New dat files in WordPress root

Posted on 31 July 2010 | by Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES
WordPress
Image via Wikipedia

I woke up this morning to find a ton of randomly-named files in the root directory of several of my WordPress installations. The files are named similarly to 0303c831c9c6203ba966dbf523d119ab.dat. The data of these files looks like a serialized PHP value.

I’m not sure if these files are due to the upgrade I performed to WordPress 3.0.1 last night, though they seemed to begin appearing shortly after I applied that upgrade. I’m speculating that they’re due to the way one of my plugins – perhaps Hyper Cache – is interacting with 3.0.1. It’s either that or some malicious infection. Either way, I’ll update here when I find out what’s causing it.

Have you noticed extra, random files in your WordPress installation after upgrading to 3.0.1? If so, hit the comments.

UPDATE: It looks like I can confirm that the problem was due to the Hyper Cache plugin. Upon automatically upgrading to the latest version of the plugin, 2.7.3, WordPress complained that it couldn’t find a cache directory and instructed me to create that directory. Even though I did, it seems it was still storing the cache files – these mysterious .dat files – in the WordPres root directory. After deactivating and reactivating the plugin, it seems to be storing the cache files in the correct location now.

This entry was posted in software, websites and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES

twitter.com/traffas | aarontraffas.com | aarontraffasband.com

Aaron Traffas, CAI, AMM, CES, is an auctioneer from Sharon, Kansas. For the last 22 years he's worked for Purple Wave. Aaron served as president of the Kansas Auctioneers Association in 2017 and on the National Auctioneers Association Education Institute Board of Trustees from 2009 through 2013. He is a past instructor at CAI and co-wrote the original ATS and AMM designation courses from NAA. An active contract bid caller, he has advanced to the finals in multiple state auctioneer contests. During the summer, Aaron operates a farm in south central Kansas. Aaron is an active singer and songwriter and the Aaron Traffas Band's latest music can be found at aarontraffasband.com as well as Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon.