Behind the blog surface, the posts are stored in a database. The pharm spam hack inserted stuff into that database, and I have spent two days in cleaning it. This I did by exporting the database to a .sql file using the PhpMyAdmin interface; importing it into a local WordPress instance running on my PC; importing the last sound backup into another local WordPress instance; exporting the sound wp-posts table from that, renaming it, importing it into the same database as the corrupt one, and doing lots of SQL queries to locate the differences. It has been time-consuming, but not different in kind to the sort of stuff that I used to do for money, when I was working for insurance companies and fixing live problems in their databases. I’ve found it rather relaxing. You have to get into the right frame of mind to do it, to see the problem – and how to fix it – in terms of an SQL query. But this I did professionally for 30 years, so it was not troublesome. The main thing to remember is not to panic.
After all that, I hope that the annoying pharma links are gone, and that I haven’t broken anything!
I’ve brought up a new instance of WordPress on the server. I’ve also changed the theme, although I may change it again.
A rather impressive security plugin located three files on the disk which the hacker had left there. One of these was so poisonous that when I downloaded it to my PC in order to inspect it, my local antivirus promptly whipped it away into quarantine. I will do more security work on the blog tomorrow.
In the meantime, there has been a little progress on St. Botolph, which I am very keen to finish. A kind gentleman has sent me the modern text of the Linkoping breviary text. Another commented and transcribed the manuscript that I could not read. Finally the rather comprehensive book by John Toy arrived with massive information on Scandinavian breviaries. I’ve not had time to look at any of these yet, but these have been a light in the darkness.
I’ve discovered that a breviary from Hereford probably also contains a text, and that I might be able to access this through Early English Books Online (EEBO). I have no access to EEBO, but a nearby library probably does, and probably will allow me to use it. Maybe next week!