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Security report for gohugo.io

Hugo Authors · Technology · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

69/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Hugo is a well-established open-source static site generator project founded in 2014, known for its speed and flexibility. It targets developers and technical users who want to build websites efficiently using a static site approach. The project enjoys a strong market position with a large active community, significant GitHub popularity, and reputable sponsors such as Linode and JetBrains. The website reflects a mature digital presence with modern design, excellent content quality, and good technical infrastructure including the use of Go language, TailwindCSS, and Algolia search integration. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and script integrity checks, though explicit security headers and formal security policies are absent. Privacy compliance is limited due to missing privacy and cookie policies, which is a notable gap for GDPR and other regulations. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and safe for general audiences.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of gohugo.io. View the latest report

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

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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 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';…

  2. 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

    • 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

    • High

      Third-party services without privacy policy

      Detected services: Google Analytics, Twitter

      What to do: Document all third-party data sharing in your privacy policy

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

Keep watching gohugo.io

This scan found 20 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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  • 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
65
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
69

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

Hugo operates as an open-source project with a community-driven business model supported by sponsorships. Its competitive advantage lies in its speed, flexibility, and active ecosystem. The target customers are developers and organizations needing static site generation for documentation, corporate sites, and blogs. Revenue streams likely come from sponsorships and partnerships. The project demonstrates growth through frequent releases and a large GitHub following. Partnerships with Linode and JetBrains enhance its ecosystem. The project maintains a consistent brand and professional content, reinforcing its credibility in the technology sector.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security maturity level with HTTPS and script integrity attributes. However, it lacks explicit security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options, which could improve protection against common web attacks. No vulnerability disclosure or incident response information is published, limiting transparency. No sensitive data exposure or vulnerable libraries were detected. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies. Incident response readiness and security culture indicators are not visible on the site. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be enhanced with formal policies and headers.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie consent mechanism to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Add explicit security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options) to enhance web security.
  3. Publish a security policy and vulnerability disclosure program to increase transparency and trust.
  4. Provide clear contact information including security and incident response contacts.
  5. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Hugo Authors
Description
Hugo is one of the most popular open-source static site generators. With its amazing speed and flexibility, Hugo makes building websites fun again.
Key services
Static site generation, Multilingual support, Advanced templating, Fast asset pipelines, Embedded web server for development
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Go (programming language), JavaScript, Sass, TailwindCSS, Algolia (search), Google Tag Manager
Frameworks
Hugo static site generator
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by URL https://)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • No visible vulnerable libraries
  • Use of integrity attributes on scripts and stylesheets

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics (via Google Tag Manager)
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally designed, well-maintained open-source project site.
  2. No privacy or cookie policies found, which is a compliance gap.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on the homepage.
  4. Strong community presence via forums and GitHub.
  5. Sponsors and partners are reputable technology companies.
  6. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure policy found.
  7. Use of modern web technologies and best practices.
  8. No signs of adult or questionable content.
  9. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using the Hugo static site generator written in Go, leveraging modern frontend technologies such as TailwindCSS and Algolia for search. It is hosted behind Cloudflare DNS and CDN services, ensuring fast performance and global availability. The site is mobile optimized and accessible with good SEO practices including meta tags and Open Graph data. Script and stylesheet resources use integrity attributes for security. The technical infrastructure is modern and well-maintained, supporting a fast and reliable user experience. Opportunities exist to improve security headers and formalize privacy and security policies.
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. 69/100Medium29 findingsView report
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