Question

droplet hacked? random sites added to cache?

Posted on September 2, 2022
Apache Ubuntu 20.04
Asked by twc8ac35a8636

Hi I created a new droplet from a snapshot. I haven’t shared the new droplet IP with anyone and I haven’t made a website public on it either.

I am using this new droplet for 1 website only and it has <meta name=‘robots’ content=‘noindex, nofollow’ /> on it so I don’t know how anyone has found this server.

I thinks the droplet is hacked because I went to clear the cache and saw lots of random websites have been added there -

/var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/0.0.0.0 /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/100000.space /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/127.0.0.1 /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/128.143.187.1 /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/128.143.187.11 /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/365ball.me /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/375tv.com /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/27.161.37.121 /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/6969coin.com /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/8n.nz /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/a0s.cc /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/azenv.net /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/baidu.com /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/bbx-1102.com /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/example.com /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/http%2C3A /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/https%2C3A /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/icook.tw /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/kidccbot.com /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/tp-000.com /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/ukzaka.cn /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/xcovitg.xyz /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/xoilac3.com /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/xoilac3.org /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/v3/yahoo.com

Does anyone know how these were added and how to stop them? They appear to be adding them everyday.

I made the snapshot on the 26th August. If I organized the above folders by last modified the 6969coin.com was added 2 hours after I added my website example.com.

The old snapshot hasn’t got this issue - the cache folder only has the sites that I added myself.

Should I delete this snapshot and make a new one? Or fix the exploit?

I tried to Google the issue but nothing obvious has come up.

Please can someone help?

Thank you

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KFSys

Site Moderator

• September 2, 2022

Accepted Answer

Hi @twc8ac35a8636,

You need to fix the exploit before creating another Snapshot. Another alternative would be to restore the previous Snapshot that wasn’t exploited and secure it immediately.

Since you are receiving this in mod_pagespeed, I’ll recommend starting from there and seeing if there is any known exploit. Then just update everything on your Droplet. If the issue persists though, you might need a security specialist to help you out with the problem.

alexdo

Site Moderator

• September 2, 2022

Hello @twc8ac35a8636

You can try to clear the cache and check if the issue remains.

Touch the cache.flush file

sudo touch /var/cache/mod_pagespeed/cache.flush

Restart apache

sudo service apache2 restart

You can examine the secure log and check if anyone has accessed your droplet via ssh. You can check if additional ssh-keys were added in the authorized_keys file and if you’re accessing the droplet using a password, then update it immediately.

Regards