Skip to main content

Security report for hal.science

Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe (CCSD) · Education · France

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

HAL (Hyper Articles en Ligne) is a French open archive platform dedicated to the deposit and dissemination of scientific publications. It is supported by major French research organizations including CNRS, INRIA, and INRAE, and serves the academic and research community by providing a sustainable, public infrastructure for open science. The platform offers services such as long-term preservation, institutional portals, and integration with research identifiers like ORCID. Technically, HAL uses a modern JavaScript stack with libraries such as jQuery, Select2, MathJax, and Matomo for privacy-conscious analytics. The website is well-designed, mobile-optimized, and accessible, with clear navigation and professional content. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforced and privacy policies in place, though explicit security headers could be improved. The domain registration is consistent with the organization's identity and history, indicating high legitimacy. Overall, HAL is a trustworthy, well-maintained platform with a strong focus on open science and research dissemination.

Scanned

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

5 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 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';…

  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

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

Keep watching hal.science

This scan found 21 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
77
Security headers
35
Email security
75
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
71

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

HAL occupies a leading position in the French and international open science ecosystem, supported by prominent research institutions and government bodies. Its non-profit business model focuses on providing open access to scientific knowledge, targeting researchers, universities, and research organizations. The platform's key competitive advantage lies in its integration with multiple research services and its certification by CoreTrustSeal, enhancing trust and sustainability. Revenue streams are likely public funding and institutional support rather than commercial activities. The partnership ecosystem includes CNRS, INRIA, INRAE, and the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, reinforcing its credibility and reach. Growth indicators include a large corpus of scientific papers and references, and active community engagement through news, blogs, and social media.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and use of privacy-respecting analytics (Matomo). Cookie consent mechanisms comply with GDPR requirements. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. However, explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options are not visibly implemented and should be added to enhance protection against common web attacks. There is no published security policy or incident response contact, which could improve transparency and readiness. Overall, the platform shows good security hygiene appropriate for a public research infrastructure.

Recommendations

  1. Implement explicit security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to strengthen web security.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and provide clear incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  3. Consider adding a security.txt file to facilitate vulnerability disclosure and responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly audit third-party libraries and scripts to ensure no vulnerabilities are introduced.
  5. Enhance monitoring and logging capabilities to detect and respond to potential security incidents promptly.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe (CCSD)
Description
HAL is an open archive platform supporting the deposit and dissemination of scientific publications. It is a public, sustainable infrastructure supported by major French research organizations and universities, facilitating open science and long-term preservation of research outputs.
Key services
Open access publication repository, Long-term preservation of publications, APIs for data access, Institutional portals, Documentary watch, Integration with ORCID and preprint servers
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, jQuery, Select2, MathJax, Matomo Analytics, Bootstrap
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

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

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Strong focus on open science and academic publication archiving.
  3. Good implementation of privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms.
  4. Use of privacy-respecting analytics (Matomo) instead of Google Analytics.
  5. No signs of advertising or commercial tracking networks.
  6. Consistent branding and professional design.
  7. No exposed sensitive data or obvious security vulnerabilities in HTML content.
  8. WHOIS data supports legitimacy and transparency.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a custom-built platform leveraging modern JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, Select2, and MathJax for rich user interface and mathematical rendering. Matomo analytics is used for privacy-conscious user tracking. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured navigation. Performance is moderate, with potential for improvement by optimizing resource loading and caching. Hosting appears to be managed by French research infrastructure, ensuring reliability. No common CMS is detected, indicating a tailored solution. Technical risks are low, but modernization opportunities include adopting stronger security headers and enhancing performance optimizations.
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. 69/100Medium22 findingsView report
Reviews of this site

Share your experience with hal.science. 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 hal.science.

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.