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Security report for joinmastodon.org

Mastodon gGmbH · Technology · Germany

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

78/100

Risk levelLow

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

Mastodon gGmbH operates joinmastodon.org, a leading decentralized social media platform emphasizing user control, privacy, and open-source principles. Founded in 2017 and based in Germany, the organization is a non-profit entity sustaining development through donations and sponsorships. The platform enables users to connect across independent servers, fostering a federated social network free from corporate control and advertising. Technically, the website leverages modern frameworks such as Next.js and React, hosted on Exoscale infrastructure, delivering a fast, mobile-optimized, and accessible user experience. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement and domain transfer protections, though DNSSEC is not enabled and some security policies are not publicly documented. Privacy compliance is good with a comprehensive privacy policy, but lacks a cookie consent mechanism and explicit terms of service. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and well-positioned in the decentralized social media market.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of joinmastodon.org. View the latest report

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

3 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"

  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

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

Keep watching joinmastodon.org

This scan found 18 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
65
Email security
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
78

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 joinmastodon.org, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
53
Employees
0
Customers
53
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
6%

4 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for joinmastodon.org.

Select it in the checkout above.

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Mastodon gGmbH holds a unique market position as a pioneer in decentralized social networking, targeting privacy-conscious users and communities seeking autonomy from centralized platforms. Its business model is non-profit, relying on community donations via Patreon and direct payments, supported by partnerships with hosting providers and payment processors. The platform's open-source nature encourages community contributions and transparency, enhancing trust and innovation. The company maintains a small organizational size with a focused technology sector presence. Strategic partnerships with Mastodon servers and hosting services strengthen its ecosystem. Growth indicators include a broad multilingual website and active community testimonials. The absence of direct contact emails suggests a preference for controlled communication channels, likely to manage community interactions effectively.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with HTTPS enforced and domain registration secured by clientTransferProhibited status. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which could be improved to mitigate DNS spoofing risks. No explicit security policies or incident response contacts are published, indicating a potential gap in transparency and readiness communication. The absence of exposed sensitive data and use of modern web technologies reduce vulnerability exposure. No vulnerable libraries or insecure forms were detected in the HTML content. Privacy compliance is supported by a comprehensive privacy policy aligned with GDPR. Overall, the security maturity is good but could benefit from enhanced policy disclosures and DNS security enhancements.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to strengthen DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response information to improve transparency and readiness.
  3. Implement a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations and enhance user trust.
  4. Add a clear terms of service page to define user rights and platform rules explicitly.
  5. Consider providing verified contact emails for security and abuse reporting to facilitate incident handling.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Mastodon gGmbH
Description
Free and open-source decentralized social media platform developed by a non-profit organization.
Key services
Decentralized social networking, Open-source software, Server hosting and federation, Community moderation tools
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Next.js, JavaScript, WebP images, SVG graphics
Frameworks
Next.js
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status

Analytics and tracking

Services
Datadog
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

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 rich content and no blocking.
  2. Strong emphasis on decentralization, open source, and user control.
  3. Multiple language support with hreflang tags for global audience.
  4. No exposed sensitive data or security issues detected in HTML content.
  5. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found; contact likely via web form.
  6. No cookie consent banner detected despite probable use of cookies.
  7. No explicit terms of service page found.
  8. Use of modern web technologies and frameworks.
  9. Sponsorship and donation mechanisms clearly presented.
  10. Social media presence on Mastodon and GitHub linked with rel=me.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using Next.js and React, indicating a modern and scalable frontend architecture. Hosting on Exoscale suggests reliable cloud infrastructure. The site uses optimized image formats (WebP) and SVGs for graphics, contributing to fast load times and responsive design. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA attributes are present, enhancing usability. SEO is supported by comprehensive meta tags, Open Graph data, and multilingual hreflang tags. No CMS was detected, implying a custom or framework-based content management approach. The technical implementation is robust with no visible technical debt or deprecated technologies. Opportunities exist to improve DNS security and formalize security documentation.
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. 81/100 +3Low24 findingsView report
  2. 78/100 +1Low26 findingsView report
  3. 77/100Low24 findingsView report
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