How to scan your site for malware

This guide explains how our malware scanning works, how to see what it has found, and what to do if your site has been infected.

How scanning works

Every server runs Imunify360. It includes a firewall that blocks attacks and a scanner that checks your files for malware. Scans run automatically, so you don’t need to start them yourself.

View the results

1. Log in to cPanel.
2. In the Security section, click Imunify360.
3. Open the Malware Scanner tab. Any infected files are listed with their location and what was found.

Clean infected files

1. In the list of infected files, tick the ones you want to deal with.
2. Choose to clean them. Imunify360 will try to remove the harmful code and keep the rest of the file.
3. If a file can’t be cleaned, you can move it to quarantine so it can’t run.
4. Visit your site afterwards to check it still works.

If a cleaned file breaks your site, you can restore that file from before the infection. See how to restore a backup with JetBackup.

If your site was infected

Cleaning the files is only half the job. You also need to close the gap that let it in.

1. Change your passwords. This includes cPanel, WordPress admin users, FTP accounts and database users.
2. Update everything. Update WordPress, your theme and every plugin to the latest version.
3. Remove what you don’t use. Delete unused plugins, themes and old copies of the site.
4. Check admin users. In WordPress, remove any admin accounts you don’t recognise.
5. Contact us. Open a ticket and we’ll check the account and help you work out how it happened.

Good to know

Most infections come from out-of-date plugins or weak passwords. Keeping both in good order is the best protection. Our backups run every six hours, so a clean copy is usually close at hand.

Still stuck? Open a support ticket and we’ll help.