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Security report for neocities.org

Neocities · Technology · Iceland

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Neocities is a technology platform founded in 2013 that offers free static web hosting and tools to empower individuals to create and share personal websites. It positions itself as a community-driven alternative to large cloud hosting providers by focusing on creativity, zero advertising, and open source transparency. The platform supports over 1.1 million websites and is funded by supporter accounts and donations, emphasizing privacy and user control. Technically, Neocities uses a modern but simple tech stack including HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery, with hCaptcha integration for bot protection. The site is well optimized for performance and mobile use, with fast loading times and good SEO practices. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and client transfer prohibited domain status, though DNSSEC is not enabled and security headers are not explicitly detected. Privacy compliance is lacking due to absence of privacy and cookie policies. Overall, the domain registration is privacy protected but consistent with the business age and nature, indicating legitimacy.

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

4 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 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

    • 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 Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching neocities.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
62
Security headers
80
Email security
65
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
72

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

Neocities operates in the technology sector as a small-sized company focused on static web hosting and web community services. Its business model relies on free hosting with optional supporter accounts and donations, avoiding advertising and data selling. The platform targets web creators, hobbyists, and individuals seeking creative freedom online. Competitive advantages include open source transparency, a strong community, and a niche focus on static sites. The company maintains a clean brand image with consistent messaging and trust signals such as press coverage and open source code. Partnerships and external links include GitHub and Bluesky social media. Growth indicators include a large number of hosted sites and site hits. Strategic observations suggest opportunities to improve compliance and security posture to enhance trust further.

Security posture

Neocities demonstrates a moderate to good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and bot protection via hCaptcha. The domain is protected with clientTransferProhibited status, reducing risk of unauthorized transfers. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, which is a recommended best practice for domain security. No explicit security policies, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are published, indicating gaps in formal security governance. The absence of privacy and cookie policies also presents compliance risks under GDPR and similar regulations. No vulnerable libraries or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. Overall, the security posture is adequate for a small tech platform but could benefit from formalized policies and enhanced domain security.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy to address GDPR and privacy compliance.
  3. Implement and publish explicit security policies and incident response procedures.
  4. Add security headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP), HSTS, and X-Frame-Options to harden site security.
  5. Consider establishing a vulnerability disclosure program and security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Neocities
Description
Neocities is a social network of over 1,198,100 websites offering free static web hosting and tools to create personal websites with unlimited creativity and zero ads.
Key services
Free static web hosting, In-browser HTML editor, Command line tool, Custom domain support, Fast site performance, File uploading, RSS feeds, APIs
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery 1.11.0, hCaptcha
Platforms
Static web hosting
Performance
fast
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
75/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Client transfer prohibited domain status
  • Use of hCaptcha for bot protection
  • No advertising or AI data selling

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website offers free static web hosting with a strong community focus.
  2. No privacy or cookie policy found, which is a compliance gap.
  3. Uses hCaptcha for bot protection on signup forms.
  4. No advertising or AI data selling, funded by supporters and donations.
  5. Open source code available, enhancing transparency.
  6. Domain uses privacy protection but is long-standing and consistent with business age.
  7. No security.txt or explicit security policies published.
  8. No analytics or tracking scripts detected in HTML content.
  9. Good mobile optimization and SEO meta tags present.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a straightforward technology stack with HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and jQuery 1.11.0, supplemented by hCaptcha for bot mitigation. The site is statically hosted on infrastructure registered via NameCheap, Inc., with custom DNS name servers. Performance is fast due to static hosting and a caching anycast CDN distributed globally. The site is mobile optimized and includes SEO meta tags and Open Graph data for social sharing. No CMS or complex frameworks are detected, reducing attack surface and technical debt. However, the use of an older jQuery version (1.11.0) could pose security risks if not updated. The site lacks advanced accessibility features but meets basic standards. Overall, the technical implementation is solid for the platform's scope but could be modernized and hardened further.
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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