Gootloader infection cleaned up

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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 296 malicious pages. Your blogged served up malware to 0 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

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Learn Excel Formulas Online at Formula School

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Are you looking for an online Excel course that helps you understand how to use functions and formulas? Formula School recently launched their Formulas 101 online course which will help everyone come to grips with how to use formulas in Excel.

The interactive course which combines video, ophthalmologist text, stuff image and screencast content with an Excel based student workbook, this covers everything you need to know about formulas and functions like SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX and COUNT. There are units focused on working with text in formulas, and understanding and resolving Excel errors, as well as a key Excel concepts unit for those who need a refresher on the basics.

The thing I like about the course is that it includes quizzes and assessment along the way, and if you pass it all you can get your Certificate of Completion!

For anyone interested in reducing their frustration with Microsoft Excel, Formula School’s Formulas 101 course is for you.

 

’til next time!
TNP 😉

How to add rule lines or grid lines to your OneNote page

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Out of the box by default your OneNote notebook will have lots of blank pages. But if you are using a stylus or pen to take notes with your tablet using OneNote, try and you are a messy writer like me… chances are you would prefer to have some lined paper in your OneNote notebook. Not only does it make it easier for you to write neater, sildenafil it also will help others to read your (horrible) writing!

To add some lines to your paper in OneNote all you need to do is:

  1. Click on the “View” tab in the ribbon
  2. Look for the “Page Setup” group
  3. Click on “Rule Lines” then select your preferred line option

One you are happy with your selection and want to save yourself the hassle of adding rule lines to every page you create… simply repeat the process, but select “Always Create Pages with Rule Lines”

So there you have it – the quick and easy way to add lines to your OneNote notebook!

’till next time!
TNP 😉

Rename your sheet in Excel

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Do you have multiple sheets in your Excel workbook? Want to have something more descriptive than “Sheet 1”, health “Sheet 2”, or “Sheet 3” so you can keep track of all the work in your spreadsheet, model, or budget? It is quick and easy to rename your sheets in Excel 2007, Excel 2010 or Excel 2013.

  1. Right click on the tab for the sheet you want to rename
  2. Click “Rename”
  3. Type your new name in… and then hit enter!

 

 

Simple as that – now you can keep track of all those sheets in your workbook with ease.

’till next time!
TNP 😉

Letter sized presentation? Change the size of your PowerPoint slides

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Ever wanted to create a presentation which you or your audience could print out perfectly on Letter sized (8.5x11in) paper?

Well you can really easily in PowerPoint 2007, dosage PowerPoint 2010, prostate or PowerPoint 2013. What we will do is change the size of the slide to match the size of the paper you want to print or present the presentation on.  Let’s see how to do it…

 

  1. Click on the Design Tab in the Ribbon
  2. Look for the “Customize” group at the far right hand end of the ribbon

  3. Click on “Slide Size”
  4. Click on “Custom Slide Size”

  5. In the “Slide Size” dialog box that appears, select your preferred slide size from the drop down box. In this case select “Letter Paper (8.5x11in).

  6. If you want the slides to be in portrait orientation – so they print out as you would read them naturally on Letter paper… make sure you select “Portrait” in the Slide Orientation section

There you have it – your Letter Sized Presentation!

’till next time!
TNP 😉

10 Things every manager needs to know about Office

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Recently Paul Woods (the alter ego of The New Paperclip) was a guest on the Chandoo.org Excel podcast – one of the most popular Office related podcasts online today. During the interview he shared his top ten (non-excel related) Microsoft Office tips that every manager or analyst should know.

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the podcast yet – make sure you read more about it, angina and listen here:

Podcast: my top 10 non excel Microsoft office tips on paul-woods.com or

CP017: Top 10 non-Excel MS Office tips for you – Interview with Paul Woods – Office MVP & Blogger on Chandoo.org

’till next time!
TNP 😉

Add, subtract or average time in Excel

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If you are like me and you want to do some kind of calculation or duration in hours, audiologist minutes and seconds – I am sure you have been very frustrated with Excel totally ignoring what you want to achieve! Well did you know that it isn’t as hard as Excel makes it out to be! You can very quickly do calculations like adding two times together, medicine subtracting times from each other, more about or seeing what the average time is of a range. They key is to ensure that your cells or formatted correctly first. Here is how you do it!

  1. Select the cells that you want to add your times to
  2. Right click, and then select “format cells” from the menu that appears
  3. In the “format cells” dialog box that appears, make sure you are on the “Number” tab
  4. In the category box, select “custom”
  5. Look for a Type in the list which looks like [h]:mm:ss and select it
  6. Click Ok

Now that your numbers are formatted correctly as times, you can start doing your calculations. Simply add, subtract or average like you normally would in excel using formulas like =SUM(), and =AVERAGE()

’till next time!
TNP 😉

Select difficult to get to objects in Word using the Selection Pane

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Have you ever worked on a document with a lot of shapes, buy diagrams, pictures or text boxes?  Don’t you hate it when they overlap or are on top of each other and it is near on impossible to select the right object!  You may be like me and move the objects on top to get to the ones below … but did you know that there is an easier, much better way?  There is – using the Selection Pane.

The selection pane enables you to select the object by its name, irrespective of where the object is in your document.   Not only that, you can make an object invisible for a short amount of time so you can see everything else underneath it!

To turn on the selection pane in Word:

  1. On the “Home” tab, look for  the “Editing” group on the right hand side of the screen
  2. Click on the little arrow beside “Select”
  3. Select “Selection Pane”

The selection pane will appear as a task pane on the right hand side of your Word screen.  To select an object in your document, simply click on the name of the one you are after.  You can make an object invisible by simply clicking on the “eye”.  To bring it back, click on the “closed eye”.

’till next time!
TNP 😉

Find out what a word means (or how it sounds) in Word 2013

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Sick and tired or switching back and forward between your dictionary, physician thesaurus or encyclopedia when you are not quite sure what a word means when you are reading a document in Microsoft Word?  Maybe you are writing a document and you want to make sure what a word means before you publish your document?

Then the new Define tool in Word 2013 is a great tool that will help you be more accurate.

To use the Define tool:

  1. Select and highlight the word that you want to dive deeper on and get a definition of
  2. Go to the “Review” tab in the ribbon
  3. Look for the “Proofing” group on the left hand side of the ribbon
  4. Click on the “Define” button

On the right hand side of the screen you will see a new task pane appear.  This will show the definition of the word you were looking for from the Bing Dictionary.

As a bonus you can also hear how a word sounds like by clicking on the speaker beside the word in the task pane.  Perfect if you are going to talk to someone about your document in the future!

’til next time!
TNP 😉

Change the case of a sentence in Word 2013

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Ever wanted to change the text in your Word document to ALL CAPS or UPPERCASE… what about all lowercase?  Maybe sentence case?  Capitalize Each Word? oR sWITCH tHE cASE aLTOGETHER?

The good news is that you don’t need to retype that sentence, decease paragraph or (heaven forbid if you wrote a document in all caps) the entire document.  There is a quick and easy way to change the case of text in Word 2013.

  1. Highlight the text you want to change the case of
  2. On the “Home” tab, cardiologist in the “Font” group, look for the button that looks like “Aa” (it should be a few buttons to the right of where you set the font and font size).  That is the “Change Case” button.  Click on the button
  3. Select the option you prefer from the menu that appears:
    Sentence case.
    lowercase
    UPPERCASE
    Capitalize Each Word
    tOGGLE eACH cASE

And as soon as you click – the case has changed!

’till next time!
TNP 😉