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Security report for readthedocs-hosted.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 documentation building and hosting platform designed to assist developers in creating and managing documentation from code. The platform offers features such as versioned documentation, integrated search, and pull request previews, positioning itself as a key player in the developer tools and documentation hosting market. The website content reflects a professional and consistent brand image aligned with the company's mission. Technically, the site is built using the Pelican static site generator and employs Font Awesome Pro icons, indicating a modern and maintainable infrastructure. However, the absence of explicit privacy, cookie, and security policies suggests areas for improvement in compliance and transparency. Security posture is moderate with no detected blocking mechanisms or WAF challenges, but lacks visible security headers and incident response information. Overall, the site is functional and trustworthy but would benefit from enhanced security and privacy disclosures to strengthen user confidence and regulatory compliance.

Scanned

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

Keep watching readthedocs-hosted.com

This scan found 23 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.

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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
65
Security headers
25
Email security
75
DNS health
80
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

The company targets developers and organizations needing robust documentation solutions integrated with code repositories and version control. Its business model centers on providing a SaaS platform for documentation hosting with value-added features like search and pull request previews. The market position is solid within the technology sector, leveraging open source and community engagement. The lack of visible contact information and policies on the website may limit direct customer engagement and trust signals. No evident partnerships or subsidiaries were identified in the provided data. The platform's use of modern web technologies and professional design supports scalability and user adoption.

Security posture

The security maturity level appears moderate. The website uses HTTPS (implied by favicon and external resources URLs), but no explicit security headers or policies were detected in the provided content. There is no evidence of exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries, but also no visible security best practices such as CSP or HSTS headers. Incident response and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms are not present, which could hinder timely handling of security issues. Compliance with GDPR or other privacy regulations is not demonstrated due to missing privacy and cookie policies. The absence of contact channels for security incidents reduces the site's readiness for incident management. Overall, the security posture is adequate for informational content but requires enhancements for comprehensive protection and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies to improve compliance and user trust.
  2. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  3. Provide clear contact information including security incident response contacts to facilitate communication and trust.
  4. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting of security issues.
  5. Regularly audit and update the technology stack to ensure no vulnerable libraries or outdated components are in use.
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, Font Awesome 6 Pro, HTML5, CSS3
Frameworks
Pelican
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
50/100

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 and not blocked by WAF or security challenges
  2. WHOIS data is unavailable due to subdomain status
  3. No privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies explicitly found in the provided content
  4. No contact emails, phone numbers, or physical addresses found in the provided content
  5. Site uses Pelican static site generator and Font Awesome Pro fonts
  6. No analytics or tracking scripts detected in the provided snippet
  7. No forms detected in the provided content
  8. Content is focused on documentation platform description and features
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built using the Pelican static site generator, indicating a static content delivery approach which generally improves performance and security. The use of Font Awesome Pro icons suggests investment in professional design assets. Meta tags and Open Graph tags are well implemented, supporting SEO and social media integration. No CMS or dynamic backend was detected, reducing attack surface. Performance is likely moderate given static content but no explicit performance metrics were provided. Mobile optimization appears good based on viewport meta tag and responsive CSS usage. Accessibility features are basic but present. No analytics or tracking scripts were found in the provided snippet, indicating minimal user tracking. Overall, the technical infrastructure is modern and suitable for the platform's purpose but could benefit from enhanced security configurations.
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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