Archive For The “Uncategorized” Category
Dear blog owner and visitors,
This blog had been infected to serve up Gootloader malware to Google search victims, via a common tactic known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization) poisioning. Your blog was serving up 352 malicious pages. Your blogged served up malware to 152 visitors.
I tried my best to clean up the infection, but I would do the following:
- Upgrade WordPress to the latest version (one way the attackers might have gained access to your server)
- Upgrade all WordPress themes to the latest versions (another way the attackers might have gained access to your server)
- Upgrade all WordPress plugins (another way the attackers might have gained access to your server), and remove any unnecessary plugins.
- Verify all users are valid (in case the attackers left a backup account, to get back in)
- Change all passwords (for WordPress accounts, FTP, SSH, database, etc.) and keys. This is probably how the attackers got in, as they are known to brute force weak passwords
- Run antivirus scans on your server
- Block these IPs (5.8.18.7 and 89.238.176.151), either in your firewall, .htaccess file, or in your /etc/hosts file, as these are the attackers command and control servers, which send malicious commands for your blog to execute
- Check cronjobs (both server and WordPress), aka scheduled tasks. This is a common method that an attacker will use to get back in. If you are not sure, what this is, Google it
- Consider wiping the server completly, as you do not know how deep the infection is. If you decide not to, I recommend installing some security plugins for WordPress, to try and scan for any remaining malicious files. Integrity Checker, WordPress Core Integrity Checker, Sucuri Security,
and Wordfence Security, all do some level of detection, but not 100% guaranteed - Go through the process for Google to recrawl your site, to remove the malcious links (to see what malicious pages there were, Go to Google and search site:your_site.com agreement)
- Check subdomains, to see if they were infected as well
- Check file permissions
Gootloader (previously Gootkit) malware has been around since 2014, and is used to initally infect a system, and then sell that access off to other attackers, who then usually deploy additional malware, to include ransomware and banking trojans. By cleaning up your blog, it will make a dent in how they infect victims. PLEASE try to keep it up-to-date and secure, so this does not happen again.
Sincerly,
The Internet Janitor
Below are some links to research/further explaination on Gootloader:
https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/03/01/gootloader-expands-its-payload-delivery-options/
https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/08/12/gootloaders-mothership-controls-malicious-content/
https://www.richinfante.com/2020/04/12/reverse-engineering-dolly-wordpress-malware
https://blog.sucuri.net/2018/12/clever-seo-spam-injection.html
PBR Procedural Material Study of Rocky Dirt Base. I wanted to create a base dirt for an series of ground materials, this is intended to be the base for the set. Created in Substance Designer, rendered in Marmoset Toolbag3.
PBR Procedural Material Study of Red Cedar Bark. I started this one a while back, finally got around to getting it to a good spot.
Created in entirely in Substance Designer, rendered in Marmoset Toolbag3.
PBR Procedural Material Study of a mossy rock wall. Created in Substance Designer, with some ZBrush support for the foliage bits.
| Stone Toro |
This is an old stone lantern that I created for a scene I’ve been working on. Zbrush base sculpt, Marmoset bake, materials made in Substance Designer and then applied in Substance Painter. Moss was created in ZBrush’s nanomesh to place tufts and small plants. Final renders in Marmoset.
Substance Designer work, some large detailed lichen. Coverage amount is mask based and easily adjustable to allow for quick variations.
Modular hallway kit, Dark Zone North
As Lead Level Artist, I worked with the Lead Designer to set gameplay requirements, build blocking volumes, and iterated on layouts before base propping. The Level Art team used this direction to construct the majority of connecting hallways in the North end of the Dark Zone.
Lighting: Mark Ishak
