Every HTML page loads a fake version of my website? Topic is solved

[MarkAther33]

I've got a weird issue going on with one of my sites that I still haven't gotten around to migrating to a newer version of Joomla. Every single HTML page I load opens up my website but the main body is full of rubbish like [* spam *] adverts, dating website adverts, penis enlargement etc. The template still works fine, all the menus are fine and when clicking on a menu item I'm taken to my actual website.

The problem is this is happening to legitimate and non-legitimate HTML pages. For example, I had my "old" HTML based website running for anyone who wants a trip down memory lane. It was kept in a folder called "old" and was access via "domain.com/old/index.html" ... This now takes me to the "fake" Joomla powered site. However, it works with directories that don't even exist. If I was to go to "domain.com/ilovedogs" it would bring up a 404 error as that directory does not exist on my server. However, if I was to go to "domain.com/ilovedogs/especiallyiftheyarepugs.html" it will take me back to the "fake" version of my website. Basically if it has a HTML extension whether the directory exists or not, I get taken to a fake page!

I've cleared the cache in Joomla, tried different browsers / computers etc but its still the same. Anyone have any ideas?

[MarkAther33]

Managed to figure it out - Moving to a new server so was able to delete files one at a time from the old server until the problem went away. Some little sod had put this bit of code into the .htaccess file

RewriteRule ^(.+).html$ core.php?key=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^templates/.*\.(?:php[1-7]?|pht|phtml?|phps)\.?$ core.php

Thought I'd post it here in case others ever face a similar issue

[AMurray]

Using Joomla 2.5....that could also explain the security breech......that version has been unsupported for 8 years.

The URL is not really going to actual physical directories (since the web pages are not physical pages). The "folder names" you see are based on any/all of the following (1) article names and/or (2) menu items names or alias names.