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Security report for ghost.deal

Ghost Foundation · Technology · United Kingdom

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

79/100

Risk levelLow

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

Ghost Foundation operates Ghost.org, a leading open source platform for professional publishing, enabling creators, publishers, and businesses to build websites, send newsletters, and monetize content via memberships and subscriptions. The platform is well-positioned in the market as an independent, user-funded alternative to proprietary publishing tools, with a strong emphasis on modern, clean design and user control. Technically, the website leverages modern static site generation with Hugo, integrates advanced search via Algolia, and uses Cloudflare for DNS and CDN services, ensuring fast and reliable performance. The site is mobile-optimized, accessible, and SEO-friendly, reflecting a mature digital infrastructure. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protections, though DNSSEC is not enabled and no explicit security or incident response policies are published. Privacy compliance is strong with clear privacy and cookie policies and GDPR adherence. Overall, the website demonstrates high professionalism, trustworthiness, and technical maturity, supporting a medium-sized technology business with a global audience.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of ghost.deal. View the latest report

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

3 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.

    • 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

  2. 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

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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
75
Security headers
80
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
79

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

Ghost Foundation targets creators, publishers, and businesses seeking a modern publishing platform with integrated email newsletters and subscription monetization. Their SaaS business model includes a free trial and paid plans, supported by a marketplace for themes and integrations. The company emphasizes independence, transparency, and user ownership, which differentiates it in the competitive content management and newsletter market. Partnerships with payment processors like Stripe and marketing tools like FirstPromoter enhance their ecosystem. The platform's open source nature and community engagement via GitHub further strengthen its market position. Growth indicators include thousands of new publications weekly and significant annual revenue generated by users. Strategic observations highlight the importance of expanding security transparency and incident response readiness to maintain trust.

Security posture

The website exhibits a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, domain transfer lock, and no visible sensitive data exposure. However, the absence of DNSSEC and security headers like Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options represents areas for improvement. No dedicated security policy or incident response contact is published, which could hinder vulnerability reporting and response. Tracking scripts are present but appear to respect privacy compliance. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by adopting additional DNS and HTTP security measures and publishing formal security documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to protect against DNS spoofing and improve overall DNS security.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page including contact channels for vulnerability reporting.
  3. Implement and enforce security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  4. Consider adding a security.txt file at the root domain to facilitate responsible vulnerability disclosure.
  5. Maintain transparency on data retention policies and enhance user privacy controls related to tracking and analytics.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Ghost Foundation
Description
Ghost is a powerful app for professional publishers to create, share, and grow a business around their content. It offers modern tools to build websites, publish content, send newsletters, and offer paid subscriptions to members.
Key services
Website building, Content publishing, Email newsletters, Paid subscriptions, Membership management, Marketplace for themes and integrations
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Hugo (static site generator), Alpine.js, Cloudflare DNS, Algolia (search), FirstPromoter, Ahrefs Analytics, Netlify RUM
Frameworks
Hugo
Platforms
Cloudflare
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
excellent

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No vulnerable libraries detected in scripts

Analytics and tracking

Services
Ahrefs Analytics, Dubcdn, Netlify RUM, Algolia
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
FirstPromoter, Dubcdn, Ahrefs Analytics
Marketing tools
FirstPromoter, Dubcdn
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and multimedia.
  2. Strong focus on professional publishing and creator tools.
  3. Clear navigation with extensive resources and integrations.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on main site.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and good SEO practices.
  6. No signs of adult or questionable content.
  7. No explicit security or incident response policies published.
  8. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and business consistency.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using Hugo, a modern static site generator, ensuring fast load times and scalability. It uses Alpine.js for interactivity and integrates third-party services like Algolia for search, Ahrefs for analytics, and FirstPromoter for affiliate marketing. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, providing CDN and security benefits. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and preloaded fonts for performance. No broken elements or errors were detected in the HTML content. The technical stack is modern and well-maintained, supporting a high-quality user experience and robust performance. Opportunities exist to enhance security headers and DNS security to further reduce risk.
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. 81/100Low24 findingsView report
  2. 81/100Low25 findingsView report
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