URGENT HELP NEEDED after WP site hacked

  • CyberMama

    (@cybermama)


    12 years, 5 months ago

    We use WP on many websites – our own and for clients, but I ‘m still learning it seem… Last night one of our main sites was hacked and basically destroyed. Hosted by HostPapa, they advised me to export a backup (an xml file) and then delete the installation and reinstall. I thought I had a backup on everything as I do weekly .sql backups. I didn’t have a complete local backup and HostPapa say they don’t back up client sites. You live you learn…

    Now it turns out that while the majority of the structure is there (I have fixed most stuff), ALL my images are gone. Pathways and alt text etc etc there but no media files whatsoever. Why oh why aren’t these in the export file? I also seems to have duplicate of pages (not posts though), although I see no doubling up in the db folders.

    Can anyone suggest a way to recover the lost images (other than adding all again by hand) and deleting the duplicate pages?

    At the moment there is a ‘undergoing maintenance’ page covering this mess up as this is a working site.

    If anyone has any helpful suggestions, you’ll be saving this web designer (7 mnths pregnant) from probably going into early labour over the stress of this. Seriously.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Brad Markle

    (@imh_brad)

    12 years, 5 months ago

    Can anyone suggest a way to recover the lost images (other than adding all again by hand) and deleting the duplicate pages?

    Most of the time, when a hacker targets a site, there intention is not to actually delete files from the server, generally they just want to deface a website.

    Are all of your images actually deleted from the server? Or, do they sill exist in your wp-content/uploads folder?

    Thread Starter CyberMama

    (@cybermama)

    12 years, 5 months ago

    Yes they are. Host Papa person advised deleting all files associated with original installation. Stupidly I thought images would be in backup I download each week. Turns out they aren’t.

    I’ve solved the duplicate pages issue but adding all the images again by hand is a nightmare. Just wondered if there’s any way to retrieve them at all. I have an .xml backup and .sql backups. They don’t seem to contain any images though 🙁

    Moderator cubecolour

    (@numeeja)

    12 years, 5 months ago

    I am afraid it sounds like your hosting company gave you incorrect instructions.

    Your MySQL backup only backs up the database – not the files. Your XML export does not save save files either. For future reference, to make a full backup you need the database and the files.

    I don’t think it is possible to get images from a google cached version of a page, however you may have copies of the images in your browser cache: http://lifehacker.com/385883/resurrect-images-from-my-web-browser-cache

    Thread Starter CyberMama

    (@cybermama)

    12 years, 5 months ago

    Yep, I don’t think they really knew that much about WP 🙁

    Can’t seem to see anything on Firefox browser cache. Images lost are in the 100s.

    I have a local copy of every piece of text and every image. Just not in a WP friendly format. Having to re-add to all 120 posts and 40+ pages by hand…

    Thread Starter CyberMama

    (@cybermama)

    12 years, 5 months ago

    Guess I’ve learned a vital (but a bit tough methinks!) lesson about thoroughly backing up *everything*…

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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