Lion Cipher Lab

Enumerate and attack a WordPress site in your own lab with WPScan

• Penetration Testing / Red Team
• Intermediate
• ~60 min
• Free · no account required

Why it matters

WordPress runs a large fraction of all the websites on the internet, which is exactly why it is one of the most attacked pieces of software on earth: break the technique once and it works against millions of sites. Here is the part most beginners get backwards — the WordPress core itself is well-maintained and rarely the way in. The attack surface is the SPRAWL bolted on top of it: the plugins and themes, thousands of them written by thousands of different authors at wildly different quality levels, that a site owner installs and then forgets to update. One abandoned contact-form plugin with…

What you'll learn

• standing up a throwaway WordPress site with Docker Compose (official wordpress + mariadb images)
• fingerprinting a WordPress version with WPScan
• enumerating WordPress users with --enumerate u
• flagging vulnerable plugins and themes with --enumerate vp,vt and aggressive detection
• running a password-guessing attack against wp-login with --passwords and --usernames
• understanding the optional free WPScan (WPVulnDB) API token — and what still works without it
• hardening WordPress: strong admin password, 2FA, limited login attempts, updates, least-privilege plugins
• authorized-scope discipline — only ever your own site or one you are explicitly permitted to test

Steps in this lab

1. The one rule, before you scan anything
2. Why WordPress, why plugins, and when NOT to reach for WPScan
3. Stand up your own throwaway WordPress with Docker Compose
4. Finish the 5-minute install — and set a deliberately WEAK admin
5. Install WPScan and fingerprint the WordPress version
6. Enumerate the users with --enumerate u
7. Flag vulnerable plugins & themes — and the OPTIONAL API token
8. Attack the login: a password-guessing run with --passwords
9. Now defend it — close every hole you just walked through
10. What you just did — and the instinct to keep

Open the full interactive lab →