“FREE” WordPress Themes – Base 64 encoded footer

I was looking at some free WordPress themes today for a little project I’m working on. I’m fairly careful about what I run on my servers so I checked through the source quickly before even considering looking at them. It is amazing how many of these “Free” themes contain links to interesting places and other interesting things like Base 64 encoded sections.  Most of the time these sections are harmless but there is no way I’m going to run something on my server until I have seen what it’s doing.

Example:

eval(base64_decode('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'));

So I had to work out how to rid myself of these things and thought others might like to know where to find information on how to do the same. The FAQ, How to get rid of encoding in a theme’s footer? explains how to get rid of that coding but also has links to topics that will help you.

I personally found the following site very useful though: http://home2.paulschou.net/tools/xlate/ just past the coding in there and play around 😉