still trying to get hacked blog back up

  • Resolved flwrhead

    (@flwrhead)


    16 years, 3 months ago

    13 days later, and I’m no closer to recovering from the sattan.org hack.

    Here’s what’s happened, and my question(s):

    When I got the error message, I came here immediately and saw that others had been hacked too. I tried to install the new version of WordPress, but the install failed. I am basing this statement on the fact that (a) I didn’t get confirmation that it worked and (b) the corrupt files remained corrupted. I contacted my web hostess, who I had been in contact with the week before due to my feed being redirected through Google Reader. Related? I don’t know.

    On 11/26, I ran a backup via the backup button on my blog’s admin panel (Manage tab, maybe? can’t remember). I saved the backup gzip file to my desktop. I also have a backup from 11/20, six days before the hack occurred.

    My hostess has deleted all my old files and done a fresh install of the new version of WordPress.

    I cannot open the gzip backup files. I don’t know what program to use, filezilla doesn’t work and neither does webftp. My hostess opened the 11/20 file I uploaded to my ftp server, but said there was no information there.

    Questions – Does anyone have a suggestion as to what program I should use to open the gzip file? Running a backup from the WordPress panel would include backing up the data files, correct? Dreamhost is what my hostess uses, if that helps.

    Any direction you could provide would be greatly appreciated. My hostess doesn’t support WordPress blogs because she’s a Movable Type gal. I am 99% computer illiterate (just the kind of person you guys love!). I am trying to see if my 2.5 years of blogging is recoverable or if it’s already damaged beyond repair.

    Thank you so much for your help!

    -elizabeth

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

  • Try 7zip to open the file. That is really the only question I see in the wall of text above, so I hope it helps. And sorry to hear about the hack. Some people have nothing better to do.

    Thread Starter flwrhead

    (@flwrhead)

    Ha! “wall of text” Sorry! I thought the more info, the better. :o)

    Oh, I wasn’t implying that it was too long, lol. I did read the whole post, so that’s saying something.

    Thread Starter flwrhead

    (@flwrhead)

    Thanks! As to the wordpress backup – that would include backing up database files, correct? I mean, otherwise, it’d be pretty pointless.

    I am not sure, but I would assume not. Did your database become corrupted as well from the attack?

    Thread Starter flwrhead

    (@flwrhead)

    No, but based on what I read here, and based on what Dreamhost told my hostess, all files had to be deleted in order for the fresh install to work. So that’s what they did.

    Was I crazy to think that a backup would include backing up database files?

    No you are not crazy, and it may be in there. You will have to unzip the file and see if there are any *.sql files in there and rebuild with those. Or whatever DB you are using calls them, could be some flatfile.

    In rereading, you state that they did a fresh install of WP. Did they rebuild the whole site or just install a new WP? If just WP then you should probably still have the DB active.

    Thread Starter flwrhead

    (@flwrhead)

    This is what my hostess sent to me:

    From her to Dreamhost:
    > Thank you so much for your help! I’ve been trying to get this user’s
    > blog to work for the past week and I just can’t get it back up. She
    > says that she made a backup of her old weblog via the instructions
    > provided by Dreamhost, so if you’re unable to get it to work via the
    > WordPress dashboard then feel free to clear everything out and do a manual install.
    > Dreamhost support Brett already “dropped” all the old tables on her
    > MySQL database. I truly appreciate this. Those WordPress hackers
    > really did a number on her blog!

    And Dreamhost’s reply:
    “Well I got it working again by restoring the wp-blog-header.php file from the two week old backups. However the database for this blog doesn’t appear to have any info, just the default first two blog posts. So it isn’t really displaying any good info now. What you may want to do is restore the database backup that she made. Then you ought to be able to upgrade to the newest version after that. If you have any more problems then please let me know.”

    I’ll download 7zip tonight and open the backup files and see what’s in there.

    Thanks for your help, suprchunk!

    Thread Starter flwrhead

    (@flwrhead)

    Hey, just bumping this up to mark it resolved and let you guys know what happened.

    I hired someone to extract the data from the backup that I made because my hostess couldn’t do it – told me there wasn’t any data there. Then the WordPress she reinstalled for me (by using the one click install) wouldn’t allow me to write to it! I signed on with a new hosting company and rehired my friend to transfer all my data to my new host. Now my blog is working fine, I didn’t lose 365 posts and 2,300+ comments that my hostess told me were gone, and life is good!

    Thanks for all the help in these forums. I know people get frustrated with you guys at times, but I for one appreciate all the support. I’ve learned two valable lessons from all this:

    1. Upgrade your software.
    2. Use a hosting company that is familiar with the software you are using and has a working knowledge of database restoration.

    Thanks again!

    -elizabeth

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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