Significant Threat
IP 78.142.18.172 is a high-risk address originating from Bulgaria (AS213438, ColocaTel Inc.) that has generated 1,729 abuse reports with a confidence score of 100%, indicating with near certainty that this host is engaged in systematic credential-based attacks against web authentication systems, particularly WordPress installations. The activity frequency score of 8/10 reflects persistent, ongoing engagement rather than isolated probe attempts.
The evidence base for this assessment is robust: 12 automated honeypot sensors and 8 community sources collectively reported this IP across a compressed three-month window between May 2026 and July 2026, generating an average of approximately 577 reports per month. The dominant threat categories — Hacking (12 reports), WP Login Brute Force (12 reports), and Brute-Force (9 reports) — collectively account for the overwhelming majority of detections, supplemented by lower volumes of DDoS activity (5 reports) and WordPress user enumeration probes (1 report). Automated honeypot telemetry captured credential stuffing patterns using default administrative username combinations paired with common passwords, with multiple WordPress targets receiving probing bursts of five attempts within five-minute intervals.
The real-world risk posed by this address centers on unauthorized access acquisition. Brute-force and credential stuffing techniques systematically eliminate authentication barriers by automating password guesses against login endpoints, exploiting the well-documented tendency of administrators to retain default or weak credentials. The fail2ban mitigation logs reviewed in attack-pattern data show wordpress-escalation jails triggering after 50 violations, and recidive-jail escalations for multi-offense behaviour, confirming sustained, high-volume assault campaigns. Successful compromise of WordPress admin panels grants attackers site control, malware deployment capability, data exfiltration access, and potential pivot points into connected infrastructure.
Site operators exposing web authentication interfaces should implement immediate rate-limiting rules on login endpoints, enforce multi-factor authentication for administrative accounts, and configure account lockout policies after a small number of failed attempts. Deploying or strengthening fail2ban rules or equivalent intrusion-prevention tooling to block repeated WordPress login probe patterns provides an effective automated defence layer against the attack signature this IP demonstrates. Blocking or challenge-gating traffic from Bulgarian netblocks during periods of elevated abuse report volume offers additional risk reduction for high-exposure deployments.
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