Beware Free Wordpress Templates

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dragon123

Regular Member

Sep 28, 2010

263

62

• Apr 4, 2011

• #1

Just a word of warning to those that use google to search for free wordpress templates. Many i have found have hidden code with links to sites that have no relevance to what you may be designing. Unless you know coding or CSS well these are hard to delete as i found to my cost.
Has anyone else found this to be a problem.

 

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c0ntenth|ef

Power Member

May 20, 2009

788

118

• Apr 4, 2011

• #2

i have had this problem once but if you regularly check links then they are easy to be found and its better to download them from reliable legit sites.

 

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dragon123

Regular Member

Sep 28, 2010

263

62

• Apr 4, 2011
• Thread Starter Thread Starter

• #3

A good FREE plugin for wordpress to see if the template has hidden code is TAC..(Theme Authenticity Checker).

 

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LyNHS

Regular Member

Jul 20, 2010

281

98

• Apr 4, 2011

• #4

Yes they use CSS to hide it, like they reduce the font size to em -99999999 so you'll never be able to see it. I haven't seen this much of a problem for WordPress... but for free Joomla templates it's a MASSIVE problem.

 

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blue_wings

Newbie

Feb 2, 2011

47

72

• Apr 4, 2011

• #5

There is no problem with a link hidden behind an image or using other css tricks...you can just remove it from the template.

The real problem is with encrypted footers...I also try to remove them...there is a simple method...search the files for encrypted text, put before and after a marking tag like

Code:

<!--here starts/ends the encrypted part -->

Then I look in the source code, I find the tags added by me and I copy the text between the tags and replace it in the original file. Then I do some adjustments (remove links...put my own links)...and that's it. In 75% of the cases this works...

Some templates have also functions that check if the footer is intact, otherwise it breaks the theme...but also those can be avoided...WITH SOME PHP SKILLS.

 

SOCOM

Elite Member

Jul 21, 2010

4,301

3,268

• Apr 4, 2011

• #6

dragon123 said:

A good FREE plugin for wordpress to see if the template has hidden code is TAC..(Theme Authenticity Checker).

Click to expand...

when you install this go to appearance and click TAC. thanks to this i found one in one of the templates. awesome plugin!

 

Statix

Junior Member

Aug 31, 2010

147

44

• Apr 4, 2011

• #7

Sometimes the links are hidden to the admin, make sure you check the site when not logged in to be sure too. Had one like this and didn't find it until weeks later

 

housemusic

Regular Member

Jan 27, 2009

389

73

• Apr 4, 2011

• #8

its always good to remember about this! I wish had "sticky" about something like this

 

yesrams

Regular Member

Dec 16, 2009

414

80

• Apr 4, 2011

• #9

Very good plugin and very useful to check themes for malicious or potentially unwanted code.
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dragon123 said:

A good FREE plugin for wordpress to see if the template has hidden code is TAC..(Theme Authenticity Checker).

Click to expand...

 

hotchap

Registered Member

Dec 22, 2017

74

13

• Dec 23, 2017

• #10

dragon123 said:

A good FREE plugin for wordpress to see if the template has hidden code is TAC..(Theme Authenticity Checker).

Click to expand...

Thanks you for this TIP

 

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NetNewt

BANNED

Dec 19, 2017

66

20

• Dec 23, 2017

• #11

dragon123 said:

A good FREE plugin for wordpress to see if the template has hidden code is TAC..(Theme Authenticity Checker).

Click to expand...

Didn't know this. Thank You!

 

aka_ab

Regular Member

Dec 1, 2017

262

92

• Dec 23, 2017

• #12

everythingred said:

when you install this go to appearance and click TAC. thanks to this i found one in one of the templates. awesome plugin!

Click to expand...

It also detects theme functions as malicious! How to find if it is a theme function or malicious code?
Also you try WP Authenticity Checker it scans both plugins and themes.