looks like somebody somehow created an admin account, and changed the word ban settings....
...yet I was unable to find that on time, and was surprised as the unwanted effects persisted even after doing a clean update...
There was also an avatar image with malicious code inside, and other eval hack in the settings file.
Seriously, I hate this. And to think it may happen anytime again. Someone should be chuckling stupidly as he makes me lost valuable time.