Joomla Blog

A new variation of the Viagra hack has emerged.

It has affected both Joomla 1.5 and Joomla 2.5

The cause may not be a result core Joomla 2.5 (1.5 no longer supported as of Fall 2012)

Hack Description

The hack creates hidden URL on your site, example: www.yourdomain.com/buy-generic-viagra

Removal of Hack

Edit .htaccess, locate and remove these lines:

RewriteRule image.php - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} (GET|POST)
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(login|auth|register|secure|admin|image.|config.|include) [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:servers} !(true)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (corestemsw|ialis|iagra|cachecontrl) [NC]
RewriteRule ^.*$ /templates/system/images/image.php [L,NC]

Also remove the file: /templates/system/images/image.php

Removal URL from Google

Your URL will still be index by Google. Use Google Webmaster Tools and submit a request to remove the mentioned URL.

Your next action:

Upgrade to latest Joomla 2.5/3.x immediately. As well as upgrading all 3rd party components, unpublishing any unused components.

Hire an affordable Joomla expert

For your free, no obligation estimate please contact us today.

Joomla 1.6 introduced a new feature called the Language Manager.

With Joomla 1.5, changing any type of the language files in Joomla or 3rd party components/modules/plugins meant modifying language files, not very idea for the novice Joomla user.

When would you use the Joomla Language Manager?

The Language Manager can be used when you wish to change any language string on the site or 3rd party component/modules/plugin presuming the developer included a language file.

In the above screenshot we are going to rename both "Login" button as well as "Create an account" text link.

How do I use the Joomla Language Manager?

1. Log into your Joomla admin control panel
2. Under quick links click on "Language Manager"
   
   
3. Next, click on "Overrides" on the left hand side
   
   
4. Next, click on "New" to add a new language override
5. Into the Search box, enter the phrase "Log In", in "Search For" leave default selection of "Value", then hit Search
   
   
6. Click on JLogin, this will auto fill the "Language Constant" and "Text" input fields. Simply delete the content in the "Text" box and type in your own text. In this case I'll use "Member Login"
   
   
7. Lastly, hit Save (or Save and Close) then refresh the front end. You should see the updated button text.
   
   
   
   
8. Repeat the same steps in order to change "Create an account" or any other constant text on your Joomla site.

Additional Notes

There may be times where multiple constants have the same language string. You may need to do some trial and error until you locate the correct one.

Pay close attention to the CONSTANT variable name, it will include the component name.

COM_CONTENT refers to a Content Component variable.

You can also search for CONSTANTs instead of the actual VALUE.

Although I would recommend a novice user to search by VALUE.

In the past week alone we've had two clients reach us about their site being hacked.

The hack injected numerous "Buy Viagra" links into their websites right below the tag. The hack only displays for User Agent Googlebot, that means if you are using Fiirefox or Internet Explorer you will not see these links when viewing the source code, only Chrome.

Upon further investigation, comparing site and original Joomla 1.5.x source code we've located the file to be located in: