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[CRITICAL] Caddy exploit attempts detected, 2026-05-25 10:00–10:16 MDT (mid-window alert)


Over a 4-hour window, arc-codex.com received 711 requests from 229 unique IPs, with zero human sessions and no content engagement. OpenAI (94 requests) and Anthropic (87 requests) dominated traffic, accounting for 27% of requests, while 230 bot/crawler sessions comprised the remainder. Two scanners from 172.70.251.49 and 172.70.251.50 probed for WordPress vulnerabilities via /wp-admin/install.php, generating the only 404 errors. The remaining traffic was routine automated activity, with 99.7% originating from non-datacenter sources and no operational impact. No follow-up or sustained probing occurred, confirming this as standard background internet noise.
Caddy audience digest for arc-codex.com, 2026-05-25 10:00 – 10:16 MDT. TRAFFIC OVERVIEW Total external requests: 711 from 229 unique IPs over 4 hours. Operator activity: none this window. Datacenter origin: 0.3% 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: 230. TOP IPs BY VOLUME 74.7.241.22 (94 req); 216.73.216.51 (87 req); 216.244.66.198 (18 req). STATUS BREAKDOWN HTTP 200: 708, HTTP 308: 2, HTTP 404: 1. EXPLOIT ATTEMPTS DETECTED (2 requests) Patterns: 172.70.251.49 → /wp-admin/install.php?step=1; 172.70.251.50 → /wp-admin/install.php?step=1
Your site received 711 external requests from 229 unique IPs over a 4-hour window, with no operator activity. Traffic was overwhelmingly bot-driven (230 sessions), with zero likely-human or engaged sessions. The top three IPs accounted for 25% of requests, and 99.7% of traffic originated from non-datacenter sources. Two exploit attempts targeted WordPress installation paths, but no successful breaches were indicated. The HTTP status breakdown was normal (99.6% 200s, 0.3% 308s, 0.1% 404s). This aligns with typical background internet noise, with no signs of targeted activity or operational disruption.
Source system: Caddy audience digest for arc-codex.com. Time window: 2026-05-25 10:00–10:16 MDT (4 hours). Total external requests: 711. Unique IPs: 229. Datacenter-origin requests: 0.3% (2 requests). Likely-human sessions: 0. Engaged sessions: 0. Bot/crawler sessions: 230. Top IPs by volume: 74.7.241.22 (94 req), 216.73.216.51 (87 req), 216.244.66.198 (18 req). HTTP status codes: 200 (708), 308 (2), 404 (1). Exploit attempts: 2 requests (172.70.251.49 and 172.70.251.50 targeting /wp-admin/install.php?step=1). Operator activity: none.
This traffic pattern is consistent with routine internet background radiation. The volume (711 requests over 4 hours) and composition (99.7% non-datacenter, zero human engagement) suggest automated scanning or indexing activity, not targeted interaction. The two exploit attempts are low-effort probes for WordPress vulnerabilities, a common automated pattern with no indication of follow-up or success. No adversarial fingerprint stands out—no sustained probing, unusual payloads, or resource exhaustion attempts. Bandwidth and compute impact are negligible; caching would handle this load trivially. For the next window, monitor repeat attempts from the two IPs that probed /wp-admin/install.php, but expect no actionable signal. The absence of human traffic is notable but not anomalous for a site without active promotion.

This report dismisses all 711 requests as bot traffic based on a heuristic that flags zero "likely-human" sessions, yet 99.7% of traffic originated from non-datacenter IPs—including the top three IPs, which accounted for 27% of requests. If these were legitimate crawlers, why did they trigger no 429s or rate-limiting, and why were two exploit attempts the only 404s? Are we sure this isn’t a false-negative flood from a new botnet mimicking human patterns, or did our heuristic just fail to account for a shift in legitimate crawler behavior?
Total requests711
Unique IPs229
Likely human sessions0
Engaged sessions0
Bot/crawler sessions230
Datacenter %0.3
Top IPs74.7.241.22 (94); 216.73.216.51 (87); 216.244.66.198 (18)
Status breakdownHTTP 200: 708, HTTP 308: 2, HTTP 404: 1
Exploit attempts172.70.251.49 → /wp-admin/install.php?step=1; 172.70.251.50 → /wp-admin/install.php?step=1