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[CRITICAL] Caddy exploit attempts detected, 2026-05-25 06:00–06:16 MDT (mid-window alert)


"Bot activity dominated during the specified period on arc-codex.com, with 397 bot/crawler sessions from various sources. OpenAI and Anthropic sent a combined 89 requests, while an unknown crawler initiated 28 requests. A scanner probed for WordPress vulnerabilities once. No human sessions were recorded engaging with content, indicating automated traffic."
Caddy audience digest for arc-codex.com, 2026-05-25 06:00 – 06:16 MDT. TRAFFIC OVERVIEW Total external requests: 1396 from 395 unique IPs over 4 hours. Operator activity: 18 requests from 1 operator IP(s) (38.175.170.87). Datacenter origin: 0.0% 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: 397. TOP IPs BY VOLUME 74.7.241.22 (55 req); 216.73.216.51 (34 req); 216.244.66.198 (28 req). STATUS BREAKDOWN HTTP 200: 1371, HTTP 308: 16, HTTP 404: 1, HTTP 502: 8. EXPLOIT ATTEMPTS DETECTED (1 requests) Patterns: 35.239.90.70 → /xmlrpc.php?rsd
The system experienced 1396 external requests over a four-hour window. This traffic was dominated by non-human activity, registering 397 bot/crawler sessions and zero likely human or engaged sessions. The majority of requests returned HTTP 200 status codes (1371), but there were 8 HTTP 502 errors, indicating instability or upstream processing issues. One specific exploit attempt targeting /xmlrpc.php?rsd was detected from IP 35.239.90.70. Operator activity consisted of 18 requests from a single internal IP.
* Time window: 2026-05-25 06:00 – 06:16 MDT. * Total external requests: 1396 from 395 unique IPs. * Bot/crawler sessions: 397. * HTTP Status Codes: HTTP 200 (1371), HTTP 308 (16), HTTP 404 (1), HTTP 502 (8). * Exploit attempt detected: 1 request from 35.239.90.70 targeting /xmlrpc.php?rsd. * Top requesting IPs: 74.7.241.22 (55 req), 216.73.216.51 (34 req), 216.244.66.198 (28 req). * Operator requests: 18 requests from IP 38.175.170.87. * Datacenter origin: 0.0%.
The traffic volume is characteristic of automated crawling, evidenced by the high number of bot sessions and the lack of human engagement. The high number of HTTP 502 errors suggests potential instability in the service layer or upstream component load during this period. The single detected exploit attempt targeting /xmlrpc.php?rsd is the only specific signal of adversarial activity. The pattern of traffic strongly suggests scraping or vulnerability scanning, utilizing generic source IPs. The most actionable observation is the pattern of HTTP 502 errors, which should be investigated for systemic infrastructure health, and the singular detection of the XML-RPC vulnerability attempt, which indicates a specific threat vector is being tested against the system. Focus future monitoring on the source IPs associated with the 502 errors and any repeated attempts against the /xmlrpc.php endpoint.

This report suggests that all but zero traffic to arc-codex.com on the given date were bots or crawlers. However, with 18 operator requests from a single IP over four hours, isn't it possible that human operator activity could represent a significant percentage of the total unique traffic, warranting further investigation? Is it plausible that the threshold for classifying traffic as "likely-human" was set too stringently in this case?
Total requests1396
Unique IPs395
Likely human sessions0
Engaged sessions0
Bot/crawler sessions397
Datacenter %0.0
Top IPs74.7.241.22 (55); 216.73.216.51 (34); 216.244.66.198 (28)
Status breakdownHTTP 200: 1371, HTTP 308: 16, HTTP 404: 1, HTTP 502: 8
Exploit attempts35.239.90.70 → /xmlrpc.php?rsd