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Security report for bau-ha.us

Referat Digitales (voluntary group), Maschinenraum and others · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Email security, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

59/100

Risk levelMedium

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

bau-ha.us is a voluntary digital infrastructure project serving the Bauhaus University Weimar community. It provides a suite of open source tools including encrypted communication, collaborative platforms, social media, and project management services tailored for students, staff, and university initiatives. The website reflects a niche community service model maintained by university groups without commercial intent. Technically, the site is built on WordPress hosted on Hetzner servers, with a moderate performance profile and basic mobile optimization. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS enabled but lacks advanced security headers and DNSSEC. Privacy compliance is weak due to absence of privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the site is trustworthy and safe for general audiences but could improve in security and compliance aspects.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 100 · Medium
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

5 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

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Privacy Policy found

      GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy

      What to do: Add a comprehensive privacy policy page and link to it prominently

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  3. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching bau-ha.us

This scan found 23 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.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • 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
62
Security headers
80
Email security
60
DNS health
60
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
50
Average
59

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

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

The project targets the Bauhaus University community, offering essential digital collaboration and communication services. Its voluntary maintenance and open source commitment position it as a trusted community resource rather than a commercial enterprise. The absence of monetization or advertising aligns with its educational and non-profit nature. Partnerships with university units and decentralized network initiatives indicate a collaborative ecosystem. Growth potential is limited by its voluntary nature but stable due to long domain history and institutional affiliation.

Security posture

Security maturity is basic to moderate. HTTPS is enforced, but lack of DNSSEC and security headers like CSP or HSTS reduces defense-in-depth. No privacy or cookie policies expose compliance risks under GDPR. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are evident. The absence of forms reduces attack surface but also limits user interaction. Recommendations include implementing DNSSEC, security headers, and formal privacy documentation to enhance trust and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to improve domain security and trust.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to address GDPR compliance.
  3. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and HSTS.
  4. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance accessibility and SEO features to improve user experience and discoverability.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Referat Digitales (voluntary group), Maschinenraum and others
Description
Provides open source digital tools and services to support the Bauhaus University community, including communication, collaboration, documentation, and social media platforms.
Key services
Matrix for encrypted communication, Mattermost for organizational chats, Mastodon for social media, Mailing lists and webmail, WordPress blogs, GitLab for project tracking, Nextcloud for file sharing, Overleaf for LaTeX collaboration, Etherpad for note keeping, Promotion of free decentralized WiFi network
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress 6.8.1, jQuery 3.7.1, PHP (implied by WordPress), Hetzner hosting (name servers), Generic CSS and JS, No DNSSEC
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
50/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled (implied by canonical URL https://)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No forms detected collecting sensitive data

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
moderate

Key observations

  1. Website is a voluntary community project for Bauhaus University digital services.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies found, indicating compliance gaps.
  3. No forms or data collection mechanisms detected on main page.
  4. Uses WordPress CMS with standard theme and scripts.
  5. No advanced security headers or DNSSEC enabled.
  6. Social media links to GitHub, GitLab, and Mastodon present.
  7. No advertising or tracking technologies detected.
  8. Content is safe and appropriate for general audience.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses WordPress 6.8.1 with standard themes and jQuery 3.7.1, hosted on Hetzner infrastructure. The site is moderately performant with basic mobile responsiveness. No advanced caching or CDN detected. DNSSEC is not enabled, and no security headers are present in the HTML response. The site lacks analytics or tracking scripts, indicating minimal data collection. Technical debt appears low but modernization opportunities exist in security and privacy compliance.
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

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