huntrule

WordPress wp2shell PoC User-Agent HTTP Requests

Alerts on web requests with User-Agent exactly equal to "wp2shell", matching wp2shell PoC behavior.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v5
Category
webserver
Author
Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2026-07-19
Updated
2026-07-31
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule identifies webserver HTTP requests where the User-Agent header is hardcoded to "wp2shell", matching activity from the wp2shell proof-of-concept tool. Attackers use this PoC during exploitation attempts against vulnerable WordPress targets, so the distinctive User-Agent can provide a strong indicator of malicious probing or exploitation workflow. It relies on webserver access logging that captures the HTTP request User-Agent field.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1190 — drag to rearrange
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Malicious ActiveMQ CVE-2023-46604 Payload Download via curl or wget
Malicious WordPress Core SQL Injection Scanner via User-Agent
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Malicious Command Shell or PowerShell Spawned by Tomcat via Process Creation (via process_creation)
Suspicious Shell Script Execution From Temp Directory on SonicWall SMA1000 Appliance (via process_creation)
WordPress wp2shell PoC User-Agent HTTP Requests
Pivot detection · T1190 · 9 related

Changelog

v5
  1. v5
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  2. v4
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  3. v3
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  4. v2
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  5. v1
    No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.