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Security report for pixabay.com

Pixabay · Media · N/a

Low risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, Email security and 1 other check.

Security score

79/100

Risk levelLow

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

Pixabay is a well-established online platform founded in 2010 that offers over 5.5 million royalty-free images and videos for free download and use. It serves a broad general audience including content creators, marketers, and businesses seeking high-quality media assets without attribution requirements. The platform holds a strong market position as a leading free stock media provider with consistent branding and a professional web presence. Technically, Pixabay leverages modern web technologies including Cloudflare for hosting and DNS, Google reCAPTCHA for bot protection, and OneTrust for cookie consent management, indicating a mature digital infrastructure. The website is fast, mobile-optimized, and SEO-friendly, providing an excellent user experience. Security-wise, the site enforces HTTPS and uses clientTransferProhibited domain status to prevent unauthorized transfers. However, it lacks DNSSEC and some security headers, which could be improved. Privacy compliance is partial, with cookie consent mechanisms present but no explicit privacy or terms of service pages detected in the provided content. Overall, Pixabay demonstrates a high level of professionalism and trustworthiness with a low risk profile.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
88/ 100 · Low
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. 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. 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.

  3. 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching pixabay.com

This scan found 16 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Full report

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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
75
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
88
Average
79

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

Pixabay operates in the media sector, focusing on providing free royalty-free images and videos. Its business model likely includes optional paid services or donations, supported by advertising and partnerships. The platform targets a wide range of users from individuals to enterprises needing media content. Its large content library and global reach position it competitively against other stock media providers. The company maintains active social media channels to engage its community and enhance brand visibility. The domain registration data aligns with the company's founding date, reinforcing credibility. No parent or subsidiary companies were identified in the provided data. The platform's use of Cloudflare and modern tracking tools suggests a robust partnership ecosystem and a focus on performance and security.

Security posture

Pixabay's security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced site-wide and domain transfer protections in place. The use of Google reCAPTCHA helps mitigate automated abuse. However, the absence of DNSSEC and missing security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options represent areas for enhancement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. Privacy compliance is moderate, with cookie consent implemented but lacking visible privacy policy and terms of service pages, which are critical for GDPR and other regulatory compliance. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms were not found, indicating potential gaps in security governance. Overall, the site maintains a good security baseline but could improve in compliance and advanced security controls.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC to improve domain name system security and prevent DNS spoofing.
  2. Publish comprehensive privacy policy and terms of service pages to enhance legal compliance and user trust.
  3. Implement standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  4. Establish and publicize a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Enhance incident response readiness by providing clear security contact channels and procedures.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Pixabay
Description
Find your perfect royalty-free image or video to download and use. ✓ Royalty-free ✓ No attribution required ✓ High quality images.
Key services
royalty-free images, royalty-free videos, free downloads
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Cloudflare, Google reCAPTCHA, Facebook SDK, Snowplow JavaScript Tracker, OneTrust Cookie Consent
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • clientTransferProhibited domain status
  • use of reCAPTCHA

Analytics and tracking

Services
Snowplow JavaScript Tracker
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Snowplow
Marketing tools
Facebook SDK, Google platform.js
Transparency
basic

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 challenge.
  2. Strong brand presence with social media integration.
  3. Use of modern tracking and consent technologies.
  4. No explicit privacy or terms of service pages detected in the provided HTML snippet.
  5. Domain WHOIS data is consistent and indicates a legitimate, established business.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern technology stack including Cloudflare for DNS and hosting, Google reCAPTCHA for bot mitigation, Facebook SDK for social integration, Snowplow for analytics, and OneTrust for cookie consent management. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and good SEO practices including meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD). Performance is fast, benefiting from CDN and optimized assets. No CMS was explicitly detected from the provided content. The extensive use of external scripts and trackers indicates a mature digital marketing and analytics approach. Technical risks include missing DNSSEC and security headers, which could expose the site to certain attacks. 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. 77/100Low26 findingsView report
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