Joomla! 2.5.4 Hacked: Having trouble with diagnosis

Question

My Joomla 2.5.4 site was cracked last night. Moreover, the Joomla forum is currently down, and I can't even run Joomla's diagnostic utility. (fpa-en.php)

I have followed Joomla's instructions for diagnosis with no success. (See below) I have also emailed my webhost (I am on a shared server, but I use a host recommended by Joomla that is a specialist in Joomla sites). So, my question is what do I do next?

Here is the info that I have so far.

Using Joomla 2.54 (the latest). All extension were updated to most recent release, and none are on the Joomla vulnerable extensions list.

Passwords of other administrators were changed but not mine fortunately.

User_notes table deleted, which renders the User Manager in the admin section useless.

According to logs the attack hit the following files in this sequence:

1. /administrator/index.php
2. /index.php (Root)
3. /plugins/authentication/joomla/joomla.php
4. /plugins/user/joomla/joomla.php

and then the changes to the users and user_notes tables.

There is no junk in either index.php

Attack ip was 199.15.234.216, which is from a Fort Worth server of supremetelecom.com

Fortunately, I have backups and there was no defacement, but until I can't get fpa-en.php to work and access to the Joomla forums, I am not sure what to d0 other than change all passwords and block the ip.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Answer 1

Firstly, reset the passwords of all the administrators, including yours, then change them and ensure they include letters and numbers. Then change the password for the host control panel using the password generator if they provide one. If not, use a password generator online. Once this is done change the password for your database username and don't forget to also update the configuration.php with your new password.

Secondly, download and install Admin Tools which will add more security to your site for the future. Admin Tools also comes with an Emergency Offline button which is useful.

Then download and install Saxum IP Logger which will trace all the registered users, giving you their IP address, country and so on and you can also block IP addresses using the plugin that comes with it.

Next, go to the host control panel and look at the logs to see which IP addresses have entered your website and while files they have accessed. The IP address that coresponds to the files edited, you can then block using the plugin I mentioned before. Joomla 2.5 is very hard to hack so it is rather likely you have an extension that is badly developed and allows SQL injection. Therefore you should always choose popular extensions to install on your website when they are database related.

Hope this helps you in the future. Regards

EDIT : You can also password protect your folders in the FTP for additional security.

You may also find this extension quite useful