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Security report for irssi.org

The Irssi project · Technology · Iceland

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Irssi.org is the official website for the Irssi project, a modular text mode chat client primarily supporting IRC. Established since 1999, the project offers a free, open source IRC client with extensive theming, scripting, and modular protocol support. The site provides comprehensive documentation, news updates, and links to source code and community resources. The target audience includes IRC users, open source enthusiasts, and developers interested in chat client customization. Technically, the website is built using modern web standards with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, leveraging the Sphinx documentation generator and the Furo theme for a clean, responsive design. Hosting is supported by Cloudflare DNS services, ensuring good performance and availability. The site is mobile optimized and accessible, with clear navigation and well-structured content. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS and uses domain transfer protection. However, it lacks DNSSEC and does not publish privacy, cookie, or security policies, nor does it provide contact information for incident response. No tracking or advertising technologies are present, indicating a privacy-respecting approach. The domain is long-established and uses privacy protection services, consistent with an open source project. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and safe, but could improve by publishing privacy and cookie policies, adding security and incident response information, and providing contact details to enhance transparency and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
50/ 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

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 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 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 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 irssi.org

This scan found 22 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
95
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
67

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

Irssi operates as a small open source software project focused on IRC chat client technology. Its market position is niche but well-established, with a loyal user base and active development community. The business model is non-commercial, relying on community contributions and open source collaboration. Key services include IRC client software, theming capabilities, scripting APIs, and modular protocol support. The project maintains a presence on GitHub and provides extensive documentation to support users and developers. Growth indicators include recent software releases and security updates. The partnership ecosystem is limited but includes external theme galleries and script repositories. Strategic observations highlight the importance of maintaining security transparency and enhancing user trust through published policies.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protection enabled. The absence of DNSSEC and lack of published security policies or incident response contacts represent compliance gaps. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the content or scripts. The site does not employ tracking or advertising technologies, reducing privacy risks. However, the lack of privacy and cookie policies and incident response information limits the site's compliance with GDPR and best practices. The security culture appears minimal but adequate for an open source project. Enhancing transparency and formalizing security documentation would improve the overall posture.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy to improve GDPR compliance and user trust.
  2. Implement DNSSEC to enhance domain security and prevent DNS spoofing.
  3. Add a security.txt file or dedicated vulnerability disclosure page with contact information for security incidents.
  4. Provide clear contact information for general and security-related inquiries to improve transparency.
  5. Regularly review and update security headers and configurations to align with best practices.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
The Irssi project
Description
Irssi is a modular text mode chat client with built-in IRC support. It is themeable and supports scripting and modules.
Key services
IRC chat client, Modular protocol support, Theming, Scripting
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Underscore.js, Sphinx documentation generator
Frameworks
Sphinx, Furo theme
Performance
fast
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is an open source project site for Irssi IRC client.
  2. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers publicly listed.
  4. No security or incident response policies published.
  5. Site uses modern documentation framework (Sphinx) and is well structured.
  6. No advertising or tracking detected.
  7. Content is safe and technical in nature.
  8. WHOIS data shows privacy protection but domain age and status indicate legitimacy.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a solid technical foundation using Sphinx for documentation and modern web technologies including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and Underscore.js. The use of the Furo theme provides a responsive and accessible user interface. Hosting leverages Cloudflare DNS services, contributing to fast performance and reliability. The site is well-structured with clear navigation and search functionality. There is no CMS detected, reducing complexity and potential attack surface. The absence of tracking and advertising scripts simplifies privacy management. Opportunities exist to modernize security configurations by enabling DNSSEC and adding security headers. Overall, the technical infrastructure supports the project's goals effectively with minimal technical debt.
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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