Skip to main content

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

81/100

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 through paid subscriptions. The platform is well-positioned in the market as a modern, independent alternative to traditional CMS and newsletter tools, with a strong emphasis on user control and brand customization. The business model is SaaS-based with a free trial and paid plans, targeting creators and enterprises seeking scalable publishing solutions. Technically, the website leverages modern technologies including Hugo static site generation, Cloudflare for DNS and CDN, and integrates multiple third-party analytics and marketing tools. The site demonstrates excellent design quality, mobile optimization, and SEO practices, providing a professional user experience. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced, domain transfer protections, and no visible vulnerabilities, though DNSSEC is not enabled and explicit security policies are not publicly detailed. Privacy compliance is robust with clear privacy and cookie policies, including GDPR adherence. Overall, the website and business exhibit high credibility and trustworthiness with transparent domain registration and consistent branding.

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

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

Keep watching ghost.deal

This scan found 16 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

Billed monthly to your card. Cancel anytime. See sample alerts.

Full report

€39.90one-time

  • The complete analysis as a PDF you can cite
  • Email delivery with an unlock code
  • Lifetime access to this report

Prices incl. 21% VAT. Secure checkout by Mollie; sold by SEQ SIA, Latvia.

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
90
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
81

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's market positioning as an open source, independent publishing platform offers competitive advantages in transparency, customization, and community trust. Revenue streams include subscription fees for hosted services and marketplace sales for themes and integrations. The target customer segments include individual creators, independent publishers, and modern businesses focused on content marketing. Growth indicators include a large user base, notable clients, and active developer community. The partnership ecosystem includes integrations with major platforms like Stripe, MailChimp, and GitHub, enhancing service offerings. Strategic observations highlight the company's commitment to independence (no investors), open source development, and sustainable revenue without payment fees, positioning it well for long-term growth and resilience.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, domain status protections, and use of Cloudflare infrastructure. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security policies, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms represents a compliance gap. DNSSEC is not enabled, which could be improved to enhance domain security. The use of multiple third-party analytics and marketing scripts introduces moderate user tracking but appears balanced with privacy compliance. Overall, the security culture is positive but could benefit from more transparent security governance documentation and incident readiness disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to strengthen DNS security.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page with contact details.
  3. Implement and publicize a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file.
  4. Add explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Content-Type-Options if not already set.
  5. Maintain transparency on data retention policies related to analytics and user tracking.
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 comes with modern tools to build a website, publish content, send newsletters & offer paid subscriptions to members.
Key services
Website building, Content publishing, Email newsletters, Paid subscriptions, Themes marketplace, Integrations
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Hugo, Cloudflare, JavaScript, CSS, HTML5
Frameworks
Hugo
Platforms
Ghost CMS
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
  • Use of Cloudflare DNS and protection

Analytics and tracking

Services
FirstPromoter, Ahrefs Analytics, Dub Analytics, Plausible
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
FirstPromoter, Ahrefs Analytics, Dub Analytics
Marketing tools
FirstPromoter
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. Comprehensive navigation and resource links
  4. Use of modern web technologies and performance optimizations
  5. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on main site
  6. Privacy and terms policies are clearly linked and comprehensive
  7. No explicit security or incident response pages found
  8. Multiple integrations and partner references included
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using the Hugo static site generator, ensuring fast load times and high performance. Hosting and DNS are managed via Cloudflare, providing CDN and security benefits. The tech stack includes modern web standards (HTML5, CSS, JavaScript) and integrates multiple analytics and marketing tools such as FirstPromoter, Ahrefs, and Dub Analytics. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and preloaded fonts for performance. Technical debt appears minimal with clean markup and structured data (JSON-LD) for SEO. Opportunities exist to enhance security headers and DNSSEC implementation. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports a scalable, performant, and user-friendly platform aligned with business goals.
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. 81/100 +2Low24 findingsView report
  2. 79/100Low26 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with ghost.deal. Every review is verified by email and published after moderation.

Overall rating
Select a rating
4000 characters remaining

We’ll email you to confirm your review and keep your details private.

Community rating

No published reviews yet. Be the first to review ghost.deal.

Feedback on this report

Rate this report, add an optional comment, and tell us if you want a security specialist to follow up.

Overall report quality
Select a rating
2000 characters remaining

We only use your feedback to improve Guard reports. Contact details are never shared.