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Security report for buddypress.org

BuddyPress · Technology · N/a

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

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

BuddyPress.org is a mature, open source community platform project integrated within the WordPress ecosystem, providing software for building online communities, teams, and groups. It targets developers, businesses, and organizations seeking extensible community features such as profiles, groups, activity streams, and private messaging. The website reflects a well-maintained project with active community engagement and regular updates. Technically, the site is built on WordPress CMS with standard plugins like bbPress and uses modern web technologies including jQuery and Google Tag Manager. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enabled and domain protections in place, though improvements such as DNSSEC and security headers are recommended. Privacy compliance is basic, with a privacy policy and terms of service present but lacking cookie consent mechanisms. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professional, with no signs of malicious content or blocking mechanisms.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 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. 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';…

  2. GDPR outside view

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

    • 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching buddypress.org

This scan found 18 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
60
Security headers
30
Email security
85
DNS health
90
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
70

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

BuddyPress operates as an important entity in the technology sector, specifically in open source community software. It benefits from its association with WordPress.org and bbPress, positioning it as a leading community platform. The business model revolves around open source software distribution and community support rather than direct monetization. Its target audience includes developers, community managers, and organizations. The project has a strong partnership ecosystem with WordPress and related projects. Growth is indicated by active forums and recent security releases. The lack of direct company contact emails or phone numbers suggests a community-driven rather than commercial enterprise approach.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and domain status flags preventing unauthorized transfers or deletions. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers reduces the overall security robustness. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. Incident response and security policy information are not publicly available, which could hinder rapid response to security incidents. Privacy compliance is partial, lacking cookie consent mechanisms. Overall, the security posture is adequate for an open source project website but could be improved with additional best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to harden the website against common attacks.
  4. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  5. Consider providing direct company contact emails or phone numbers for improved trust and support accessibility.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
BuddyPress
Description
Fun & flexible software for online communities, teams, and groups. Open source community platform used worldwide by creators, small businesses, enterprises, and governments.
Key services
Community platform software, User profiles, Groups, Activity streams, Notifications, Friendships, Private messaging
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, PHP, jQuery, bbPress, BuddyPress plugin, Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
WordPress CMS
Platforms
WordPress.org ecosystem
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-established open source community platform site
  2. Content is rich and relevant to target audience
  3. No signs of blocking or WAF interference
  4. No explicit privacy or security policy pages beyond standard privacy and terms
  5. No direct company contact emails or phone numbers found, only contact page
  6. Uses WordPress CMS with standard plugins and scripts
  7. Active community forums with recent posts
  8. No suspicious or malicious content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform with integration of BuddyPress and bbPress plugins, leveraging jQuery and Google Tag Manager for analytics and tracking. The site uses WordPress.org name servers and is registered with MarkMonitor, a reputable registrar. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. The site uses standard CSS and JavaScript assets with no deprecated or vulnerable libraries detected. Technical debt appears low, but enabling DNSSEC and adding security headers would modernize and strengthen the infrastructure. The site is well-structured with clear navigation and semantic HTML, supporting SEO and user experience.
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. 66/100Medium29 findingsView report
  2. 66/100 −2Medium29 findingsView report
  3. 68/100Medium24 findingsView report
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