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Security report for powerdns.com

PowerDNS · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and GDPR outside view.

Security score

71/100

Risk levelMedium

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

PowerDNS is a well-established provider of secure open-source and commercial DNS software solutions, targeting large-scale DNS service providers such as mobile operators, broadband providers, enterprises, and hosting companies. The company emphasizes stability, security, and performance, boasting a decade without a Severity 1 support case. Their offerings include DNS resolving, infrastructure DNS, parental controls, malware protection, and DNS solutions tailored for 5G networks. The website is professionally designed, content-rich, and well-branded, with active blog updates and case studies highlighting partnerships with major industry players. Technically, the site uses HubSpot CMS, Cloudflare CDN, and modern web technologies, but suffers from a critical security issue due to an invalid SSL certificate and lack of modern TLS protocol support. Security headers and policies are well implemented, but the absence of a cookie consent mechanism and visible contact information slightly reduce privacy compliance and user trust. Overall, the site demonstrates a strong market position and technical maturity but requires urgent SSL and privacy improvements.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
43/ 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

3 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 X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

  2. 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

    • 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 powerdns.com

This scan found 15 issues across 5 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
100
Security headers
45
Email security
50
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
43
Average
71

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

PowerDNS operates in the telecommunications and technology sectors, focusing on DNS and network security solutions. Their business model revolves around providing both open-source and commercial DNS software, complemented by consultation, migration, and commercial support services. The company targets large-scale DNS service providers including mobile and broadband operators, enterprises, and hosting providers. Partnerships with Allot, Quad9, BT, and Open-Xchange indicate a strong ecosystem and market reach. The company maintains a consistent brand presence and leverages HubSpot for marketing and content management. Their active blog and case studies suggest ongoing innovation and customer engagement. The lack of direct contact details on the homepage may indicate a focus on lead generation through forms or partner channels.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a moderate security posture with several strengths and notable weaknesses. Security headers such as HSTS with includeSubDomains and Content-Security-Policy are properly configured, enhancing protection against common web attacks. Cookies are set with HttpOnly, Secure, and SameSite attributes, indicating good session security practices. However, the SSL certificate is invalid or missing, and no modern TLS protocols (TLS 1.2 or 1.3) are enabled, which is a critical vulnerability that undermines HTTPS security. OCSP stapling and session resumption are not implemented, reducing SSL performance and reliability. The site shows no signs of known vulnerabilities like Heartbleed or POODLE. Privacy compliance is partial, with a comprehensive privacy policy but no cookie consent mechanism. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure information are not found, which could be improved to enhance transparency and trust.

Recommendations

  1. Immediately fix the SSL certificate to ensure valid HTTPS and enable TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 protocols.
  2. Implement OCSP stapling and session resumption to improve SSL performance and security.
  3. Add a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with GDPR and enhance user privacy transparency.
  4. Make contact information (email, phone) more visible or accessible to improve user trust and support accessibility.
  5. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to improve security transparency and incident response readiness.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on HubSpot CMS and uses Cloudflare as a CDN and hosting provider. It employs modern front-end technologies including jQuery and Font Awesome icons. The site is mobile responsive with good SEO meta tags and Open Graph data for social sharing. Performance metrics are not provided, but the site loads multiple CSS and JS assets asynchronously and defers scripts for better load times. Accessibility is basic with some screen reader text and semantic HTML usage. The invalid SSL certificate and disabled TLS protocols represent significant technical debt and security risk. The site integrates Vimeo for video content and uses HubSpot analytics and marketing tools. Overall, the technical infrastructure is modern but requires urgent SSL and security protocol updates to meet current standards.
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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