• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Stellantis probes data breach linked to third-party provider

 | 

FBI alerts public to spoofed IC3 site used in fraud schemes

 | 

EU agency ENISA says ransomware attack behind airport disruptions

 | 

Researchers expose MalTerminal, an LLM-enabled malware pioneer

 | 

Beware: GitHub repos distributing Atomic Infostealer on macOS

 | 

ESET uncovers Gamaredon–Turla collaboration in Ukraine cyberattacks

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 63

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 542 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

A cyberattack on Collins Aerospace disrupted operations at major European airports

 | 

Fortra addressed a maximum severity flaw in GoAnywhere MFT software

 | 

UK police arrested two teen Scattered Spider members linked to the 2024 attack on Transport for London

 | 

ShadowLeak: Radware Uncovers Zero-Click Attack on ChatGPT

 | 

SonicWall warns customers to reset credentials after MySonicWall backups were exposed

 | 

CVE-2025-10585 is the sixth actively exploited Chrome zero-day patched by Google in 2025

 | 

Jaguar Land Rover will extend its production halt into a third week following a cyberattack

 | 

China-linked APT41 targets government, think tanks, and academics tied to US-China trade and policy

 | 

Microsoft and Cloudflare teamed up to dismantle the RaccoonO365 phishing service

 | 

DoJ resentenced former BreachForums admin to three years in prison

 | 

Apple backports fix for actively exploited CVE-2025-43300

 | 

New supply chain attack hits npm registry, compromising 40+ packages

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Breaking News
  • Hacking
  • Malware
  • Tens of AccessPress WordPress themes compromised as part of a supply chain attack

Tens of AccessPress WordPress themes compromised as part of a supply chain attack

Pierluigi Paganini January 24, 2022

Threat actors planted a backdoor into multiple WordPress themes and plugins after compromising the website of their developer.

In a classic supply chain attack, threat actors planted a backdoor in dozens of WordPress plugins and themes hosted on a developer’s website. The attack took place in the first half of September 2021, the attackers compromised 40 themes and 53 plugins belonging to AccessPress Themes. The issue has been tracked as CVE-2021-24867.

The security researchers from JetPack discovered the attack while investigating a compromised site using a theme by AccessPress Themes. On further investigation, the experts discovered that all the themes and most plugins from the company available on their own website were backdoored. The same components available on the WordPress.org directory appeared clean.

“The infected extensions contained a dropper for a webshell that gives the attackers full access to the infected sites. The dropper is located in the file inital.php located in the main plugin or theme directory. When run it installs a cookie based webshell in wp-includes/vars.php. The shell is installed as a function just in front of the wp_is_mobile() function with the name of wp_is_mobile_fix(). This is presumably to not arouse suspicion to anybody casually scrolling through the vars.php file.” reads the advisory published by JetPack.

The researchers also spotted another variant of the backdoor directly embedded in the theme/plugin’s functions.php file. This variant is likely an older version of the malware an uses the same mechanism with piecing together the payload from eight cookies.

Below is the list of themes and versions compromised by the attack. AccessPress Themes has yet to provide updates for any of these components and they have been removed from the WordPress.org repository.

Theme slugVersion
accessbuddy1.0.0
accesspress-basic3.2.1
accesspress-lite2.92
accesspress-mag2.6.5
accesspress-parallax4.5
accesspress-ray1.19.5
accesspress-root2.5
accesspress-staple1.9.1
accesspress-store2.4.9
agency-lite1.1.6
aplite1.0.6
bingle1.0.4
bloger1.2.6
construction-lite1.2.5
doko1.0.27
enlighten1.3.5
fashstore1.2.1
fotography2.4.0
gaga-corp1.0.8
gaga-lite1.4.2
one-paze2.2.8
parallax-blog3.1.1574941215
parallaxsome1.3.6
punte1.1.2
revolve1.3.1
ripple1.2.0
scrollme2.1.0
sportsmag1.2.1
storevilla1.4.1
swing-lite1.1.9
the-launcher1.3.2
the-monday1.4.1
uncode-lite1.3.1
unicon-lite1.2.6
vmag1.2.7
vmagazine-lite1.3.5
vmagazine-news1.0.5
zigcy-baby1.0.6
zigcy-cosmetics1.0.5
zigcy-lite2.0.9

Researchers from security firm Sucuri published a separate analysis the revealed that some of the infected websites had spam payloads dating back almost three years. This circumstance suggests that threat actors behind the campaign were likely selling access to the websites to other cyber cybercrime groups.

“we found quite a few compromised sites that lined up with the same timeline for this hack. Some of the infected websites we found utilising this backdoor had old recycled spam payloads that we have seen on other websites as far back as three years.” states Sucuri. “If I had to guess, whoever was behind the initial compromise of AccessPress were likely selling access to backdoored websites on the black market to spammers who recycled the same old malware that they always use on websites.”

In order to check if a website has been affected by this attack, administrators can perform the following actions recommended by Sucuri experts:

  1. Check your wp-includes/vars.php file around lines 146-158. If you see a “wp_is_mobile_fix” function there with some obfuscated code, you’ve been compromised
  2. You can also query your file system for “wp_is_mobile_fix” or “wp-theme-connect” to see if there are any affected files

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook

[adrotate banner=”9″][adrotate banner=”12″]

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, WordPress themes)

[adrotate banner=”5″]

[adrotate banner=”13″]


facebook linkedin twitter

backdoor Hacking hacking news information security news IT Information Security malware Pierluigi Paganini Security Affairs Security News Wordpress WordPress themes

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini September 22, 2025
Stellantis probes data breach linked to third-party provider
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini September 22, 2025
FBI alerts public to spoofed IC3 site used in fraud schemes
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Stellantis probes data breach linked to third-party provider

    Data Breach / September 22, 2025

    FBI alerts public to spoofed IC3 site used in fraud schemes

    Cyber Crime / September 22, 2025

    EU agency ENISA says ransomware attack behind airport disruptions

    Security / September 22, 2025

    Researchers expose MalTerminal, an LLM-enabled malware pioneer

    Malware / September 22, 2025

    Beware: GitHub repos distributing Atomic Infostealer on macOS

    Malware / September 22, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT