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Security report for candidats.fr

April · Technology · France

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Email security and 2 other checks.

Security score

53/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Candidats.fr is a French non-profit advocacy platform operated by the April association, focused on promoting free software and digital freedoms within the political landscape. The website provides resources, campaigns, and information encouraging political candidates to commit to free software principles through the Pacte du Logiciel Libre. The platform targets political candidates, free software advocates, and citizens interested in digital rights, positioning itself as a niche but trusted voice in the French technology and government sectors. Technically, the website is built on the Dotclear CMS and uses legacy JavaScript libraries such as jQuery 1.6.2 and jQuery UI 1.8.16. The site demonstrates moderate performance and basic mobile optimization, with good SEO practices and clear navigation. However, it lacks modern security headers and explicit privacy or cookie policies, which are areas for improvement. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS and does not expose sensitive data in its HTML content. The absence of security headers and formal privacy compliance documentation reduces its security posture score. WHOIS data is unavailable, limiting domain legitimacy verification, but the association with April provides moderate trustworthiness. Overall, Candidats.fr is a credible and focused advocacy site with good content quality and user experience but would benefit from enhanced security practices and privacy compliance to strengthen trust and protect user data.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
25/ 100 · Critical
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

8 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

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

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. 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.

    • High

      No DMARC record found

      DMARC provides email authentication and reporting

      What to do: Add DMARC record: "v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com"

  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 candidats.fr

This scan found 22 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
72
Security headers
25
Email security
80
DNS health
75
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
25
Average
53

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

Candidats.fr operates within the technology and government advocacy sectors, specifically targeting the promotion of free software in political processes. Its competitive advantage lies in its affiliation with April, a recognized non-profit organization in the free software community. The platform's business model is non-commercial, relying on volunteer engagement and public campaigns. Revenue streams are likely limited or non-existent, focusing instead on awareness and influence. The target customer segments include political candidates, free software developers, and informed citizens. Growth indicators include ongoing campaign updates and historical data showing candidate engagement. The partnership ecosystem prominently features April and related campaign subdomains. Strategic observations highlight the platform's niche focus and potential to expand influence through improved digital maturity and security compliance.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enabled and no visible exposure of sensitive data. However, the lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options indicates gaps in defense-in-depth strategies. There are no visible vulnerabilities or outdated libraries posing immediate risks, but the use of older JavaScript libraries could present future concerns. Compliance gaps include missing privacy and cookie policies and no incident response or security contact information. Data protection practices are not explicitly documented, and there is no evidence of a formal security culture or certifications. Incident response readiness appears minimal due to lack of published policies or contacts. Overall, the security posture is functional but requires enhancements to meet modern standards and regulatory requirements.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with explicit user consent mechanisms to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  3. Upgrade JavaScript libraries to supported, secure versions to reduce potential vulnerabilities.
  4. Publish contact information for security incidents and designate a data protection officer to improve incident response readiness.
  5. Enhance mobile responsiveness and accessibility features to improve user experience and inclusivity.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
April
Description
Candidats.fr is an initiative by the April association focused on promoting free software and digital freedoms in the political sphere, particularly by encouraging candidates to sign the Pacte du Logiciel Libre (Free Software Pact). The site provides information, campaigns, and resources related to free software advocacy in elections and public administration.
Key services
Campaign coordination for free software advocacy, Information dissemination on free software issues, Providing downloadable resources and declarations, Facilitating candidate engagement with free software pledges
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery 1.6.2, jQuery UI 1.8.16
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
60/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS (implied by URL)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

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
high

Key observations

  1. Website is an advocacy platform for free software and digital rights in French political context.
  2. Content is primarily in French with some English sections.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the main page.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  5. Uses older versions of jQuery and jQuery UI libraries.
  6. No security headers detected in the provided data.
  7. WHOIS data unavailable, limiting domain trust verification.
  8. No advertising or tracking scripts detected.
  9. Site uses Dotclear CMS and hosts campaign-related content and archives.
  10. Good content quality and navigation structure with clear calls to action.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Dotclear CMS platform and uses legacy JavaScript libraries including jQuery 1.6.2 and jQuery UI 1.8.16, which may pose security and compatibility risks. The HTML and CSS are valid and structured with meta tags supporting SEO. Performance is moderate with no explicit optimization indicators. Mobile optimization is basic, lacking advanced responsive design features. Accessibility is also basic, with no ARIA roles or landmarks detected. The site hosts multiple campaign-related resources and archives, indicating a stable content management approach. Technical risks include outdated libraries and missing security headers, which could impact business operations if exploited. Modernization opportunities include updating the tech stack, improving security configurations, and enhancing user experience on mobile devices.
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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