WordPress pingback mitigation

[lists at lazygranch.com]

Reading a blog from the person that set up the website for Emmanuel Macron, I came across this nginx tip. I would return 444 and add it to my user agent map. But in the simplest form:

---------
# Block WordPress Pingback DDoS attacks
        if ($http_user_agent ~* "WordPress") {
            return 403;
        }
-------
The conf file:

https://github.com/EnMarche/en-marche.fr/blob/master/docker/prod/nginx.conf#L59
‎
The blog:
https://symfony.com/blog/an-open-source-web-platform-for-the-new-president-of-france