What to Do If Your Server Was Griefed or Hacked

If your server was griefed or hacked, do not panic: stop the damage first, restore your world from a backup taken before it happened, then close the hole that let it in so it cannot happen again.

3 min read · Updated Sep 24, 2026 · By GuavaHost Team

Step 1: stop the damage

Before you fix anything, stop it from getting worse.

1. Open the Console tab and ban or kick whoever is responsible with ban PlayerName or kick PlayerName.
2. Lock the server down by turning on the whitelist: type whitelist on so no new players can join.
3. If damage is still spreading and you are not sure who is doing it, click Stop at the top of the server page and take a breath.

A stopped or whitelisted server cannot be griefed further, which buys you time to recover calmly.

Step 2: restore from Backups

This is what backups are for. On the Backups page you can roll the whole server back to an earlier backup.

1. Open Backups in your server's menu and look at the timestamps.
2. If you might want the griefed state as evidence, click Create backup first, because restoring overwrites the current files.
3. Pick a backup from a time you know was clean, before the damage happened, and click Restore.
4. Choose Keep them or Also delete files added since this backup (the second one also removes anything a griefer added, such as a plugin), confirm, and wait for it to finish. The server restarts as part of the restore.
5. Check the affected areas in-game.

If your most recent clean backup is older than you would like, this is the moment that teaches everyone why frequent snapshots matter.

Step 3: find how they got in

Recovering is only half the job. Work out the entry point so it does not happen again:

• Was there no whitelist, so anyone could join?
• Did a player have operator status or permissions they should not have had?
• Was your panel or game password weak, shared, or reused elsewhere?
• Did an outdated plugin or mod have a known exploit?

The Console log of joins and commands is your best clue for reconstructing what happened.

Step 4: close the hole

Fix whatever you found:

• Turn on and curate a whitelist so only trusted names can connect.
• Remove operator status from anyone who does not truly need it, and tighten permissions.
• Change your GuavaHost password and your SFTP password to something long and unique, especially if a login may have leaked, and check People for anyone you did not invite.
• Update or remove any plugin or mod that was out of date.

If your panel account itself was hacked

If the break-in was through your account rather than in-game, change your password right away from a device you trust (Account settings in your control panel), turn on Two-factor authentication, check the Activity page to see what was done, then contact support through guavahost.com/support or Discord so the team can help you secure everything. Protecting your account has the full checklist.

Set up backups going forward

Finally, use Scheduled tasks to take automatic backups on a timer. With regular backups in place, the worst a future griefer can cost you is a few minutes of progress.

Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.

• griefing
• recovery
• backups
• restore
• incident

Still need help? Our team is online 24/7 to answer questions.

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