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Security report for pexels.com

Pexels · Media · N/a

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

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Pexels is a leading free stock photo and video platform that offers millions of high-quality, royalty-free images and videos shared by creators worldwide. The platform targets a broad audience including content creators, marketers, and businesses seeking free visual content without attribution requirements. Pexels holds a strong market position as a trusted source for free media assets, supported by a professional and user-friendly website design. Technically, the website leverages modern frameworks such as Next.js and React, integrates analytics and user behavior tracking tools like Google Tag Manager and Hotjar, and employs robust privacy and cookie consent mechanisms. Security-wise, Pexels enforces HTTPS, implements comprehensive security headers, and maintains a good security posture with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. Overall, the site demonstrates a mature digital infrastructure and compliance with privacy regulations, although WHOIS data is unavailable likely due to privacy protection. Strategic recommendations include maintaining regular security audits, monitoring third-party scripts, and enhancing incident response capabilities.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of pexels.com. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
35/ 100 · High
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 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

    • 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 pexels.com

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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Recommended

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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
55
Email security
85
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
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

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 pexels.com, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
334,149
Employees
27
Customers
334,061
Third parties
61
Weak passwords
13%

Latest record dated 2026-06-11 · 74 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 pexels.com.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –www.pexels.com2026-06-11
  • –www.pexels.com2026-05-22
  • –www.pexels.com2026-05-20
  • –pexels.com2026-05-13
  • –pexels.com2026-01-10

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

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

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

Business context

Business profile

Pexels operates in the media sector, providing free stock photos and videos under a royalty-free license model. Its business model revolves around user-generated content and community contributions, enabling wide content availability without direct cost to users. The platform benefits from strong brand recognition and a large user base, positioning it as a key player in the free media content market. Revenue streams likely include partnerships, advertising, and premium offerings. The company maintains active social media channels to engage with its community and promote content. Growth indicators include continuous content uploads and a well-optimized website. No direct contact information or detailed corporate data is publicly available, which is common for platforms prioritizing user experience and content delivery.

Security posture

Pexels exhibits a strong security posture with HTTPS enforced site-wide and multiple security headers implemented to protect against common web vulnerabilities. The use of modern frameworks and third-party security tools like Sentry indicates proactive error monitoring and incident management. No signs of malware, phishing, or exposed credentials were detected. Privacy compliance is evident through comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms, aligning with GDPR requirements. However, no explicit security policy or incident response contact information was found, suggesting an area for improvement. Overall, the platform demonstrates a mature security culture suitable for its scale and industry.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publicly disclose a formal security policy and incident response plan to enhance transparency and trust.
  2. Regularly audit and monitor third-party scripts and analytics tools to mitigate potential supply chain risks.
  3. Enhance contact information availability for security and privacy inquiries, including dedicated security@ or abuse@ email addresses.
  4. Maintain up-to-date security headers and consider implementing CSP reporting to detect and prevent content injection attacks.
  5. Continue investing in privacy compliance and user consent mechanisms to stay ahead of evolving regulations.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Pexels
Description
Free stock photos & videos you can use everywhere. Browse millions of high-quality royalty free stock images & copyright free pictures. No attribution required.
Key services
Free stock photos, Royalty free images, Free videos, Content upload and sharing
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Next.js, Sentry, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar, OneTrust
Frameworks
Next.js
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
90/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security headers present
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Tag Manager, Hotjar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar, OneTrust
Marketing tools
Hotjar, OneTrust
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is professionally presented with high-quality images and videos.
  3. Strong privacy and cookie policies with consent mechanisms are in place.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the homepage.
  5. Uses modern web technologies and analytics tools.
  6. No suspicious or malicious domains linked.
  7. No adult or explicit content detected.
  8. WHOIS data is unavailable, likely due to privacy protection or registry limitations.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using Next.js and React, indicating a modern, server-side rendered React framework optimized for performance and SEO. It integrates Sentry for error tracking, Google Tag Manager for analytics, Hotjar for user behavior insights, and OneTrust for cookie consent management. The site uses responsive design techniques and optimized image delivery with srcset and sizes attributes for various screen resolutions. The HTML structure is semantically sound with proper meta tags for SEO and social sharing (Open Graph). No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or headless CMS approach. Performance appears fast with deferred and async script loading. Accessibility features are present but could be further enhanced. Overall, the technical infrastructure is robust and well-maintained.
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. 73/100 −1Medium25 findingsView report
  2. 74/100Medium24 findingsView report
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