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Security report for sfba.social

SFBA.social · Technology · N/a

Low risk. 3 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and DNS health.

Security score

76/100

Risk levelLow

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

SFBA.social is a community-focused Mastodon instance serving the San Francisco Bay Area, providing a decentralized social networking platform within the fediverse. The website presents a professional and consistent brand image with active user engagement, positioning itself as a niche regional social media service. Technically, it leverages Mastodon version 4.4.3 with modern JavaScript frameworks and modules, offering good mobile optimization and user experience. Security posture is moderate with HTTPS implied but lacking explicit security headers and formal security policies. Privacy compliance is basic with a privacy policy present but no cookie consent mechanism or GDPR compliance indicators. WHOIS data is unavailable due to unsupported TLD WHOIS service, limiting domain legitimacy verification. Overall, the site is safe, accessible, and functional with room for improvement in security and privacy transparency.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of sfba.social. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 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

3 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. 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

  2. DNS health

    DNS sends visitors and email to the right servers. Misconfigured records can cause outages or let someone redirect your traffic.

    • High

      Weak SPF Policy

      SPF record has permissive policy allowing any server to send email

      What to do: Use -all or ~all qualifier for better email security

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

Keep watching sfba.social

This scan found 18 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

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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
95
Security headers
75
Email security
70
DNS health
60
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
76

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 platform targets general users interested in decentralized social networking within the San Francisco Bay Area community. Its business model is community-driven, likely relying on voluntary support or donations rather than commercial advertising. The site maintains a moderate market position as a regional Mastodon instance with approximately 1.9K active users. External links to Mastodon official resources and open-source repositories indicate alignment with open-source and federated social media principles. No direct business contact information or certifications are provided, which is typical for community-run social platforms. The absence of WHOIS data transparency is a limitation but not uncommon for newer or niche TLDs.

Security posture

The website enforces HTTPS and uses modern web technologies but lacks visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or Strict-Transport-Security in the provided HTML. No explicit incident response or security policies are published. There is no evidence of vulnerability disclosures or security.txt files. The absence of cookie consent mechanisms and limited privacy compliance features suggest gaps in regulatory adherence. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the analyzed content. The security score is moderate, with recommendations to enhance header implementation, privacy controls, and incident response transparency to improve trust and compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and Strict-Transport-Security.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner and detailed cookie policy to improve privacy compliance.
  3. Publish terms of service and incident response policies to enhance transparency and user trust.
  4. Improve WHOIS data availability or provide domain registration details to strengthen legitimacy.
  5. Regularly audit and update dependencies to avoid vulnerabilities and maintain platform security.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
SFBA.social
Description
A Mastodon instance for the San Francisco Bay Area. Come on in and join us!
Key services
Mastodon social networking, Federated social media participation
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
Mastodon 4.4.3, Ruby on Rails, React, JavaScript ES Modules
Frameworks
Mastodon, Rails
Platforms
Fediverse
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
basic

Security

Observed score
60/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced (implied by URL)

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

Design
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
moderate

Key observations

  1. Website is a Mastodon social network instance for the San Francisco Bay Area.
  2. Content is publicly accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  3. WHOIS data is unavailable due to unsupported TLD in WHOIS service.
  4. No explicit contact emails or phone numbers found on the page.
  5. Privacy policy is present but basic; no cookie consent mechanism detected.
  6. No terms of service or security policies explicitly found.
  7. Site uses modern JavaScript modules and Mastodon 4.4.3 platform.
  8. No advertising or tracking scripts detected in the provided HTML.
  9. Content is safe and suitable for general audiences.
  10. Site branding and design are consistent and professional.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses Mastodon 4.4.3, a Ruby on Rails-based federated social media platform, with React and modern JavaScript ES modules for frontend interactivity. The site loads multiple JavaScript bundles with integrity hashes, indicating attention to resource integrity. DNS prefetching is used for static assets. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessible navigation. Performance is moderate with no explicit metrics but no blocking or errors detected. SEO is basic with meta tags and Open Graph data present but no JSON-LD structured data found. Hosting provider and CMS details are not explicitly disclosed. Overall, the technical infrastructure is modern and suitable for a community social platform but could benefit from enhanced accessibility and SEO improvements.
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. 76/100Low25 findingsView report
  2. 76/100Low27 findingsView report
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