

    Hello @wfpeter, thank you for your reply.

    The scan shows 484 results, I do not see the option to attach screenshots, so pasting two links below. My website is about to become replaced and maintenance has been ignored a little. I am also not sure, why when logging into my birthingwithoutfear.com admin dashboard, the scan shows those results for my other website authentic-self-empowerment.com?

    https://paste.pics/65d1ad45f6351ccac3d0e77410789bd4

    https://paste.pics/dbda3cf0bd7c14d1e084668d63cc2d13

    I appreciate you looking into this. Thanks!

    Plugin Support wfpeter

    (@wfpeter)

    Hi @janiwalkabout,

    It appears from your description and the screenshots that one site is in a subdirectory of the other, which goes some way to explaining what’s happening. I think the site you’re logged into lives in /public_html but your other site is in /public_html/sitenamehere.com.

    For efficiency, you can exclude this subdirectory from being checked by the other site in Wordfence > All Options > Advanced Scan Options > Exclude files from scan that match these wildcard patterns and Wordfence > All Options > Activity Report > List of directories to exclude from recently modified file list.

    More about how to format wildcard patterns: https://www.wordfence.com/help/scan/options/#exclude-files

    It will be worth checking though whether the site in the subdirectory flags these files with its own scan, as they may need to be cleaned. Make sure to take a full site backup before doing so.

    Thanks,
    Peter.

    Thread Starter janiwalkabout

    (@janiwalkabout)

    Thank you @wfpeter,

    I will follow your advice. Another site of mine also uses Wordfence and it lists a bad URL currently listed on the Wordfence`s domain block list. I have contacted the host but they cannot detect it. Since each scan relists the bad URL though, is there another way of checking what this is all about? Here is a screenshot.

    https://paste.pics/6462ca2b9e1ffc81c4111c814d842414

    Thank you!

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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