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Security report for ch-open.ch

CH Open · Technology · Switzerland

High risk. 10 critical or high findings in Network security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

45/100

Risk levelHigh

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

CH Open is a Swiss non-profit association dedicated to promoting open source software and open standards within Switzerland. Established in 1982, it has a strong market presence with a diverse membership base including premium, collective, individual, student, and honorary members. The organization actively engages its community through events such as business apéros, cafés, lunches, workshops, and conferences like DINAcon and Open Education Day. It also offers services like an open source video conferencing server and maintains the OSS Directory platform for news, jobs, and resources related to open source. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with modern frameworks such as Bootstrap 4 and uses performance optimizations like lazy loading and caching via WP Rocket. It employs Matomo analytics for privacy-conscious user tracking and integrates social media channels for broader community engagement. The site is mobile optimized and SEO friendly, though accessibility features are basic. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS with good SSL configuration and avoids exposing sensitive data. However, it lacks visible security headers, a published security policy, incident response contacts, and a vulnerability disclosure policy. Privacy compliance is partial, with a privacy policy present but no cookie consent mechanism or explicit GDPR compliance statements. Overall, CH Open presents a trustworthy and professional online presence aligned with its mission. To enhance its security posture and compliance, it should implement cookie consent, publish detailed privacy and security policies, and provide clear incident response contacts.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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

10 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching ch-open.ch

This scan found 27 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
85
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
35
Average
45

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 · found on this site
  • 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

CH Open holds a strong position in the Swiss open source ecosystem as a non-profit association with a long history and extensive member network. Its business model focuses on community building, education, and advocacy rather than commercial sales. Revenue likely derives from membership fees, event sponsorships, and possibly service offerings like the BigBlueButton server. The organization targets IT professionals, educational institutions, government bodies, and open source enthusiasts. Its partnerships with related organizations and events strengthen its ecosystem influence. The website content and structure reflect a mature organization with clear strategic focus on open source promotion and digital sustainability.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and no obvious exposure of sensitive information. The use of Matomo analytics indicates a privacy-aware approach. However, the absence of security headers, incident response information, and vulnerability disclosure policies reveals gaps in security best practices and compliance readiness. There is no evidence of GDPR cookie consent mechanisms, which is a compliance risk. The organization should prioritize publishing comprehensive security and privacy policies, implementing cookie consent, and establishing clear channels for security incident reporting to improve its security posture and regulatory compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a cookie consent banner to comply with GDPR and inform users about tracking.
  2. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy with explicit GDPR compliance statements.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options.
  4. Provide a dedicated security or abuse contact email for incident reporting.
  5. Develop and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
CH Open
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
CH Open
Description
Verein zur Förderung von Open Source Software und offenen Standards in der Schweiz
Key services
Promotion of Open Source Software, Organization of business events (Apéro, Café, Lunch), Workshops and conferences (DINAcon, Open Education Day), Open Source video conferencing server (BigBlueButton), OSS Directory platform, Job listings for Open Source professionals
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Yoast SEO Premium, Google Fonts (Source Sans Pro), BigBlueButton (service offered), Matomo Analytics, AddToAny sharing, WP Rocket (lazy loading, performance optimization)
Frameworks
Bootstrap 4
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of Matomo for privacy-respecting analytics

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Yoast SEO Premium, AddToAny
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 Swiss non-profit promoting open source software and standards
  2. Content is comprehensive with multiple event listings and member information
  3. No privacy or cookie consent banner detected, which may affect GDPR compliance
  4. Use of modern web technologies and SEO best practices
  5. No visible security policy or incident response information
  6. Strong social media presence and community engagement
  7. No suspicious or malicious content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress CMS platform using Bootstrap 4 for responsive design. It leverages Yoast SEO Premium for search engine optimization and WP Rocket for performance enhancements including lazy loading of images and scripts. The site uses Google Fonts and FontAwesome for typography and icons. Analytics are handled by Matomo, a privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics. The site is mobile optimized and has good navigation clarity. Hosting provider details are not explicitly identified. Performance is moderate with good SEO and basic accessibility features. There is room for improvement in security headers and privacy compliance mechanisms.
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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