Comments on: “Have You Got Anything Without Spam?”

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:04:14 +0000

Though oddly enough, that last comment of mine displayed properly in the same feed. Go figure.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:17:08 +0000

Just saw a couple of the same spams on Google Reader, this time on the comment RSS.

By: Anwyn

Anwyn — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:04:41 +0000

Hey, Matt, I’m really glad this helped you–thanks for taking the time to say so. :)

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:35:12 +0000

… and several other files under the plugins directory with names matching .*.cache.php. They were filled with random chars inside comment blocks to obfuscate the code.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:33:03 +0000

I just got hacked with this one too. The backwards code was in the wp-options table and the problem didn’t show up when viewed directly. A friend saw it in google reader. In my case, the actual code was in wp-content/plugins/podpress/optional_files/podpress_trac/.wp-cache.cache.php. Thanks for the help.

By: Anwyn

Anwyn — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:56:15 +0000

Whoops. Guess I should have known that. :)

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:50:42 +0000

FYI, there is a much simpler way to periodically purge spam comments: just check the “Automatically discard spam comments on posts older than a month” option under Akismet configuration.

By: lifepundit

lifepundit — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:17:24 +0000

I’m sorry you have this problem and am very impressed that you solved it and shared the answer. I use TypePad and don’t think I have this problem, but what do I know? I’m not sure I have any readers.

I’ve toyed with google and other readers but usually just surf the old fashioned way — through bookmarks.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:12:23 +0000

Backward code, eh? Mighty clever. Apart from that, my knee jerk reaction is to be wary of any code calling “eval.” Is there any good reason to do that, as opposed to perverse ones like dressing up malicious code as harmless, non-executable data, and then turn around and executing that ostensibly non-executable data after all? I don’t know much about PHP; I’m assuming it does basically the same thing as its LISP counterpart, and hearkening back to my CS prof’s repeated warning that “EVAL is evil.” So perhaps I’m off base.