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Security report for pubpub.org

PubPub · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 9 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

61/100

Risk levelMedium

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

PubPub is a community publishing platform focused on collaborative academic and knowledge publishing. It is evolving towards a new full-stack knowledge infrastructure platform under the parent organization Knowledge Futures Group. The website presents a professional and consistent brand image with clear messaging about the platform's evolution and community focus. Technically, the site uses modern frontend technologies such as React and BlueprintJS, with good mobile optimization and moderate performance. Security posture is adequate with HTTPS enforced but lacks security headers and explicit privacy or cookie policies. Contact information is limited to a general email address, and no phone or physical address is provided. Overall, the site is safe, trustworthy, and targeted at academic and research communities.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of pubpub.org. 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

9 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 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 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

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

Keep watching pubpub.org

This scan found 24 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
75
Security headers
30
Email security
55
DNS health
70
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
35
Average
61

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

PubPub operates in the technology and education sectors, offering a niche community publishing platform. Its business model centers on providing collaborative publishing tools and knowledge infrastructure services to academic and research audiences. The platform is positioned as a specialized service with a small organizational size and a clear parent company relationship with Knowledge Futures Group. The company maintains active social media and GitHub presence, indicating engagement with its user base and open-source community. The lack of detailed business registration or physical contact information suggests a lean operation focused on digital services.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS, ensuring encrypted communications. However, it lacks important security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options, which could improve protection against common web attacks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The absence of a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file indicates limited formal security communication channels. Privacy compliance is weak due to missing privacy and cookie policies, which could pose regulatory risks. Incident response contact information is not provided, limiting transparency in security management.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Add security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance web security.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Enhance accessibility features to improve compliance and user experience for all users.
  5. Provide more detailed contact information including incident response contacts to improve trust and transparency.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
PubPub
Description
Collaborative Community Publishing platform evolving to a new full-stack knowledge infrastructure platform.
Key services
Collaborative publishing, Knowledge infrastructure, Community engagement
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, BlueprintJS, Polyfill.io
Frameworks
React
Platforms
Web
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

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 fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. WHOIS data is unavailable or protected, limiting domain registration insights.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages found on the main site.
  4. Contact information limited to a single general email address.
  5. No phone numbers or physical addresses found.
  6. Website uses modern frontend technologies and has good design and navigation.
  7. No security headers detected; HTTPS is enforced.
  8. No analytics or tracking scripts detected in the provided HTML.
  9. No advertising or marketing tools detected.
  10. Content is safe and appropriate for general audiences.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using React and BlueprintJS, indicating a modern and modular frontend architecture. Polyfill.io is used to support legacy browsers. The site loads CSS and JavaScript bundles efficiently, though performance is moderate rather than fast. SEO is supported with proper meta tags including Open Graph and Twitter cards. Accessibility features are basic but present, such as skip links and ARIA labels. No CMS or hosting provider information is explicitly detected. The site does not appear to use third-party analytics or advertising scripts in the provided HTML, suggesting a privacy-conscious approach or minimal tracking.
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. 57/100Medium36 findingsView report
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