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Security report for indieauth.com

Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 8 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

53/100

Risk levelMedium

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

IndieAuth.com is a specialized service providing decentralized authentication solutions that allow users to sign in to websites using their own domain names, leveraging existing social accounts and cryptographic keys. It operates within the IndieWeb movement, promoting user control over online identity and reducing dependence on centralized social login providers. The service targets both end users and developers, offering an IndieAuth server and developer APIs to facilitate domain-based authentication. The website content is well-structured and informative, reflecting a small but focused technology service provider founded in 2012. Technically, the website uses a classic web stack including Bootstrap 3.3.7, jQuery 3.2.1, and Mustache.js, hosted on Linode with multiple authoritative name servers. While the site is functional and moderately optimized for mobile, it uses somewhat outdated libraries and lacks advanced security headers. Google Analytics is employed for user tracking without visible cookie consent mechanisms, indicating room for privacy compliance improvements. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and has domain transfer protections but lacks DNSSEC and security headers such as CSP or HSTS. No explicit security or incident response policies are published, and no contact information is provided, which may impact user trust and compliance. The domain registration is transparent and consistent with the service's history, supporting legitimacy. Overall, IndieAuth.com presents a trustworthy and niche technology service with good content quality and moderate technical implementation. However, it should improve privacy compliance, update its tech stack, and enhance security practices to strengthen its security posture and user trust.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of indieauth.com. 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

8 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. 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 Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • 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';…

  3. 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

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

Keep watching indieauth.com

This scan found 25 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.

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Full report

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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
62
Security headers
50
Email security
60
DNS health
70
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
35
Average
53

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

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 indieauth.com, from OffSeq Breach.

No leaked records found

Breach holds no records for indieauth.com 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

IndieAuth.com occupies a niche market within the decentralized identity and authentication space, aligned with the IndieWeb community. Its competitive advantage lies in enabling users to authenticate with their own domain names, bypassing traditional social login providers. The business model focuses on providing authentication services and developer APIs, targeting developers building apps and users seeking decentralized login solutions. The presence of partner domains like IndieLogin.com and IndieWeb.org indicates a collaborative ecosystem. The company appears small, with a focused service offering and a community-driven approach. Growth potential exists in expanding developer adoption and improving service robustness. The lack of explicit business contact details and formal policies suggests an informal or community-supported operation rather than a large commercial enterprise.

Security posture

The current security maturity level of IndieAuth.com is moderate. The site enforces HTTPS and uses domain transfer protection, which are positive indicators. However, the absence of DNSSEC, security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options), and updated JavaScript libraries introduces potential vulnerabilities. No public security or incident response policies are available, and no dedicated security contact channels are provided. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies and lack of GDPR indicators. The use of Google Analytics without consent mechanisms further impacts privacy posture. While no critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected, the site would benefit from adopting modern security best practices and transparency measures to improve trust and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, and X-Frame-Options to mitigate common web attacks.
  3. Update JavaScript libraries (jQuery, Bootstrap) to their latest secure versions to reduce vulnerability risks.
  4. Publish clear privacy and cookie policies including GDPR compliance statements and implement cookie consent mechanisms.
  5. Provide explicit contact information and security incident response policies to improve transparency and user trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Description
IndieAuth.com provides an IndieAuth server for websites that authenticates users using their existing social accounts, enabling sign-in with their own domain names without passwords. It is part of the IndieWeb movement to decentralize online identity and reduce reliance on third-party social logins.
Key services
IndieAuth server for domain-based authentication, Authentication via social accounts (GitHub, PGP keys, Twitter, email), Developer API via IndieLogin.com (beta), OpenID provider services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Bootstrap 3.3.7, jQuery 3.2.1, Mustache.js, Google Analytics (ga.js)
Frameworks
Bootstrap
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
65/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited to prevent unauthorized transfers
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
moderate

Key observations

  1. Website provides a niche authentication service aligned with the IndieWeb movement.
  2. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found, indicating compliance gaps.
  3. Use of older JavaScript libraries may pose security risks if not updated.
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly provided on the site.
  5. Google Analytics is used for tracking without visible cookie consent mechanisms.
  6. No security or incident response policies publicly disclosed.
  7. Domain registration is consistent and transparent with no privacy protection.
  8. Site is hosted on Linode with multiple authoritative name servers.
  9. No WAF or blocking mechanisms detected; site content fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using Bootstrap 3.3.7, jQuery 3.2.1, and Mustache.js, indicating a traditional web development stack. Hosting is provided by Linode with multiple authoritative name servers, ensuring reliable DNS resolution. The site uses Google Analytics for tracking, but lacks modern SEO and accessibility enhancements. Mobile optimization is basic but functional. The use of older JavaScript libraries suggests some technical debt and potential security risks. No CMS was detected, implying a custom or static site architecture. Performance is moderate, with no explicit indicators of slow loading or errors. Opportunities exist to modernize the tech stack, improve accessibility, and enhance SEO for better user experience and search visibility.
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. 53/100Medium34 findingsView report
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