AI Rebuilt My Broken Website Plugin In One Hour
My alarm blares at 5:30 am daily. It's a necessity for me on the West Coast to sync up with my East Coast editorial team. I usually start my day with a quick check of emails and Slack to ensure no emergencies have cropped up overnight, then I can enjoy my first cup of coffee.
But one morning in early June, my website was, figuratively speaking, on fire. I received a notice from my hosting provider that a critical security plugin had to be deactivated due to vulnerabilities.
Normally, this is a simple fix: go to the plugin page and click 'update.' This time, however, there was no update available. A visit to the plugin's page on the WordPress repository confirmed the bad news: the plugin was closed and no longer available for download. It had been flagged for major issues, including cross-site scripting vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to inject malicious code into my site. I had no choice but to disable it immediately.
The consequences were instantaneous.
The Spam Floodgates Open
The plugin's sole purpose was to stop registration spam—the automated creation of fake user accounts. Hackers use this tactic to gain a foothold for future attacks, bog down servers, and flood an administrator's inbox. The moment I turned off the plugin, a relentless stream of new user registration emails began to pour in.
I searched for a replacement, but most anti-spam tools were broad security suites, and I already had other tools for those jobs. I just needed to block registration spam. Unable to find a simple, dedicated tool, I decided to have an AI build one for me.
The Power of Open Source
This is where the magic of open source truly shines. WordPress and its plugins are primarily written in PHP and JavaScript, which are interpreted languages. This means the source code is readily available. A key condition for being in the WordPress repository is that plugins must be open source with a license that allows forking—meaning anyone can legally take the code and modify it.
While the original developer had stopped supporting the plugin, I still had a copy of the source code right on my server. I had the right to examine it and build upon it. So, that's exactly what I did.
AI-Powered Forensic Analysis
My first step was to understand what was wrong. I needed to know what vulnerabilities got the plugin banned. Using the ChatGPT Plus o3 model, which can analyze GitHub repositories, I uploaded the flawed plugin's code to a private repo and gave the AI access.
I prompted ChatGPT's Deep Research feature:
I am the manager of a website that has been receiving spam user registrations. I've relied on a plugin called Stop Spammer Registrations, which has now been disabled for security concerns. I need to build my own plugin that replicates its functionality. Your job is to analyze all the code, identify the spam protection mechanisms, and detail how it works. While you're at it, please identify the security concerns that caused the plugin to be blocked.
Twenty minutes later, I had a 16-page analysis. The report confirmed a laundry list of serious vulnerabilities:
- Cross-site request forgery (CSRF)
- Reflected cross-site scripting (XSS)
- Improper input and output sanitization
- Suspicious code patterns
The AI concluded, "These vulnerabilities could allow attackers to undermine a site's security -- ironically using an anti-spam plugin as the entry point." It was clear that repairing the old plugin was not an option.
Designing a New Plugin with AI
Thankfully, the AI's report also provided a detailed, step-by-step guide for creating a new, secure plugin with similar protections. The original plugin had more features than I needed, so I decided to aim for a more minimal, focused solution.
I started a fresh session with ChatGPT to avoid any confusion from the previous analysis. I uploaded the 16-page report as a PDF to give the new session context and then provided a new prompt:
Given the details in the attached PDF, provide a specification for the simplest set of features for preventing registration spam only. The requirement is that the PDF should be able to be fed to ChatGPT and the result of that document would be a working plugin written by ChatGPT.
The AI produced a concise specification for a new plugin based on three core spam-prevention methods:
- A hidden "honeypot" form field to trick bots.
- An API lookup to a spam information aggregator.
- An MX record check to verify the email domain's existence.
It also listed essential WordPress security best practices to follow. I had the AI save this new specification as a PDF, ready for the final step.
From Specification to Working Code in Seconds
With the analysis and a new, secure specification complete, it was time to generate the code. I started one more fresh ChatGPT session, uploaded the new specification PDF, and gave it one simple instruction:
Please read the attached PDF, follow its specifications, and give me a zip file to download and install.
It took the AI just 21 seconds.
The Verdict: A Resounding Success
Did it work? Yes, perfectly. I installed the newly created plugin, and the flood of registration spam stopped immediately, without affecting legitimate user sign-ups. It has been running flawlessly for over a month.
This project highlights the power of combining two transformative technologies: open source and generative AI. By carefully managing the context in separate AI sessions, I was able to guide ChatGPT from forensic analysis to secure code generation, solving a critical real-world problem in about an hour.
This AI thing? It might just have its uses.
What about you? Have you used an AI to analyze or write code to solve a real problem? Let us know in the comments below!
