crickets…

Corkerns.com was hacked with an exploit that inserted a link to a malware site. I discovered it by a malware warning that Safari threw up when I went to Corkerns.com. When I went to Firefox, there was no warning, so I first thought it was a bogus Safari warning . I overrode the warning and used the Activity window on Safari to view the list of files open from the website. A file named txx was open, inserting a redirect to another IP address that hosted bad shtuff!

Next, I went back to Firefox and viewed a list of open javascripts, since that would be the most likely way to attack the site. A javascript was being blocked automatically by Firefox since it originated at a different site (e.g., not at corkerns.com). Therefore, Firefox was protecting me all along.

I then downloaded all the javascript on the website and searched through it for the malware link that sent you to the rogue site. I couldn’t find anything, so next I replaced all the WordPress code with the latest version. That did the trick and wiped out the bad code.

I’ve never been one to upgrade Corkerns.com immediately upon release of a new WordPress version, but I may rethink that strategy.

I’m working on it as time permits. The problem is that photos I uploaded months ago aren’t there any more. It takes a little while to find the original and crop to fit the web site format. I’ll get to it when I get to it…

Okay, I’m an idiot and wasn’t backing up my uploads or the WordPress theme I designed and now I’m paying the price. The pictures are still around somewhere, but I’ve got to recreate the right size and upload again. As far as the theme goes, that was no great loss anyway.

I’ll get around to fixing this next weekend…unless the weather is good.

In the meantime, here’s my Flickr photos and the McCluer Academy Class of 1979 information (requires a password that I sent you after the last reunion…).

I made a few simple changes on the website to widen the site. I noticed that it was looking pretty narrow on an average monitor. The target size before was 800 pixels wide. I’m now going to 1,000.

The header picture was taken in 2005. We’ll update that photo in the spring.

Let me know if there are any problems with the changes, like text that’s not visible or clickable.