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Security report for barcelona.cat

Ajuntament de Barcelona · Government · Spain

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Email security and Security headers.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

The website www.barcelona.cat is the official digital presence of the Ajuntament de Barcelona, serving as a comprehensive portal for residents and visitors to access city news, public services, cultural events, and transport information. It holds a strong market position as the authoritative source for municipal information in Barcelona. The site leverages modern technologies including Drupal 10 CMS, Bootstrap, and integrates multiple analytics platforms such as Matomo and Google Analytics, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. Security posture is robust with HTTPS enforcement, cookie consent mechanisms compliant with GDPR, and use of anti-CSRF tokens. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected. The absence of WHOIS data is noted but likely due to registry privacy policies rather than suspicious activity. Overall, the site demonstrates high professionalism, trustworthiness, and compliance with privacy regulations.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of barcelona.cat. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
95/ 100 · Low
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

    • High

      No SPF record found

      SPF helps prevent email spoofing

      What to do: Add SPF record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.yourmailprovider.com ~all"

  2. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching barcelona.cat

This scan found 21 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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Recommended

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
90
Security headers
40
Email security
40
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
95
Average
71

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention barcelona.cat, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
823
Employees
0
Customers
768
Third parties
55
Weak passwords
34%

30 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for barcelona.cat.

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Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The Ajuntament de Barcelona operates in the government sector, providing essential public services and information to a large urban population. The website supports multiple languages and integrates with various official city services, indicating a broad partnership ecosystem. The business model is non-commercial, focused on public service delivery and citizen engagement. The site’s extensive content and consistent branding reinforce its authoritative role. Growth indicators include active content updates and integration of modern web technologies. Strategic partnerships with related city domains enhance service delivery and user experience.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, cookie consent compliant with GDPR, and use of security cookies such as XSRF-TOKEN. While explicit security headers were not fully enumerated, the presence of standard protections is implied. No vulnerabilities or security incidents were observed in the content. However, the site lacks publicly visible security policies or incident response contacts, which could be improved. The use of multiple third-party analytics and marketing services introduces a moderate tracking footprint, managed through transparent cookie consent mechanisms.

Recommendations

  1. Conduct a formal security headers audit and implement any missing headers such as X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to enhance transparency and trust.
  3. Regularly review third-party scripts and cookies to minimize privacy risks and ensure compliance.
  4. Implement a public vulnerability disclosure program to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Enhance accessibility features and mobile optimization continuously to maintain excellent user experience.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ajuntament de Barcelona
Description
Informació pràctica per viure a la ciutat de Barcelona: notícies, activitats, serveis, feina, transport, empresa, oci, plànol, innovació i molt més.
Key services
City news, Event agenda, Public services information, Transport and mobility info, Business and employment resources, Tourism and cultural guides
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Drupal 10, Bootstrap 4.2.1, Cookiebot, Matomo Analytics, Plausible Analytics, Cloudflare (implied by cookies and scripts)
Frameworks
Drupal
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent banner with granular controls
  • Use of anti-CSRF tokens (XSRF-TOKEN cookie)
  • Session management cookies with HttpOnly and Secure flags (implied)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Matomo, Plausible
Tracking level
extensive
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google, Facebook, TikTok, Meta Platforms, Inc.
Tracking pixels
Matomo, Plausible, Adobe, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube
Marketing tools
Cookiebot
Transparency
good

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Official municipal government website for Barcelona city
  2. Comprehensive cookie consent and privacy compliance mechanisms
  3. Use of modern CMS (Drupal 10) and analytics tools
  4. No evidence of WAF or blocking mechanisms
  5. No exposed sensitive data or security vulnerabilities detected
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, but domain legitimacy supported by content and branding
  7. Extensive use of third-party services for analytics and marketing
  8. Good mobile and accessibility support
  9. Clear navigation and professional design
Technical notes

Notes

The site is built on Drupal 10 CMS with Bootstrap 4.2.1 for responsive design, indicating a modern and maintainable technology stack. It integrates multiple analytics platforms including Matomo, Plausible, and Google Analytics, providing comprehensive user behavior insights. Cookiebot is used for cookie consent management, ensuring GDPR compliance. The site loads external resources from trusted domains and uses CDN services. Performance is moderate with room for optimization. Accessibility and SEO best practices are well implemented, contributing to a high-quality user experience. No deprecated or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 72/100Medium30 findingsView report
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