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Security report for nicotine-plus.org

Nicotine+ · Technology · France

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 1 other check.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Nicotine+ is an open source software project providing a graphical client for the Soulseek peer-to-peer network. The project targets users of Soulseek and open source contributors, offering a lightweight and feature-rich alternative client. The website is well structured with good SEO metadata and clear information about the software, its development, and community involvement. The domain is long-standing and registered with OVH in France, consistent with the project's history. Technically, the site uses Jekyll for static site generation, Python and GTK for the client software, and is hosted by OVH. The website performance is moderate with basic mobile optimization and accessibility. No CMS beyond Jekyll is detected. The site lacks advanced security headers and DNSSEC is not enabled, which are areas for improvement. No analytics or tracking scripts are present, indicating minimal user tracking. Security posture is moderate; the site uses HTTPS but lacks security headers and DNSSEC. The Soulseek protocol itself is unencrypted, which is disclosed on the site. No privacy or cookie policies are provided, representing a compliance gap. No contact information or incident response contacts are listed, limiting transparency. Overall, the website is trustworthy and professional for an open source project but should improve privacy and security practices to enhance compliance and user trust.

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

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

  2. 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';…
  3. 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

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

Keep watching nicotine-plus.org

This scan found 23 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
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
66

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 nicotine-plus.org, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
2
Employees
0
Customers
2
Third parties
0
Weak passwords
0%

1 subdomain 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 nicotine-plus.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

Nicotine+ occupies a niche market as an open source alternative client for the Soulseek peer-to-peer network. Its competitive advantage lies in being free, lightweight, and community-driven. The business model is non-commercial, relying on community contributions and open source development. The target audience includes peer-to-peer users and open source developers. The project maintains an active GitHub repository and community channels such as IRC. There is no evidence of revenue streams or commercial partnerships. The domain's long registration and consistent WHOIS data support operational stability. The ecosystem includes external links to related community and development platforms, but no formal partnerships or subsidiaries are identified.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a basic security posture with HTTPS enabled and domain status locks to prevent unauthorized transfers or deletions. However, it lacks DNSSEC, security headers, and privacy policies, which are important for modern web security and compliance. The site does not collect user data, reducing risk, but the underlying Soulseek protocol is unencrypted, which is openly disclosed. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies are provided. The absence of security headers and DNSSEC represents moderate vulnerabilities that could be exploited. Overall, the security maturity is moderate but could be improved with standard web security best practices and compliance documentation.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  2. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish a clear privacy policy and cookie policy to improve GDPR compliance and user trust.
  4. Add incident response and vulnerability disclosure information to facilitate security communication.
  5. Consider warning users more explicitly about the unencrypted nature of the Soulseek protocol and potential risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Nicotine+
Description
Nicotine+ is a free and open source graphical client for the Soulseek peer-to-peer network, providing a lightweight and feature-rich alternative to the official Soulseek client.
Key services
Graphical client software for Soulseek network, Source code repository and issue tracking, Community involvement via IRC and translations
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Python, GTK
Frameworks
Jekyll
Platforms
GNU/Linux, BSD, Haiku, Solaris, Windows, macOS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
basic
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
60/100
Good practices seen
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited and 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
moderate

Key observations

  1. Website is an open source project site with clear focus on software.
  2. No contact emails or phone numbers provided on the site.
  3. No privacy or cookie policies found, which is a compliance gap.
  4. No security headers detected in the HTML response.
  5. No analytics or tracking scripts detected.
  6. Content is well structured with good SEO metadata and JSON-LD structured data.
  7. No forms or data collection mechanisms present on the site.
  8. External links point to reputable domains related to the project and community.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using Jekyll, a static site generator, with Python and GTK used for the client software itself. Hosting is provided by OVH, a reputable European provider. The site includes proper meta tags, Open Graph, and JSON-LD structured data for SEO. Performance is moderate with basic mobile optimization and accessibility. No CMS beyond Jekyll is detected. No analytics or tracking scripts are present, indicating minimal technical overhead and privacy impact. The lack of DNSSEC and security headers indicates some technical debt in security hardening. Overall, the technical infrastructure is stable and appropriate for an open source project but could benefit from modernization in security practices.
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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