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Security report for mstdn.ca

Mastodon Canada · Technology · Canada

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

Mastodon Canada (mstdn.ca) is an independent Mastodon social networking server focused on serving Canadians, including First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples. It provides a federated social platform for community engagement within the fediverse, leveraging the open source Mastodon software. The website offers trending posts, hashtag exploration, and a profiles directory, targeting a niche audience interested in Canadian and Indigenous social networking. Technically, the site uses modern web technologies including React, TypeScript, and Rails, hosted behind Cloudflare DNS and CDN services. The platform is accessible, mobile-optimized, and shows good design and navigation quality. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer protections, but lacks advanced security headers and explicit incident response policies. Privacy compliance is basic with a privacy policy present but no cookie consent or terms of service. Overall, the site is legitimate and trustworthy as a community platform but could improve in privacy and security transparency.

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

3 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.

    • 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

  2. 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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Keep watching mstdn.ca

This scan found 19 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
75
Security headers
80
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
76

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

The business model is community-driven social networking within the fediverse, focusing on Canadian and Indigenous users. It operates as a small independent server without clear commercial revenue streams or parent company affiliations. The platform benefits from association with the Mastodon open source ecosystem and partnerships with joinmastodon.org and GitHub. Growth indicators include 2.2K active users monthly. The site emphasizes community and cultural identity, which differentiates it in the social networking space. Strategic observations include the need to enhance privacy and security policies to build greater trust and compliance.

Security posture

The security maturity is moderate. HTTPS is properly implemented, and domain registration has transfer and update prohibitions. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, and no security headers like CSP or X-Frame-Options were detected. No incident response or security contact information is published. The site uses Cloudflare Insights for analytics, which is privacy-respecting but no cookie consent is present. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found in the analysis. Recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, adding security headers, publishing incident response contacts, and implementing cookie consent to improve compliance and security posture.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to improve domain security and prevent DNS spoofing.
  2. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Publish clear terms of service and cookie policy with consent mechanisms to enhance privacy compliance.
  4. Add explicit security and incident response policies with contact channels for abuse or security issues.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party libraries and dependencies to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Mastodon Canada
Description
A community for Canadians, First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Peoples of the great white north.
Key services
Mastodon social networking, Trending posts and hashtags, Profiles directory
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Mastodon 4.5.0-alpha.2+glitch, React, TypeScript, Cloudflare DNS, Webpack (packs/assets)
Frameworks
React, Rails (implied by rails-ujs.esm script)
Platforms
Fediverse, Mastodon
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

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

Analytics and tracking

Services
Cloudflare Insights
Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Cloudflare Insights
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a Mastodon instance focused on Canadian and Indigenous communities
  2. Uses modern web technologies and open source Mastodon platform
  3. No explicit privacy or security policies beyond basic privacy policy
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers publicly listed
  5. No terms of service or cookie consent mechanism found
  6. Site is accessible without WAF blocking or challenges
  7. Good branding consistency and user interface design
  8. Limited business information as it is a community platform
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Mastodon 4.5.0-alpha.2+glitch, using React and TypeScript for frontend, and Rails backend implied by assets. It leverages Cloudflare for DNS and CDN, improving performance and security. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible with basic SEO meta tags and Open Graph data. Performance is moderate with multiple preloaded scripts and stylesheets. No CMS detected beyond Mastodon platform. Technical risks include lack of DNSSEC and missing security headers. The site is well-structured but could benefit from enhanced accessibility and performance tuning.
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. 76/100Low27 findingsView report
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