How to Scan WordPress for Malware: A Complete Action Plan

The majority of website owners never scan WordPress for malware or harmful code. That would be like never having a dentist or doctor check you out throughout your life. For a while, it might go smoothly, but eventually, because you weren’t paying attention, calamity will hit.

The most widely used content management system (CMS) in the world, WordPress runs millions of blogs, online stores, and other sorts of websites. WordPress makes it easy to create websites with little to no coding experience.

However, it is as simple for hackers to research the flaws in your website and infect it with malware. There are numerous sources of malware. Be very cautious while downloading them from websites because it could be a component of your theme, plugins, or software. It’s also possible for comments on your blog postings to contain malware. 

When people hear the word “hack,” they frequently picture a person in a hoodie sitting in a dark basement entering commands into a command line, targeting a website while evading security bots and firewalls like a supervillain on the run until the site is compromised and pulled down from the internet. But that is not how things really are.

A bot that discovers a weakness of some kind usually uses a hack to sneak malware into your website’s server. Additionally, there is a potential that your website has been hacked if not only that. Malicious conduct need not be anything to be afraid of, though. If your website has been compromised, WordPress malware scan will help you find and remove any malicious content. 

There are WordPress malware scanners to guard against future attacks on your website. You can also search WordPress malware scanner online and use it freely to detect malware attacks on your site.

Attackers frequently use flaws in third-party components and CMS to breach websites. One of the main reasons why websites are hacked is automated assaults that target known website vulnerabilities. Always have the most recent WordPress database malware scan plugin and patch installed on your CMS and third-party components.

To gain unauthorized access to a website, brute force assaults try out tens of thousands of possible login combinations. You’re considerably more likely to be the target of a brute force assault if your website or database uses weak or easily guessable credentials, especially if you’re not employing a website firewall to guard against it.

To restrict access to website files, your web server employs a variety of rules. File permissions that are too lax allow for simple website file modification by hackers.

What Is Malware?

Any malicious program or code that is destructive to systems is referred to as malware, or “malicious software,” under this general phrase. Malware, which aims to penetrate, harm, or impair computers, computer systems, networks, tablets, and mobile devices, frequently by gaining a limited amount of control over a device’s activities, is hostile, intrusive, and purposefully nasty. Malware is used for a variety of reasons. 

Malware may be used to make money from you, hinder your capacity to do tasks, make a political statement, or simply for bragging rights. Malware cannot physically harm systems or network equipment, but it can steal, encrypt, or delete your data, change or hijack essential computer operations, and spy on your online behavior without your knowledge or consent. 

Malware includes things like spyware, ransomware, Trojan horses, computer viruses, and worms. These harmful applications steal, encrypt, and erase private information. Additionally, they alter or take over basic computer functions and monitor end users’ internet activity.

Malware includes the most sophisticated computer viruses as well as the simplest computer worms and trojans. One type of antivirus software or anti-malware software may not be able to stop all threats because malware, viruses, and dangerous code are cousins but not the same. Malware can exist on desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices, and it can attack and manifest itself in various ways depending on the operating system a device is running (Windows, Android, iOS, or Apple macOS).

Most gadgets, whether they are used for business or personal purposes, can benefit from malware protection because no device is ever completely immune.

How Does Malware Get Occupied on WordPress Sites?

Themes and plugins are targeted by hackers who take advantage of their flaws. The goal of the developers is to have a new, patched version available for download as soon as a vulnerability is found. When you update your plugins, the vulnerabilities are fixed and any outdated or potentially compromised files are replaced with brand-new, undamaged ones. A fantastic approach to guarantee that your plugins and themes are constantly automatically updated with the newest updates and features is to use a tool like Automate.

Your website may be in grave danger from inadequate WordPress security. Your password can be vulnerable to a brute force attack if it is weak. Because of this, it’s crucial to always choose a lengthy password containing a mix of letters, digits, and characters to prevent bots from brute-forcing their way into your website.

This occurs when they try thousands of popular usernames and passwords. Two-factor authentication is a wonderful technique to increase the security of your WordPress login in addition to using a strong password. By doing this, you can stop hackers from breaking into your website and infecting your data with malware.

Why Is Scanning WordPress for Malware Essential?

Malware can be difficult to spot; even if your website appears to be operating well, there may still be unwelcome activities going on in the background. You can carefully search through each and every WordPress file and folder looking for any suspicious code or files if you want to be sure whether or not your website has been the target of a malware assault.

If your site has been blacklisted or is rerouting visitors to suspect websites, a malware check will warn you of any hidden nasties like trojans, worms, spyware, and viruses. An online virus scanning tool or a plugin can be used to perform scans.

When to perform scanning WordPress for Malware?

Malware detection on a WordPress website is more difficult than it may seem. Although you may have previously spotted anything amiss, malware is cunning and can easily conceal from administrators, so you might be the last person to uncover problems while users notice spam and redirects on your website. How can you determine if your WordPress website is malware-infected? Scanning your website for errors is the easiest approach to confirm. There are a few indicators to look out for, though.

1. Spam results for your website on Google

This can be a harsh blow in particular if you have worked hard on the SEO of your website. Look through the search results for your brand name or the terms you rank for. Do you notice any of these warning signs? Meta descriptions feature low-quality values, such as irrelevant or pharmacological keywords. Google is indexing pages on your website that shouldn’t be there. These links lead to pages that you have never seen before when you click on one of them. The search results contained Japanese characters. A warning that your website may have been hacked appears next to its name, scaring away potential visitors. The large red alerts notify you that Google has added your website to its blacklist.

2. Difficulties you might see on your website

Malware wrecks havoc on your website, and regrettably, occasionally, every visitor may see it. Some of these indicators might go completely unnoticed by you as the admin. However, the problems are being experienced by your visitors, and it is costing you money.

3. Alterations to your website’s users, files, or database

Hackers frequently change user or configuration settings that are accessible through wp-admin. These changes can be rather minute, making it frequently impossible to detect them without an activity log.

4. Web host alerts you to problems with your website

These signs come as a surprise because web admin is frequently the last to learn that malware has been found on their websites. Web hosts are extremely cautious about malware on their servers because it can bring them a lot of issues. Reputable web hosts routinely examine their servers, websites, and websites on them for malware.

5. Website Performing poorly

Malware might potentially have an impact on your website’s performance indicators. These symptoms can be brought on by other issues, such as improperly developed plugins or a lack of caching, making it more difficult to immediately link them to malware. However, if you observe that your website is getting considerably slower, it might be spyware.

Leading Tools for Scanning WordPress for Malware?

Before expressing an opinion on which WordPress malware removal plugins perform the best, we choose to test and investigate them for ourselves. To make sure the plugin provided total protection, we investigated security plugins as a whole and tested their firewalls, scanners, and cleanups.

1. WordFence Malware Removal Tool

The most well-known WordPress virus removal solution is without a doubt Wordfence. Is the trouble really worthwhile, though? The short response is perhaps. Whether used as a malware cleanup plugin or as a full security plugin, Wordfence is a fantastic free plugin. The premium edition, however, is hardly worth the price.

2. Sucuri Malware Scanner and Cleaner

In the world of WordPress security, Sucuri has established itself as a name. Even if you haven’t used Sucuri, it’s likely that you’ve heard of it. But is it the finest virus cleanup plugin for WordPress that you can find? Let’s first define the fundamentals. Malware eradication is not at all a feature of Sucuri’s plugin. For its premium subscribers, Sucuri provides malware eradication as an added service. Sucuri was put to the test to see if it lived up to its reputation, and the findings were intriguing.

3. CleanTalk Security

One of the less well-known WordPress malware cleanup plugins is CleanTalk Security. It also appears to be among the most inexpensive. The plugin is really inexpensive ($9 per year), yet it provides all the essential security features like a malware scanner, firewall protection, and malware eradication.

4. BulletProof Security

Instead of doing thorough malware removals, BulletProof Security provides a repair option. The uncommon security plugin BulletProof Security provides a lifetime licence as opposed to a subscription-based business model. But that aspect also has an impact on its updates and support.

How to Scan WordPress for Malware using the following steps?

You can adhere to the four measures listed below if you believe your WordPress website has been hacked. We’ll go over how to use Wordfence to check your website and plugins for malware and how to protect it from future threats.

• Step 1: The Wordfence Security Plugin should be installed first

Installing the Wordfence plugin’s free version comes first. To do this, sign into your WordPress admin and select Plugins > Add New. Then click on Install Now under Wordfence Security – Firewall & Malware Scan after searching for Wordfence. After installing the plugin, select Activate. To finish the installation, you might be prompted to agree to the terms of use and enter your email address.

• Step 2: Take a backup of your WordPress site

We advise backing up your website before moving forward. You’ll be eliminating potentially malware-infected files in the following step. This could accidentally remove important data and result in serious website issues if something goes wrong. By first backing up your website, you may fall back on it in case of unforeseen circumstances. Installing the UpdraftPlus plugin, which is free, is one of the simplest ways to back up your website.

The installation and activation procedures are the same as for Wordfence. Then select Backup Now by going to Settings > UpdraftPlus Backups. All that’s left to do is wait for the process to be completed. You can restore the backup data from the same page in case something goes wrong during the subsequent steps.

• Step 3: Scan for and remove malware files

A malware scan is the next action to take. Your website should be scanned by Wordfence every day, but you can also manually begin the process. To do this, use your WordPress dashboard to go to Wordfence > Scan. Next, select Start New Scan. Wordfence will begin scanning your website for malware, file changes, and other issues. This procedure can take some time to complete. The timeline’s development can be followed on the scanning screen. When the scan is finished, you’ll see a thorough summary of the findings.

• Step 4: Take Action to Completely Secure Your Site

1. Change your passwords because they were probably hacked if your website included malware. Therefore, it’s advisable to update all of your website’s passwords as well as any other places you may have used them online.

2. Set up Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): By enabling 2FA, you may increase the security of your website. Even if your password is stolen, the attacker won’t be able to proceed without doing one more check.

3. Examine user profiles: It’s possible that the spyware gave one of your website’s users a new position. To fix this, verify your user profiles and remove those that shouldn’t be in your database from it.

4. Implement routine security checks: Wordfence’s settings can be changed to automatically check for malware. You should also take further measures to secure your website.

5. Once the infection has been removed, create a fresh backup of your website. If something goes wrong in the future, you can always restore it to a secure, malware-free version.

Conclusion

Numerous WordPress plugins provide top-notch functionality to get rid of malware from WordPress sites and guard them against getting infected again. However, specialized assistance could be required when dealing with sophisticated infections. If you don’t have the necessary technical know-how to carry out the procedures described above, it is advised that you use WordPress security services.

A WordPress security specialist can guarantee that the virus eradication procedure is carried out properly. Additionally, you may ask them to fix the security holes in your WordPress site, guaranteeing that it operates at its best. 

There are many techniques to remove malware from your WordPress website. If you have the technical know-how and time required to complete the cleanup procedure, you can do it manually. WordPress security plugins can speed up the procedure and offer more security safeguards to stop malware attacks in the future. If all else fails, you can ask a WordPress security specialist to handle the job on your behalf.