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Security report for nginx.org

F5, Inc. · Technology · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

60/100

Risk levelMedium

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

The nginx.org website represents the official site for the nginx web server technology, owned and supported by F5, Inc. The company offers open source software for HTTP web serving, reverse proxying, load balancing, and related networking functions, with enterprise commercial support and training. The site targets developers, IT professionals, and enterprises seeking robust web infrastructure solutions. The business model combines open source distribution with paid enterprise services, positioning nginx as a leading technology in the web server market. Technically, the website is well-structured with modern HTML and CSS, featuring good mobile optimization and clear navigation. The content is relevant and professional, linking to official GitHub repositories and documentation. However, no CMS or advanced frameworks are detected, indicating a lightweight, static or custom-built site. Performance is likely fast given the minimalistic design and content. From a security perspective, the site uses HTTPS (implied by domain and modern standards), but no explicit security headers or DNSSEC are enabled. There are no forms or data collection points, reducing attack surface. The absence of published privacy, cookie, or security policies is a compliance gap. No vulnerability disclosure or security.txt file is present, limiting transparency for security researchers. Overall, the website is trustworthy and professional with a strong business backing. The main risks relate to privacy compliance and security best practices documentation. Strategic improvements in these areas would enhance user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

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

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

7 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 nginx.org

This scan found 25 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.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • 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
65
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
50
Average
60

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

nginx.org is a key digital asset for F5, Inc., showcasing the nginx open source project and its enterprise offerings. The site supports a global developer and enterprise audience with documentation, downloads, and community links. The business benefits from a hybrid open source and commercial support model, generating revenue through enterprise subscriptions and training. The company maintains a strong market position as a leading web server and proxy technology provider. Partnerships and ecosystem engagement are evident through linked GitHub projects and community forums. Growth indicators include regular software releases and active community engagement. The site lacks direct e-commerce or lead capture but serves as a brand and information hub.

Security posture

The security posture of nginx.org is moderate. The site benefits from HTTPS and minimal data collection, reducing exposure to common web vulnerabilities. However, the lack of security headers, DNSSEC, and published security policies represents areas for improvement. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is provided, which could hinder coordinated vulnerability management. The absence of privacy and cookie policies also indicates compliance gaps with GDPR and similar regulations. Overall, the site is low risk from a direct attack perspective but could improve transparency and security hygiene to align with best practices.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy to improve compliance and user trust.
  2. Implement security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  3. Enable DNSSEC for the domain to enhance DNS security.
  4. Create and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Add clear contact information for security incidents and general inquiries to improve communication.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
F5, Inc.
Description
nginx is an HTTP web server, reverse proxy, content cache, load balancer, TCP/UDP proxy server, and mail proxy server originally written by Igor Sysoev and distributed under the 2-clause BSD License. Enterprise distributions, commercial support, and training are available from F5, Inc.
Key services
HTTP web server, Reverse proxy, Content caching, Load balancing, TCP/UDP proxy, Mail proxy, Enterprise support and training
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, ECMAScript (njs), GitHub-hosted code
Performance
fast
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • Domain uses HTTPS (implied by domain and modern standards, though not explicitly stated in HTML)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML content
  • No forms collecting sensitive data detected

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 fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found on the main site.
  3. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on the homepage or navigation.
  4. Content is technical, focused on nginx software and related projects.
  5. Multiple external links to official GitHub repositories and documentation.
  6. No forms detected that collect user data.
  7. No social media links explicitly labeled except for 'x.com' (Twitter).
  8. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure page detected.
  9. No security headers visible in provided data.
  10. DNSSEC not enabled for the domain.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a simple, clean HTML and CSS structure with no detected CMS or heavy frameworks, indicating a lightweight and fast-loading site. The presence of JavaScript for njs (NGINX JavaScript) is noted but limited to project documentation and announcements. External links to GitHub and community forums support developer engagement. Mobile optimization is good, but accessibility features are basic. SEO is basic with meta viewport and title tags but no advanced structured data or Open Graph tags detected. Hosting provider and SSL configuration details are not explicitly available from the provided data. Overall, the technical implementation supports a stable and performant user experience with room for modernization in accessibility and SEO.
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. 61/100 +1Medium33 findingsView report
  2. 60/100Medium34 findingsView report
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