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Security report for readthedocs.com

Read the Docs, Inc · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Read the Docs, Inc operates a well-known documentation building and hosting platform aimed at developers. The platform offers versioned documentation, integrated search, and pull request previews, positioning itself as a key player in developer documentation services. The website is built using the Pelican static site generator and employs professional branding with Font Awesome Pro icons, indicating a mature technical infrastructure. However, the lack of visible security headers and privacy policies suggests room for improvement in security and compliance. Overall, the site is legitimate and trustworthy, but enhancing security posture and privacy compliance would strengthen user trust and regulatory adherence.

Scanned

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

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
53/ 100 · Medium
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

6 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 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';…

  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

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  • Security headers
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  • 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
25
Email security
75
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
66

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

Read the Docs targets developers and organizations needing documentation hosting and building services. Its business model revolves around providing a platform for versioned documentation with integrated tools to improve developer workflows. The company maintains a consistent brand and professional web presence, though explicit business details such as founding year or physical location are not disclosed. The absence of contact information and privacy policies on the analyzed page limits transparency but does not detract from its recognized market position. Strategic partnerships or subsidiaries are not evident from the data.

Security posture

The website currently lacks visible security headers and explicit security policies, which are critical for protecting users and data. No forms or input fields were detected, reducing immediate risk from input-based vulnerabilities. The absence of privacy and cookie policies indicates potential compliance gaps with GDPR and other data protection regulations. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information is provided, which could hinder timely security issue reporting. Strengthening HTTPS configuration, adding security headers, and publishing clear privacy and security policies are recommended to improve the security maturity level.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear user consent mechanisms.
  2. Add standard security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  4. Provide clear contact information including security and incident response contacts.
  5. Conduct regular security audits and update the website to reflect compliance with GDPR and other relevant regulations.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Read the Docs, Inc
Description
Read the Docs is a documentation building and hosting platform aimed at helping developers creating documentation from code with versioned documentation, integrated search, pull request previews and more.
Key services
documentation building, documentation hosting, versioned documentation, integrated search, pull request previews
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Pelican static site generator, Font Awesome 6 Pro, Open Graph protocol, Twitter Cards, Atom feed
Frameworks
Pelican
SEO
good

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 accessible with full content
  2. No WHOIS data for subdomain as expected
  3. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service pages detected in provided content
  4. No contact emails or phone numbers found in the provided HTML snippet
  5. Uses Pelican static site generator and Font Awesome Pro fonts
  6. No security headers or explicit security policies detected in provided data
  7. No analytics or tracking scripts detected in provided snippet
  8. No forms detected in provided HTML snippet
  9. Content is developer-focused documentation platform
  10. No suspicious or malicious indicators found
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses Pelican, a static site generator, combined with Font Awesome Pro for iconography, indicating a modern and maintainable tech stack. Meta tags for Open Graph and Twitter Cards are well implemented, supporting good SEO and social media integration. No analytics or tracking scripts were detected, suggesting minimal user tracking. Performance and mobile optimization could not be fully assessed due to partial HTML content. The absence of forms reduces attack surface but also limits interactive functionality. Overall, the technical implementation is solid but could benefit from enhanced security and privacy features.
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. 66/100Medium31 findingsView report
  2. 66/100Medium27 findingsView report
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