Hackers Abuse Google Ads to Steal Users GoDaddy ManageWP login Credentials

Hackers are using fake Google ads to steal login credentials from ManageWP users, GoDaddy’s popular platform for managing WordPress websites from a single dashboard. The campaign, which researchers have dubbed “WrongPress,” plants a fraudulent sponsored search result directly above the real ManageWP listing, trapping users before they even realize something is wrong.

ManageWP is widely used by web developers, digital agencies, and enterprises who need to oversee dozens or even hundreds of client websites at once. Because a single account can control that many sites, stealing one set of credentials gives an attacker a massive foothold into an entire web portfolio.

According to WordPress.org, the ManageWP Worker plugin is active on more than one million websites, making the stakes extraordinarily high.

The attack begins the moment a user types “managewp” into Google. The malicious sponsored result appears at the very top of the page, sitting right above the legitimate one.

Researchers at Guardio Labs were the first to identify this campaign and raise the alarm, warning that even cautious users could fall for the trap simply because the fake result appears so convincingly placed.

https://twitter.com/GuardioLabs/status/2051984356369977475?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

What makes this campaign especially difficult to spot is that the fake login page is a near-perfect copy of the real ManageWP screen. There are no obvious red flags for the average user. By the time a victim types their username and password, those credentials have already been silently sent to an attacker-controlled Telegram channel.

Hackers Abuse Google Ads

Guardio Labs confirmed at least 200 unique victims at the time of writing and has been actively reaching out to alert those affected. The research team also managed to infiltrate the attacker’s command-and-control infrastructure, giving them a rare look at the full scale of how this operation runs in real time.

The infection chain is built to dodge Google’s ad review systems and the suspicion of real users alike. When a victim clicks the malicious ad, they first pass through a cloaker, a tool that filters out automated inspectors while letting genuine users through. This step helps the attackers conceal who actually authorized the sponsored result and avoid triggering Google’s ad inspection mechanisms.

Once the cloaker approves a genuine visitor, they are redirected to a fake ManageWP login page where the adversary-in-the-middle, or AiTM, technique takes over. The attacker’s server acts as a live go-between, forwarding stolen credentials to the real ManageWP platform in real time.

The victim is then shown a fake prompt asking for their two-factor authentication code, which the attacker uses simultaneously to complete the actual login, rendering 2FA completely useless.

The operation is managed through a command-and-control server that gives the attacker a live dashboard for steering ongoing phishing sessions. Guardio Labs noted the kit appears to be a private framework rather than a commodity tool sold on underground forums. Embedded in the code was also a Russian-language disclaimer in which the author denies responsibility for illegal activity and prohibits targeting systems based in Russia.

The Broader Risk to WordPress Site Owners

The danger here extends far beyond a single stolen password. Because ManageWP is a centralized hub, one compromised account can hand an attacker control over hundreds of websites simultaneously. Guardio Labs head researcher Nati Tal confirmed that each account typically hosts hundreds of sites, meaning attackers could inject malware, redirect traffic, or harvest visitor data at a sweeping scale.

Security experts advise avoiding sponsored search results when navigating to login pages for services you use regularly. Bookmarking the official URL or typing it directly into the browser address bar is a far safer habit. Users should also monitor their accounts for unexpected logins and consider adopting phishing-resistant authentication methods, such as hardware security keys, where supported.

The WrongPress campaign is a reminder that even routine actions like Googling a login page can carry serious risk. As attackers grow more creative with search advertising abuse, verifying where a link actually leads before clicking has never mattered more.

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