How to Delete
Admin Users
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
Invisible WordPress admin users are the
sometimes left behind artifacts of a sloppy
hacker or following the cleanup of a hacked
website
There is no automated way to remove these invisible WordPress
users
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
“phpMyAdmin may seem a bit intimidating at first. Think of it like a text editor for databases and you’ll be
fine.”
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
The steps to removing INVISIBLE USERS
in WORDPRESS
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
1 Be sure to use a backup plugin, like Updraft Plus or Backup Buddy, to make a database backup
These backup plugins will not only help you generate a backup in
seconds
They’ll likewise allow you to recover your prior
database with just a few clicks of your mouse
Website will not be wiped clean
by editing a couple database
tables
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
2 Add a new Administrator (user)
After creating your new user, log out, then log back in as the new
Administrator
Maybe you are still using Admin as your username?
If that’s the case, this would be a great opportunity to change that to something less guessable.
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
3 Log into phpMyAdmin. Scary, huh?
I have to agree, phpMyAdmin is probably the most intimidating login screen you’ll encounter in your WordPress career
You’ll find the username and password for your phpMyAdmin by viewing the text within your wp-config.php file
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
4Once logged in, find your database in the left column and click it once.
That will reveal a list of tables. We only care about two tables: wp_usermetaand wp_users
Let’s start with wpusers. Click that table link and you’ll see something like this
What’s important here are the numbers in the User ID column. Note how one is 2 and the other is101011. These are good users in our installation. Hint:
“Remember this.
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
5 Ok, the truly scary part. Sorry, you’ll have to trust me on this. We are going to do a database query to identify the invisible users. Click the SQL tab.
Next, copy/paste the text below into the box and click the “Go” button bottom right
This will do a quick search for all currently set administrator users
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
6 And now to the callback. After our search in #5 above, notice the extra users Mr/Mrs. Sherlock?
“Excellent!” I cried. “Elementary,” said he.” – Arthur Conan Doyle
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
7 Now kill the other users. Clicky-clicky on the big red X next to each bad users until your enemy has been defeated
If you are victorious in your quest, you’ll see something like this when you refresh your WordPress dashboard Users list
BEFORE AFTER
By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair
Read More
www.HackRepair.com/articles/delete-invisible-wordpress-admin-users
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By Jim Walker, HackRepair.com / @hackrepair