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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html lang="en">
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<head>
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<!--
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FIELD NOTE TEMPLATE
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Duplicate this file for new Field Notes articles.
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-->
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<meta charset="UTF-8">
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<title>A WordPress Infrastructure Review | Cliffable</title>
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content="A security alert prompted a wider review of a WordPress site running on AWS Lightsail, leading to server, security, DNS and domain management improvements.">
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<a href="/">
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<img src="/assets/logos/cliffable-logo-white-v2.svg" alt="Cliffable logo" height="60">
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</a>
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</div>
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<nav class="main-nav">
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<a href="/projects/">Projects</a>
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<a href="/field-notes/">Field Notes</a>
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<a href="/about.html">About</a>
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<a href="/contact.html">Contact</a>
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</div>
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<main>
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<!-- HERO -->
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<section class="hero field-note-article-hero">
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<div class="container field-note-container">
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<p class="field-note-article-meta">
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WordPress • AWS Lightsail • Infrastructure
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</p>
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<p class="field-note-date">
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Published 12 June 2026
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</p>
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<h1>A WordPress Infrastructure Review</h1>
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<p class="field-note-intro">
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A security alert prompted a wider review of my WordPress infrastructure, leading to changes across
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server sizing, WordPress hardening, DNS management and domain operations.
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</p>
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</div>
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</section>
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<!-- FEATURED IMAGE -->
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<section class="field-note-featured-image">
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<div class="container field-note-container">
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<a href="../assets/images/field-notes/a-wordpress-infrastructure-review/wordpress-infrastructure-review-before-and-after.png"
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class="lightbox-trigger">
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<img src="../assets/images/field-notes/a-wordpress-infrastructure-review/wordpress-infrastructure-review-before-and-after.png"
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alt="Before and after comparison of a WordPress infrastructure review">
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</a>
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<p class="field-note-image-caption">
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Infrastructure changes made following a review prompted by monitoring alerts, security concerns and
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domain management issues.
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</p>
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</div>
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</section>
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<!-- ARTICLE CONTENT -->
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<section class="field-note-content-section">
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<div class="container field-note-container">
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<h2>The trigger for the review</h2>
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<p>
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After upgrading my WordPress site from a 1 GB Lightsail instance to a 2 GB instance, the platform
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appeared to be in a much better state. The earlier memory pressure had been reduced, monitoring was
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in place, and the site was running normally.
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</p>
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<p>
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A few days later, I received an unexpected WordPress password reset email. Around the same period,
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CloudWatch alarms and health checks also raised concerns about the behaviour of the site.
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</p>
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<p>
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The site did not appear to be compromised, but the combination of monitoring alerts and an
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unexpected
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security-related email was enough to prompt a wider review.
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</p>
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<h2>Reviewing the WordPress server</h2>
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<p>
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I started with the WordPress installation itself. The aim was to reduce unnecessary exposure, remove
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anything I did not need, and make the administrative surface of the site smaller.
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Created a new administrator account.</li>
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<li>Removed the old administrator account.</li>
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<li>Reviewed and removed unnecessary plugins.</li>
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<li>Disabled public user enumeration via the WordPress REST API.</li>
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<li>Reviewed logs and monitoring data after the alerts.</li>
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<li>Adjusted Apache worker settings to reduce memory pressure.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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None of these changes was especially complex on its own. The important lesson was that operating a
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live WordPress site is not just about keeping the instance running. The application, plugins, users,
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logs and server configuration all form part of the operational picture.
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</p>
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<h2>Looking beyond the server</h2>
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<p>
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Once the WordPress installation had been reviewed, I looked at the wider infrastructure around the
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site. The website
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itself was hosted in AWS Lightsail, but the domains were still registered with Xilo, DNS was managed
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through Xilo,
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and the .com redirect relied on Cloudflare.
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</p>
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<p>
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My goal was to simplify the overall architecture by moving more of the supporting infrastructure
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into AWS. The first
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step was migrating DNS for cliffsmithguitarlessons.co.uk into Route 53, giving me direct control of
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DNS alongside the
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rest of the AWS environment.
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</p>
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<p>
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I then began planning a wider migration that would eventually move the .com redirect into AWS using
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CloudFront and an
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S3 redirect bucket, while also transferring the domain registrations themselves away from Xilo.
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</p>
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<h2>Registrar and transfer issues</h2>
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<p>
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The domain work quickly became more complicated than expected. During the migration process, several
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domain
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management operations began failing with unclear error messages, including nameserver changes,
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registrar lock
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changes and contact validation updates.
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</p>
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<!-- OPTIONAL INLINE IMAGE -->
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<div class="field-note-inline-image">
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<a href="../assets/images/field-notes/a-wordpress-infrastructure-review/xilo-domain-management-errors.png"
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class="lightbox-trigger">
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<img src="../assets/images/field-notes/a-wordpress-infrastructure-review/xilo-domain-management-errors.png"
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alt="Examples of Xilo portal and domain management errors">
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</a>
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<p class="field-note-image-caption">
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Several domain management operations failed during the migration process. The root cause was
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eventually traced to a combination of registrar-side issues, an outdated registrant email
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address
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and registry restrictions triggered during the transfer process.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p>
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What initially looked like a DNS or registrar problem turned out to be an administrative one. The
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registrant email
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address on the domains was outdated, meaning transfer approval messages could not be received.
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</p>
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<p>
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Updating the registrant details resolved that issue, but it triggered a registry-imposed transfer
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lock that delayed
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the remaining migration work. As a result, the .co.uk domain now uses Route 53 for DNS, but the
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domain registrations
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remain with Xilo and the .com redirect continues to use Cloudflare for the time being.
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</p>
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<p>
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This was a useful reminder that infrastructure risk is not always caused by servers, code or cloud
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configuration.
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Sometimes the weak point is administrative information that has quietly become out of date.
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</p>
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<h2>Current state</h2>
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<p>
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The main WordPress site is now running on a larger Lightsail instance, with monitoring in place and
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a cleaner WordPress configuration. The .co.uk domain uses Route 53 for DNS, while the .com domain
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remains with Cloudflare for now because the registrar-side transfer process is delayed.
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</p>
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<p>
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The next planned improvement is to place the .co.uk WordPress site behind CloudFront and AWS WAF.
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That should reduce direct exposure of the Lightsail instance and provide a better place to apply
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managed security rules and rate limiting.
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</p>
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<h2>Conclusion</h2>
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<p>
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What started as a response to a single security alert became a broader infrastructure review. The
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process improved the WordPress installation, clarified the domain architecture, exposed weaknesses
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in
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the registrar setup, and created a clear next step for improving resilience with CloudFront and AWS
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WAF.
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</p>
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<!-- RELATED PROJECT -->
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<h2>Related project</h2>
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<p class="field-note-callout">
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This work was implemented as part of the
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<a href="../projects/csgl-lightsail-wordpress.html">
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WordPress on AWS Lightsail
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</a>
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project.
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</p>
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