WordPress Under Fire: What I Learnt from a Live Attack

The very website you’re browsing now was the target of a brute-force attack, with over 6,000 unauthorised login attempts hammering the /wp-login.php page in just a few hours. This case study breaks down how I detected the threat and implemented layered mitigations-including hiding the login URL, deploying Cloudflare firewall rules, enabling 2FA, and improving IP traceability. These steps quickly neutralised the attack and significantly strengthened the site's security.

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Caught in the Act: Stopping a Stealthy Website Attack

While monitoring traffic on samsortino.com, I uncovered a wave of suspicious POST requests hammering /xmlrpc.php-disguised as internal traffic via Cloudflare Tunnel. This case study walks through how I identified the threat and deployed a multi-layered response-blocking the endpoint at the Apache level, enforcing a Cloudflare WAF rule, and isolating traffic sources. These measures effectively shut down the attack and reinforced the site’s defense against legacy-based exploits.

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Reverse TCP Payload Deployment & Troubleshooting

In this case study I attempted a controlled penetration test that deployed a reverse-TCP Meterpreter payload from a Kali attacker host to a Windows 10 target in an isolated lab. The write-up covers payload generation, Metasploit listener configuration, execution on the victim, and a structured troubleshooting effort after the session closed immediately post-stage. It walks through the debugging process, including reviewing packet captures and testing different failure points, and wraps up with the key takeaways from the exercise.

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