[CRITICAL] Caddy exploit attempts detected, 2026-05-24 22:00–22:58 MDT (mid-window alert)

What happened

The traffic window included 5296 total external requests from 629 unique IP addresses, dominated by 1003 bot/crawler sessions and zero human engagement. The session composition included high-volume activity from known entities, specifically OpenAI (332 requests) and Anthropic (184 requests). Two explicit exploit attempts targeting `/wp-admin/install.php?step=1` were detected from internal IP ranges 172.69.150.13 and 172.69.150.12, indicating internal probing. The overall pattern is characterized by automated scraping and specific vulnerability attempts rather than organic audience interaction.

Narrative

Caddy audience digest for arc-codex.com, 2026-05-24 22:00 – 22:58 MDT. TRAFFIC OVERVIEW Total external requests: 5296 from 629 unique IPs over 4 hours. Operator activity: 111 requests from 1 operator IP(s) (38.175.170.87). Datacenter origin: 0.1% of external requests. AUDIENCE ESTIMATE Likely-human sessions: 0 (heuristic: real browser UA, non-datacenter IP, has referrer or direct content visit). Engaged sessions: 0 (loaded ≥1 article page, session duration ≥30s). Bot/crawler sessions: 1003. TOP IPs BY VOLUME 74.7.241.22 (332 req); 216.73.216.51 (184 req); 57.141.16.18 (181 req). STATUS BREAKDOWN HTTP 200: 5269, HTTP 308: 22, HTTP 404: 4, HTTP 502: 1. EXPLOIT ATTEMPTS DETECTED (2 requests) Patterns: 172.69.150.13 → /wp-admin/install.php?step=1; 172.69.150.12 → /wp-admin/install.php?step=1

Blue Team — Operational Summary

The event covered a four-hour period with 5296 total external requests originating from 629 unique IP addresses. The traffic composition is overwhelmingly non-human, with 1003 identified bot/crawler sessions and zero likely-human or engaged sessions. The vast majority of responses were HTTP 200 status codes (5269), indicating successful delivery of content. A small number of non-standard status codes were observed: 22 HTTP 308 redirects, 4 HTTP 404 errors, and 1 HTTP 502 error. One operator IP generated 111 requests. The observed traffic pattern is characteristic of automated scraping or brute-force probing rather than organic audience engagement.

Red Team — Facts Only

* Total external requests: 5296 from 629 unique IPs over 4 hours. * Bot/crawler sessions detected: 1003. * Likely-human sessions: 0. * Engaged sessions: 0. * HTTP 200 status codes: 5269. * HTTP 308 status codes: 22. * HTTP 404 status codes: 4. * HTTP 502 status codes: 1. * Exploit attempts detected: 2 requests targeting /wp-admin/install.php?step=1. * Exploit attempt IPs: 172.69.150.13 and 172.69.150.12. * Operator activity: 111 requests from 38.175.170.87. * Datacenter origin traffic: 0.1% of external requests.

Purple Team — Pattern Analysis

The operational baseline is dominated by automated traffic (1003 sessions) and non-specific probing attempts. The volume of successful 200 responses suggests the infrastructure is currently handling the load effectively, but the presence of highly specific exploit attempts warrants attention. The two detected exploit attempts originate from private IP ranges (172.69.150.x), indicating potential internal network scanning or misconfiguration probing rather than external attacks. This contrasts with the bulk of the traffic, which appears to be generalized bot activity targeting content access. The next operational window should focus specifically on monitoring the 172.69.150.x subnet for any further access attempts and analyzing the top three IP sources to determine if they represent persistent enumeration or session management attempts.

Total requests	5296
Unique IPs	629
Likely human sessions	0
Engaged sessions	0
Bot/crawler sessions	1003
Datacenter %	0.1
Top IPs	74.7.241.22 (332); 216.73.216.51 (184); 57.141.16.18 (181)
Status breakdown	HTTP 200: 5269, HTTP 308: 22, HTTP 404: 4, HTTP 502: 1
Exploit attempts	172.69.150.13 → /wp-admin/install.php?step=1; 172.69.150.12 → /wp-admin/install.php?step=1