Home Blog Post
Categories: Tips and Tricks

In this post I'll discuss my first hand experience using Claude-code to:

  1. Provision a pre-existing WordPress website from WPEngine to my local machine in a Docker instance.
  2. Remediate that site because it was compromised by an attacker.
  3. Redeploy to WPEngine.

I have personally done dozens of full-scale remediations of WordPress websites but never with AI or something as integrated as Claude-code. So my mission on this client project was to evaluate how Claude-code and ChatGPT would streamline the process, enhance it with more precision and fewer mistakes, and automate retrieval of sites to a secure environment to run audits, evalute and execute solutions, and then re-deploy with the fixes.

 

What was the problem?

The website was being redirected to another site. The website itself didn't appear to be a scam, rather it appeared that the script was trying to drive false traffic or link juice to the domain.

 

What was the cause?

I am still evaluating the whole thing but it is definitely atp.php file that is public and anyone can visit. Upon doing so it executes code. How it got there I have not determined but it's a common file after attacks and likely an SQL injection throguh the contact form.

 

What did I use AI to do?

  • I wrote a prompt to deploy the zipped site and it's database into a Docker container on my machine.
  • Then I give it explicit instruction to use ClamAV, MalDav and WPScan to scan it and report to me the problem.

 

What could I have done differently?

  • I could have had Claude connect to WPEngine via SFTP and MySQL or possibly Git, to clone the application down instead of manually downloading it.

 

What challenges did I face?

  • While Claude was able to easily create the Docker container and deploy WordPress to it and get it available at localhost:8080, it struggled to copy all the site files and import the database.
    • I suppose the solution would be more context and explicit instruction. But it seems obvious to me it would know and overcome this.
  • Because of this I had to manually have it create a user for me, to then login and see in Plugins everything was missing. Then I gave it instruction to reimport all files. Then a separate prompt to import the database.
  • But when it reimported the database it broke everything again. Meaning the front end was completely unreachable.
Tags: AI-assisted WordPress site recovery, Using Claude for WordPress remediation, Claude-code WordPress deployment, Secure WordPress in Docker with AI, Restore hacked WordPress site with Claude, WPEngine to local Docker deployment, Malware removal from WordPress using AI, WPScan and ClamAV automation with Claude, Claude-code and ChatGPT for site security, Deploy WordPress locally with AI tools, Fix compromised WordPress sites with Claude, WordPress vulnerability assessment AI tools

Recent Blog Posts

Blog Categories