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Security report for phpbb.com

phpBB Limited · Technology · N/a

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

Security score

67/100

Risk levelMedium

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

phpBB Limited operates the phpBB website, providing free and open source forum software widely used for online community discussions. The company positions itself as a leading provider of bulletin board software with a strong community and extensive customization options. The website reflects a mature open source project with regular updates, community forums, and development resources. Technically, the site uses a modern tech stack including Symfony framework and jQuery, hosted by OSUOSL, with moderate performance and good mobile optimization. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enabled and a public security tracker, but lacks visible security headers and explicit privacy/cookie policies. WHOIS data is unavailable, which slightly reduces trust but is likely due to privacy protection. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and safe for general audiences.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of phpbb.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 phpbb.com

This scan found 20 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
55
Email security
70
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
67

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

phpBB is a medium-sized technology entity focused on open source software development and community engagement. Its business model relies on community contributions, sponsorships, and affiliate hosting partnerships. The target audience includes forum administrators, developers, and open source enthusiasts. The company maintains a strong market position as a top free forum software provider with a comprehensive ecosystem of extensions and styles. Partnerships with hosting providers like BlueHost and OSUOSL enhance its service offerings. The website content and community forums support user engagement and growth. Revenue streams likely include sponsorships and affiliate marketing. The company demonstrates consistent branding and a transparent development process.

Security posture

The security maturity of phpBB.com is moderate. HTTPS is enforced, and the project maintains a public security tracker for vulnerabilities. However, the absence of security headers such as Content Security Policy, HSTS, and X-Frame-Options reduces defense-in-depth. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the HTML content. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies and lack of consent mechanisms, which may pose GDPR compliance risks. Incident response and security policies are not publicly documented. Overall, the site is secure for general use but would benefit from enhanced security controls and privacy transparency.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with user consent mechanisms to improve GDPR compliance.
  2. Add standard security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options) to strengthen security posture.
  3. Publish incident response and security policies publicly to enhance transparency and trust.
  4. Conduct regular audits of third-party scripts and analytics to minimize tracking risks.
  5. Improve accessibility features to broaden user inclusivity and compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
phpBB Limited
Description
phpBB is free and open source forum software that is easy to use, powerful, and highly customisable. It offers a flat-forum bulletin board software solution to stay in touch with groups or power entire websites. It provides an extensive database of user-created extensions and styles to customize forums.
Key services
Forum software, Extensions database, Styles database, Community support forums, Development and security trackers
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Google Analytics, PHP, Symfony
Frameworks
Symfony
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Security tracker available

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and navigation
  2. No privacy or cookie policies explicitly found on homepage or main navigation
  3. Contact available only via contact page, no direct emails or phone numbers visible
  4. Uses Google Analytics for tracking without visible cookie consent
  5. No explicit security headers detected in HTML content
  6. WHOIS data unavailable, possibly due to privacy protection or domain registration anomaly
  7. Website is well-branded and consistent with open source community standards
  8. Advertising present via hosting affiliate links
  9. No adult or questionable content detected
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a solid technical foundation using the Symfony PHP framework and jQuery for frontend interactivity. Google Analytics is used for traffic monitoring. Hosting is provided by OSUOSL, a reputable open source infrastructure provider. The site is mobile responsive with good SEO practices including meta tags and structured navigation. Performance is moderate, with room for optimization. No CMS detected, indicating a custom or framework-based solution. The site lacks some modern security headers and explicit privacy controls, which are technical debt areas. Overall, the technical implementation supports the business goals effectively but can be improved for security and privacy.
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. 57/100Medium26 findingsView report
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