Something in the woodshed

by Suw on August 20, 2009

Something very strange happened to Chocolate and Vodka, resulting in it loading a blank page except for the background image. It appears to have been a problem with Thesis, the theme I had been using, although I had not upgraded or changed it (or WordPress) in any way in months. I’m not sure how it could have just broken without me doing anything, but maybe my hosting company changed something in the background. Anyway, we now have the ugly default theme (honestly, can’t WordPress do better?) which will remain until I have time to upgrade everything and/or look for a fix.

I apologise for any pain or damage this causes to your eyes in the meantime.

UPDATE: I have updated WordPress, as it appeared that someone had done something nasty to CnV and caused it to behave badly towards others. The update has fixed whatever was wrong with the theme and hopefully it has also done for whatever exploit was using WP to spam people. If there’s something more I need to do to stop WP spamming others, please be a love and tell me!

UPDATE 2: I’ve just updated Thesis, my theme, as well. Hopefully that should mean no more problems.

Carl Morris August 20, 2009 at 12:49 pm

What do you see when you view source?

Also, go to FTP and check the dates of the theme files (and other files) to confirm if they were changed.

In the past there have been security vulnerabilities with WordPress (version 2.0.4 just fixed one). Some could be exploited by link farmers and other nasties – I myself have experienced the joy of this.

As for the “ugly” default theme, if you have an improvement then make it! Or suggest it!

GG August 23, 2009 at 2:09 pm

Your site was hacked and spaming this page /http://chocolateandvodka.com/wp-content/themes/cold%20blue/images/buy-propecia-without-prescription.html/ on my blog

GG August 23, 2009 at 2:17 pm

update WP to last version mb this help you

Suw August 23, 2009 at 5:21 pm

@GG: Thanks for your comment. I had been hoping that the problem wasn’t that WP had been compromised, but thank you for letting me know it had. I have upgraded WP to the latest version. Please let me know if you have any further problems.

Suw August 23, 2009 at 5:23 pm

Carl, the main recommendation I’d make to improve the default WP theme would be to destroy it completely and get a competent designer to make something less hideous. Some things cannot be redeemed by tweaks.

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