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Security report for eduresearch.social

DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education · Education · Germany

Partial score · DNS & email only

68/100

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

eduresearch.social is a specialized decentralized social network powered by Mastodon, focused on the educational research community. It is operated by the DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, a reputable German public research institute. The platform facilitates communication, community building, and knowledge transfer between educational researchers, practitioners, and institutions. The website content is bilingual (German and English), professionally presented, and includes comprehensive terms of use, liability disclaimers, and contact information. The business model is non-commercial, supporting academic exchange and research infrastructure.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
6of 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 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
    • 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 eduresearch.social

This scan found 19 issues across 5 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

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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
52
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
68

Not counted

  • Security headers: did not complete in this scan.
  • 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 eduresearch.social, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for eduresearch.social right now. New leaks arrive continuously, so monitoring on Breach alerts you if that changes.

Monitor on Breach (opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

The platform occupies a niche market segment within the education sector, targeting academics, researchers, and educational institutions. Its competitive advantage lies in its focus on educational research and its backing by a well-known research institute. The business model is community-driven without direct monetization, relying on institutional support. The presence of clear contact details, imprint, and transparent terms enhances credibility. The platform leverages the Mastodon open-source ecosystem, enabling decentralized social networking. Growth potential is linked to the educational research community's adoption of decentralized social media.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security posture with HTTPS usage implied but lacks visible security headers in the provided data. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerabilities were detected in the HTML content. However, there is no explicit security policy, incident response contact, or vulnerability disclosure mechanism published. The absence of a cookie consent mechanism is a minor compliance gap. Overall, the security maturity is adequate for an academic platform but could be improved by implementing standard security headers, publishing security policies, and adding cookie consent.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and verify HTTP security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner and detailed cookie policy to enhance GDPR compliance.
  3. Publish a formal security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  4. Consider establishing a vulnerability disclosure policy and hosting a security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Regularly audit and update the Mastodon instance and dependencies to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education
VAT number
DE114237569
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education
Description
eduresearch.social is an open social network for communication on educational research, community building for educational scientists, researchers, didactics, students, teachers, and specialized institutions. It is offered by the Specialised Information Service Education (Fachinformationsdienst Erziehungswissenschaft und Bildungsforschung) and supports exchange, research infrastructure, and transfer between research and practice.
Key services
Decentralized social networking, Community building for educational research, Research support and infrastructure communication, Transfer between educational research and practice
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Mastodon 4.2.12, JavaScript, CSS, HTML5
Frameworks
Mastodon
Platforms
Decentralized social network (Fediverse)
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of HTTPS implied by URL scheme

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is bilingual (German and English) targeting educational research community.
  3. No cookie consent banner or explicit cookie policy found.
  4. WHOIS data is privacy protected with no registrar dates or registrant info.
  5. Uses Mastodon open-source social network platform version 4.2.12.
  6. Clear imprint and contact information consistent with a German public research institute.
  7. No advertising or tracking scripts detected.
  8. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy found.
  9. No explicit security headers visible in provided data.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the Mastodon 4.2.12 platform, utilizing modern web technologies including JavaScript and CSS. The site is mobile-optimized with good navigation and bilingual content. Hosting details are not explicit, but the domain is registered via Identity Digital with privacy protection. Performance is moderate with no critical technical issues detected. SEO and accessibility are basic but functional. There is no CMS detected beyond the Mastodon platform. The technical stack is appropriate for a decentralized social network serving a specialized academic community.
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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