Installing a component over the top

[uaintgotthisid]

If I am suspicious of some files in my installation, can I install the component again, will it overwrite all the existing files and replace them with good copies of the component? From my perspective, this represents a substantial time saving on investigating each file if I just reinstall the component for any suspicious files, and/or plugins/modules/joomla.

Then all I would be left with are files that are not part of the usual installation to investigate, and I can be more sure that they are potentially dodgy, so I can rename them and investigate.

Would this methodology work, or should I do this process via FTP?

[Per Yngve Berg]

Mod. Note: Relcated the topic to the Security J3.x Forum.

See the stickies in this forum on how to deal with a hacked site.

[uaintgotthisid]

Thanks, I'm not 100% sure it is a hacked site, but the recommendation is to create a whole new Joomla! site and reinstall all extensions then reconnect the database which would achieve the same thing and ensure no erroneous files. That would work for me.

I'd still be interested in the answer to my question. If I only get security warnings about certain extensions then it would be far quicker to install over the top of those files. Particularly, if they are core files for the extension.

[leolam]

The recommendation is listed here http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=714&t=757645 and that is the only way of doing this properly. No other way will cleans a site properly

Leo

[mandville]

what " security warnings" are you getting

[uaintgotthisid]

From Admin Tools file scanner.

For example

File path Threat score
libraries/joomla/google/embed/analytics.php 10

I can't see anything wrong with the file, I think it's a false positive, but I'm not a dev so I am curious as to how to analyse something like that. Clearly reading the comments in the file is not a sensible approach

Replacing the file is very easy to do rather than installing a new Joomla! replacing one file resolves it for me right? There are a few other files that have warnings but, on the whole, I still think I would find this process easier than redoing Joomla! although I understand the clear benefits of doing things the other way as I am only removing flagged files and some may not have been identified.

The main point is there is no threat identified for sure and no client paying at present. It's a labour of love at the moment and me attempting to understand better the threat and how to identify issues.