How to Remove Malware from WordPress: A Step-by-Step Guide

In today’s digital age, Remove Malware from WordPress website security is more critical than ever, especially in protecting against a malware attack. With cyber-attacks becoming increasingly sophisticated, safeguarding your website from malware and other malicious threats is essential.

Corrupted files in WordPress can disrupt your website’s functionality, causing frustration for both site owners and visitors. Maintaining a robust and secure hosting environment, such as using a Dedicated Server, can significantly reduce the risk of file corruption and ensure optimal performance and security for your site.

This comprehensive guide aims to help you remove malware from your WordPress site effectively. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a beginner, the step-by-step instructions provided here will allow you to tackle malware on your website yourself.

Method 1 | Update WordPress

Regularly updating WordPress is essential for maintaining the security and functionality of your website and preventing it from getting infected with malware from WordPress site. This process involves accessing the WordPress dashboard, checking for available updates, and applying them to ensure your site is protected from vulnerabilities and running smoothly. Always back up your site before updating to safeguard against potential issues.

• Access the Dashboard to manage your WordPress security plugins and perform a backup of your WordPress.: Log in to yourwebsite.com/wp-admin and navigate to the dashboard.
• Check for Updates: Go to the Updates Access the Dashboard section in the dashboard menu to improve WordPress security and regularly scan your site.
• BackupEnsure you back up your WordPress database before performing any updates.
• Apply Updates: Click Update Now if a new version is available.

You can do the same method to update your wordpress version in your hosting provider dashboard and clean malware from your WordPress site. Regularly updating WordPress is essential for maintaining the security and functionality of your website, as highlighted in our guide on How to Fix WordPress Updating Failed.

Method 2 | Update Plugins

Updating plugins is a crucial part of maintaining a secure and functional WordPress site, especially when using a Virtual Server Hosting solution. This step ensures that your plugins are up-to-date with the latest security patches, features, and compatibility improvements, which is crucial for wordpress security. 

To update plugins one by one, log in to your WordPress dashboard using your credentials and navigate to the Plugins section by clicking on “Plugins” in the left-hand menu. Updating plugins ensures your plugins are up-to-date with the latest security patches, which helps in How to Prevent Brute Force Attacks in WordPress.

Update each plugin one by one.

Look for update notifications under each plugin and click the “Update Now” link to update each plugin one by one to enhance wordpress security.

• Log in to WordPress Dashboard
• Navigate to Plugins Section
• Identify and Update Plugins

Bulk Updates:

To perform bulk updates, log in to your WordPress dashboard, go to the Plugins section, and check the boxes next to the plugins you want to update. 

You can also check the box at the top to select all plugins. Use the “Bulk Actions” dropdown menu, select “Update,” and click “Apply.”

• Log in to WordPress Dashboard
• Navigate to Plugins Section
• Select Plugins for Bulk Update
• Perform Bulk Update

Updates via Hosting Panel Dashboard: 

If your website is inaccessible, you can update plugins through your hosting panel’s dashboard. Log in to your hosting account dashboard using your credentials and navigate to the File Manager or WordPress tools section, often found in cPanel or a similar interface, to manage your WordPress database and files.

Use the available tools to update plugins, which may involve automated update options or manually uploading updated plugin files.

• Log in to Hosting Panel
• Navigate to File Manager or WordPress Tools to identify malware.
• Delete the outdated/malicious Plugin
• Install it manually

By following these methods, you can ensure your WordPress plugins are up-to-date, enhancing your site’s security and performance.

Method 3 | Install a Security Plugin

To protect your WordPress site from malware, installing a security plugin is essential. A malware removal plugin can be particularly effective. Wordfence is a popular and powerful option that provides comprehensive protection, helping you remove malware from a WordPress site. A dedicated server delivers exclusive resource usage, offering the optimal reliability and control your enterprise demands, particularly with Cloud Hosting Services.

Installing and Configuring Wordfence

• Log in to Your WordPress Dashboard to prevent malware. Make sure to regularly scan your website.Access your admin area using your credentials to initiate a backup of your WordPress.
• Navigate to Plugins: Go to the “Plugins” menu and click “Add New.”
• Search for Wordfence: Type “Wordfence” in the search bar, then click “Install Now” and “Activate.”
• Initial Configuration for a secure WordPress installation.: Follow the configuration wizard, set up email notifications, and enable basic security features.
• Optimize the Firewall: Navigate to the “Firewall” tab and follow instructions to enhance site protection.

Running a Scan and Analyzing Results

• Initiate a scan with your wordpress security plugins.: Go to the “Scan” tab in Wordfence and start a scan to check for malware or suspicious activity.
• Review Results: Examine the detailed report, focusing on critical issues like malware or outdated plugins.

Removing Detected Malware

• Identify Threats: Look at the types of threats found and their severity.
• Quarantine or Remove Infected Files: Quarantine serious threats or manually remove infected files. Wordfence will guide you through this process, helping to scan your WordPress and identify malware.
• Repair Files: Replace infected core files, themes, or plugins with clean versions from the WordPress repository if necessary.

By following these steps, you can use Wordfence to effectively protect your WordPress site from malware, ensuring it remains secure and healthy.

Method 4 | Manually Check the Public Folder

After updating WordPress and plugins, and running a security plugin scan, it’s essential to manually inspect your website’s public folder. This step helps you identify and remove any suspicious files that might have been missed by automated tools. Manual inspection allows you to detect anomalies that automated scans might overlook, ensuring thorough malware removal.

Why Manual Inspection is Important

Manual inspection is crucial because it provides a detailed look at your website’s files and directories. Automated tools might miss certain types of malware or fail to flag files that look legitimate but contain malicious code, so using a dedicated malware scanner is advisable.

Steps to Manually Check the Public Folder

• Access Your Website’s File Manager or FTP:
  
  • Use a file manager provided by your hosting service or an FTP client to connect to your website’s server to remove malware manually.
• Navigate to the Public Folder:
  
  • Locate the public folder (often named public_html, www, or similar) where your WordPress files are stored.
• Identify Suspicious Files or Folders:
  
  • Look for files or directories with unusual names, recent modification dates, or unfamiliar content. Common indicators of malware include PHP files with random names, hidden files, or files that you did not upload.
• Remove or Quarantine Suspicious Files:
  
  • If you find any suspicious files, remove or quarantine them to prevent further damage, ideally using a malware scanner specifically designed for WordPress to remove malware from your WordPress website. Make sure to keep a backup in case they turn out to be necessary for your WordPress database.

Method 5 | Replace Core WordPress Files 

When dealing with a persistent malware infection, replacing the core WordPress files and verifying the integrity of your site’s files are crucial steps for effective WordPress malware removal. 

These processes ensure that any compromised or corrupted files are replaced with clean versions, and that any malicious files are identified and removed. This section guides you through replacing the core WordPress files and verifying and renaming files to ensure your site is secure.

Replace Core WordPress Files

Replacing the core WordPress files can help eliminate malware embedded in these critical files. This process involves replacing all WordPress core files except those in the wp-content folder, which contains your themes, plugins, uploads, and may potentially be a target during a malware attack.

• Backup Your Website: Before making any changes, always back up your website to prevent data loss.
• Download a Fresh Copy of WordPress: Go to the official WordPress website and download the latest version.

• Access Your Website Files to check for any potential malware from WordPress site.: Use an FTP client or your hosting file manager to access your website files.
• Replace Core Files: Upload the new WordPress files, excluding the wp-content folder, to your server. This action overwrites the old core files with clean versions. Replacing core WordPress files can help eliminate malware embedded in these critical files, and more details are available in How to Fix Corrupted Files in WordPress.”

Verify and Rename Files

Verifying and renaming files helps to isolate and identify any remaining malicious files that may not have been removed during previous steps in the WordPress malware removal guide.

• Identify Suspicious Files and Folders: Look for files and folders with unusual names or recent modification dates.
• Rename and Disconnect: Temporarily rename folders like uploads and plugins by adding a suffix (e.g., uploads_temp). This action prevents WordPress from accessing these folders.
• Test Website Functionality After WordPress Backup.: Check if the website functions correctly with the renamed folders. If it does, the renamed folders likely contain the problematic files which might be infected with malware.
• Revert to Original Names After Verification: Once you have identified and removed any malicious files, rename the folders back to their original names.

Final Words

By following this comprehensive guide, you can effectively remove malware from your WordPress site and secure it against future attacks. Keeping your WordPress and plugins updated, using a reliable security plugin like Wordfence, manually inspecting your public folder, replacing core WordPress files, and verifying and renaming suspicious files are essential steps in maintaining a clean and secure website. 

Regular maintenance and vigilance are key to protecting your site, and Windows VPS Providers offer the reliability you need. Stay proactive in your security efforts, and you can minimize the risk of malware and ensure your WordPress site remains a robust and reliable platform.