WordPress Malware Scan & Cleanup

I have moved a copy of my WordPress site to a test location (www.check-12.com) and now need a thorough malware and vulnerability audit. Please work directly on that clone so the live site stays untouched.

The scan must cover the entire stack—core WordPress files, all themes and plugins, plus the database—because the original Bluehost instance was hacked and I want to be certain the issue is not lurking in the code. I do keep full backups from before the incident, so you may reference or restore from them if that speeds up remediation. At the moment I’m not even sure which, if any, security plugins are active on the clone, so assume nothing is in place.

If you find malicious code or suspicious configurations, clean them, patch any vulnerabilities, and harden the installation (file permissions, wp-config tweaks, SALT keys, etc.). When you’re done, I need a concise report outlining:

• what you scanned and the tools you used
• infections or vulnerabilities discovered (if any)
• exact fixes applied
• recommendations for ongoing security, including plugin suggestions or server-side measures

Once the test site is verified as clean and secure, we can coordinate moving the sanitized codebase back to production.