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TimThumb Vulnerability

August 2, 2011 by Mitchell Wischmann

Many WordPress themes out there come bundled with a script called TimThumb.php. This script easily creates thumbnail versions of images for teasers and more. A major vulnerability has been found in this script that can allow a hacker to place dangerous code on your site.

To fix this problem, you can either hack the timthumb.php file, or delete it altogether. To hack the file:

  1. SSH into your web server.
  2. cd into your WordPress installation directory.
  3. cd into your WordPress theme directory and find timthumb.php
  4. Edit the file using the nano command.
  5. Look for $allowedSites = array (
  6. Delete everything within the parenthesis, so it looks like this: $allowedSites = array();
  7. Press Control-X, hit Y and then Enter.
  8. You're done!

Not sure how to fix this, or don't want to mess up your site? Contact me and I'll do my best to help you out!

Filed Under: PHP, WordPress

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