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Security report for instituts-carnot.eu

Le réseau des Carnot · Other · France

High risk. 6 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view, Network security and 1 other check.

Security score

41/100

Risk levelHigh

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

Le réseau des Carnot is a French network of research institutes dedicated to fostering innovation for enterprises through R&D partnerships and technology transfer. The website serves as an information hub for news, events, and resources related to the 39 affiliated Carnot institutes. The target audience primarily includes businesses seeking research collaborations and innovation support. Technically, the site is built on Drupal 10 with Apache hosting, utilizing jQuery and tarteaucitron.js for cookie consent management. Despite good content quality, mobile optimization, and accessibility, the site critically lacks HTTPS, exposing it to security risks and undermining user trust. Security headers are partially implemented, but the absence of SSL/TLS and modern protocols significantly lowers the security posture. Privacy compliance is basic, with a cookie consent mechanism present but no explicit GDPR compliance indicators or detailed privacy policy. Overall, the website is functional and professional but requires urgent security improvements to protect user data and enhance credibility.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
18/ 100 · Critical
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. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • 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

  2. Network security

    Services reachable from the internet are the first thing attackers probe. Anything open that does not need to be should be closed.

    • Critical

      Critical Service Exposed: MySQL

      Port 3306 (MySQL) is publicly accessible - MySQL - Database server

      What to do: Immediately restrict access to MySQL using firewall or VPN

      • NIS2 21(2)(e)
      • IR 2024/2690 6.7.2(f): Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 6.7.2(f): Network security
      • NIST CM-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-7: Least Functionality
      • NIST SC-7: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7: Boundary Protection

  3. 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';…

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

Keep watching instituts-carnot.eu

This scan found 17 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
50
Security headers
40
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
0
GDPR outside view
18
Average
41

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 · found on this site
  • 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

The network operates as an important entity in the French research and innovation ecosystem, connecting 39 Carnot institutes across sectors such as energy, healthcare, and transportation. Its business model revolves around facilitating R&D collaborations between research entities and enterprises, supporting innovation-driven growth. The website reflects a medium-sized organization with consistent branding and a professional online presence. Partnerships with notable institutions like CNRS, INRAE, and Safran are highlighted, indicating a strong ecosystem. The site’s content includes news, agendas, and resources that demonstrate active engagement with its audience. However, the lack of direct contact emails or phone numbers suggests a preference for controlled communication channels via forms. The presence of an extranet and multilingual support indicates a mature operational structure.

Security posture

The website’s security posture is weak due to the absence of HTTPS and SSL/TLS certificates, which is a critical vulnerability exposing all data transmissions to interception. While some security headers like X-Content-Type-Options and X-Frame-Options are set, the lack of HSTS, OCSP stapling, and modern TLS protocols further degrade security. No vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed or POODLE were detected, but the overall configuration is insufficient for protecting sensitive data. No incident response or security policy documentation is found, and no vulnerability disclosure or security.txt files are present. The cookie consent mechanism is implemented with high privacy settings, but GDPR compliance is not clearly demonstrated. Immediate remediation is required to implement HTTPS and enhance security headers to protect users and maintain trust.

Recommendations

  1. Implement a valid SSL/TLS certificate and enable HTTPS site-wide immediately.
  2. Configure HSTS with includeSubDomains and preload to enforce secure connections.
  3. Enable OCSP stapling and support modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 and 1.3).
  4. Enhance security headers by adding Content-Security-Policy, Referrer-Policy, and Permissions-Policy.
  5. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  6. Establish a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file for transparency.
  7. Provide direct contact information including verified company emails and phone numbers.
  8. Optimize site performance and loading times to improve user experience.
  9. Regularly audit and update all software components to mitigate vulnerabilities.
  10. Improve analytics privacy compliance by detailing data retention and user rights.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Drupal 10 CMS running on an Apache 2.4 Debian server, using jQuery and tarteaucitron.js for cookie management. The site uses chunked transfer encoding and has no SSL/TLS configured, serving content over HTTP only. CSS and JavaScript assets are well organized with responsive design stylesheets indicating good mobile support. The site lacks performance metrics but appears to have moderate loading speed. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA roles are present, enhancing usability. SEO is supported by canonical links and meta viewport tags. However, the absence of HTTPS and modern security protocols represents a significant technical risk. Hosting appears to be self-managed or via a third party with IP 141.94.250.55. The site uses Matomo for analytics, indicating a preference for privacy-friendly tracking. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid but requires urgent security upgrades and performance optimization.
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

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