What's Google doing?

[Juto]

Hi, for some days now Google have tried to access html pages like so:

 

www.mysite.com/veuxkhbgzwab.html

 

The file name varies (seems to be random) but it's always a html type.

 

This of course gives a 404 error.

 

So, what's Google upto?

 

Sara

[Jack_mcs]

How do you know it is google?

[♥kymation]

Google follows links, so somewhere there is a link to those pages. Use your Google Webmaster Tools page to find where the links are coming from.

 

That type of random file is typical of one type of hack. Check your site for hacked files and changes to the root .htaccess file.

 

Regards

Jim

[Juto]

Hi, and thanks for your answer. The ip is Google's.

 

O my is it really a hack? In that case I've got three sites affected.

 

I don't have Googls webmaster tools, never thought it could be of use to me.

So I don't know how to access it or use it.

 

Could you please advice?

 

Sara

[♥kymation]

Google Webmaster Tools. BTW, the Google search engine is really good at finding web pages that Google owns.

 

Once you set up an account, you need to verify your site. The easiest way is to add a file to your site. Then you can look under Health -> Crawl Errors -> Not Found to see those 404 pages. Click on a link and select the Linked From tab to see where it's coming from. That may or may not be helpful, but it's worth trying.

 

Regards

Jim

[Juto]

Hi Jim, I have created an account, verified it and all that.

I have tried for ½hour to find "Health"... Couldn't... :(

 

So more specific, where is it?

 

You are worth a hug! :)

Sara

[♥kymation]

From the tools home page, you may need to click the Manage Site button in the far right. I have multiple sites, so my page may be different. Then look in the left column for Health.

 

Regards

Jim

[Juto]

Hi Jim, I have tried again.

Google reported no errors, and no 404 problems. Also my webhost have checked the site, using SSH, and could not find any problems.: "A common hack is to inject code which is only shown to the googlebot, but your homepage does not appear to have this hack". :)

 

A while ago someone tried this (It was stopped)

 

guid%E2%80%8Bes.php

 

What does that mean?

 

So, al in all I need to amend something to my htaccess which redirects any random hmtl page to index.php

 

How should I do that?

 

Then, someone is trying to reach this file: /1 which of course doesn't exist. How do I redirect that sort to index.php?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Sara

[Guest]

@@Juto

 

I use this in my .htaccess file

 

 

RewriteEngine On

ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

 

 

Chris

[Juto]

Hi Chris and thanks for your answer. The thing is that I have a custom error page, which of course I'd like to keep.

 

So I need something exclusive for that kind of random html pages. I found this on stack overflow:

 

I see 4 main approaches (you choose which one suits you more - it depends on your website rewrite rules logic):
1. Add global exclusion rule that will prevent ANY further rewrite operations on that file:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.website.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# do not do any rewriting to this file
RewriteRule somefile\.html$ - [L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)\.html$ http://www.website.com/$1.php [R=301,L]
If you wish you can specify full path to the file to be more specific (useful to exclude only 1 specific file if there are more than 1 file with such name but in different folders -- such URL should start with NO leading slash):
# do not do any rewriting to this file
RewriteRule ^full/path/to/somefile\.html$ - [L]
2. Add global exclusion rule that will prevent ANY further rewrite operations on ANY existing file or folder:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^website.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.website.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# do not do anything for already existing files
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule .+ - [L]
RewriteRule ^(.+)\.html$ http://www.website.com/$1.php [R=301,L]
3. Add exclusion condition that will deny rewriting this particular .html file to .php:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !somefile\.html$
RewriteRule ^(.+)\.html$ http://www.website.com/$1.php [R=301,L]
If you wish you can specify full path to the file to be more specific (useful to exclude only 1 specific file if there are more than 1 file with such name but in different folders -- such URL should start with leading slash):
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/full/url/path/to/somefile\.html$
4. Add exclusion condition that will only allow rewriting .html to .php if such .html file does not exist:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(.+)\.html$ http://www.website.com/$1.php [R=301,L]
ALL RULES ABOVE intended to be placed in .htaccess in website root folder. If placed elsewhere some small tweaking may be required.

 

A nice set of rules. But, which one is appropriate for me?

 

Sara

[♥kymation]

guid%E2%80%8Bes.php translates to guid​es.php. Probably another hacker file. The links Google is reporting could be someone checking for the result of a hack that failed. In any case, you're on the hacker's list, so make certain you have all of your security patches up to date. That includes the ones in osCommerce 2.3.2 that just came out.

 

I would not redirect 404s to any normal site page. Normally Google will see that veuxkhbgzwab.html returns a 404 Not Found and will remove it from their index. If you redirect that page to index.php, then Google will see it as a normal web page and keep it in their index. Since it looks just like your store's front page, it is ranked as a duplicate. Depending on how it is ranked, that page may have a higher ranking than the regular front page, or high enough to damage the real page's ranking. It's better to redirect to a custom 404 page, and make certain that page returns a 404 in the header.

 

I'm not an expert on Apache rewrite rules, so I'm not going to give an opinion on that batch.

 

Regards

Jim

[Juto]

Hi Jim, and thanks. I think I have a very tight security, but who knows?

 

The only hack attempt prior to the garbage html requests was in the file "guides".

Conclusively, it was that hack attempt which the hacker tried to verify see the result of.

 

So, what I will do is to keep an eye on Googles webmaster tools, just to find out the ip of the hacker.

 

A hug to you :)

Sara

[MrPhil]

guid%E2%80%8Bes.php translates to guid​es.php.

That would appear to be a UTF-8 sequence for a U+200B Zero Width Space hidden within a filename. I don't think that's normally a valid character for a file name. It's possible that it's an innocent mistake in transcribing a name, but it's also possible that the intent is to hide something.

 

Probably another hacker file.

You should check if such a file exists on your site. If not (the name probably isn't even valid), a hacker is probing your defenses, looking for a vulnerability on the server or in your applications. You should certainly block their IP address(es) and inform your host.

[Juto]

Hi Phil, thanks for your guidance. I have search my site and there was no guid​es.php file. Also I search for guidâ etc.,

no such string were to be found either. So, if it was a hack attempt, it failed. :)

 

Kindest

Sara

[MrPhil]

Did you search for guid and es.php separately? Both as strings in files and as file names? There's no telling how the stuff in between would be treated in a search. The intent of using a ZWSP in the middle of a name is that presumably it would look in a log like an innocent guides.php. I don't know if they were trying to access a file by such a name that they had planted earlier, or were sending such bogus file names in an effort to break code (application or PHP itself). Either way, it would be good to let your host know about it, so they can try blocking these guys system-wide.

[Juto]

Hi Phil, now I have... There was no file guid.php or es.php

 

This morning I Googled and found this: http://ghh.sourceforge.net/userfaq.php

 

As I understand it, the purpose is to find vulnerabilities for an attack.

 

Since this failed, I am secured... Confirmed by a hacker! :)

 

 

Kindest

 

Sara

[MrPhil]

I meant to search for filenames starting with guid or ending with es.php. Likewise, to search in your files (at least, the .php files and .htaccess) for what appear to be filenames with the same characteristics.