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Security report for stepstone.de

Stepstone · Other · Germany

Medium risk. 3 critical or high findings in Security headers and SSL/TLS.

Security score

75/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Stepstone is a leading online job portal primarily serving the German market, offering a platform for job seekers and employers to connect. The website provides access to over 150,000 current job listings and emphasizes helping users find the right job with top employers. The business model centers on recruitment services and job advertising. Technically, the site employs modern web technologies including React, Redux, and integrates advanced analytics and optimization tools such as Optimizely and Datadog RUM. The infrastructure is supported by Akamai CDN, ensuring fast and reliable content delivery. Security posture is strong with HTTPS enforcement and multiple security headers, though explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly available. Privacy compliance is partially addressed with a cookie consent mechanism but lacks a clearly accessible privacy policy and terms of service. Overall, the website is professional, well-branded, and trustworthy, with room for improvement in transparency and contact information.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
100/ 100 · Low
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"

    • 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. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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

Keep watching stepstone.de

This scan found 21 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
82
Security headers
25
Email security
75
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
100
Average
75

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

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention stepstone.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
45,816
Employees
0
Customers
45,772
Third parties
44
Weak passwords
10%

30 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for stepstone.de.

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Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

Stepstone holds a strong market position as a major job board in Germany and related regions, targeting job seekers and employers. Its competitive advantage lies in a large job database and a user-friendly platform. The business generates revenue through job postings and recruitment services. The company leverages partnerships with analytics and optimization providers to enhance user experience and marketing effectiveness. Growth indicators include extensive job listings and multi-language support for different markets. The ecosystem includes integrations with marketing and tracking tools but no explicit partner or subsidiary domains were identified in the provided data.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and secure form input handling. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. However, the absence of a published security policy, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms indicates gaps in transparency and readiness. GDPR compliance is partially indicated by the cookie consent mechanism, but the lack of a privacy policy reduces compliance confidence. The site uses reputable third-party analytics and optimization services, which should be monitored for privacy and security risks. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be enhanced by publishing formal policies and contact points.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy page prominently linked on the website.
  2. Add terms of service and security policy pages to improve transparency and compliance.
  3. Provide clear contact information including security incident response and abuse contacts.
  4. Implement and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file.
  5. Regularly review third-party scripts and analytics tools for privacy and security compliance.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Stepstone
Description
Freiheit ist, den richtigen Job zu finden. Top Arbeitgeber. Kostenlose Jobsuche. Mehr als 150.000 aktuelle Jobs. Bei Stepstone findet jeder den richtigen Job.
Key services
Job search, Employer job postings, Recruitment services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
React, Redux, Optimizely, Datadog RUM, Boomerang, Akamai CDN
Frameworks
React
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Use of security headers
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure form input styling and focus management

Analytics and tracking

Services
Datadog RUM, Optimizely, Tealium
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Optimizely, Datadog RUM, Tealium (utag.js)
Marketing tools
Optimizely, Datadog RUM, Tealium
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. No explicit privacy policy or terms of service links found in the provided HTML snippet.
  3. Cookie consent mechanism is implemented via consent manager script.
  4. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found in the HTML content.
  5. Strong use of modern JavaScript frameworks and analytics tools.
  6. Security headers and HTTPS are properly configured.
  7. No evidence of adult or questionable content.
  8. WHOIS data is limited but domain appears consistent with business.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a modern React-based frontend with Redux state management, supported by Optimizely for A/B testing and Datadog RUM for real user monitoring. Hosting and CDN services appear to be provided by Akamai, contributing to fast load times and global availability. The site is mobile-optimized with responsive design and accessibility considerations. SEO is supported by proper meta tags, Open Graph data, and structured JSON-LD organization schema. No CMS was explicitly detected, suggesting a custom or proprietary platform. Technical risks are minimal, but reliance on multiple third-party scripts requires ongoing security and privacy oversight.
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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