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Security report for stockvault.net

StockVault.net · Media · N/a

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

70/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Stockvault.net is a well-established free stock photo community founded in 2004, offering a vast collection of over 148,000 free stock photos, textures, backgrounds, and graphics. The platform targets photographers, designers, and content creators worldwide, providing both free and premium content. The website demonstrates a professional design with good navigation, SEO, and mobile optimization. Technically, it uses common web technologies such as jQuery, Google Analytics, and MailerLite for marketing. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enabled, but lacks some security headers and cookie consent mechanisms. WHOIS data is missing, which slightly impacts trust but the website content and social presence support legitimacy.

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

5 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 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

  3. 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 SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

      What to do: Use at least 2048-bit RSA or 256-bit ECC key

      • CWE-326
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • Mozilla TLS: Mozilla Server Side TLS 6.0 intermediate: rsa_key_size 2048

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

Keep watching stockvault.net

This scan found 21 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

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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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
55
Email security
60
DNS health
75
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
Average
70

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

Stockvault.net holds a strong position in the free stock photo market, leveraging a community-driven model with revenue sharing for photographers. Its business model combines free content with premium offerings, supported by advertising and marketing partnerships. The site integrates with multiple third-party services for ads and email marketing, indicating a mature digital marketing strategy. The absence of direct company contact emails or phone numbers suggests a focus on online engagement rather than direct sales. The platform's partnerships with vector and video sites expand its ecosystem. Overall, it is a medium-sized media entity with consistent branding and a loyal user base.

Security posture

The website employs HTTPS and secure form submissions, which are fundamental security practices. However, the lack of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options is a gap that could expose users to certain risks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The absence of a published security policy or incident response contacts limits transparency. Cookie consent mechanisms are missing, which may affect GDPR compliance. Overall, the security posture is moderate with room for improvement in headers and privacy compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Implement comprehensive security headers including Content-Security-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, and X-Frame-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Add a cookie consent banner or mechanism to comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
  3. Publish a clear security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and trust.
  4. Investigate and resolve the missing WHOIS data issue to strengthen domain legitimacy and trustworthiness.
  5. Regularly audit third-party scripts and advertising networks to minimize tracking and privacy risks.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
StockVault.net
Description
Stockvault.net is a free stock photo community offering over 148,000 free stock photos, textures, backgrounds, and graphics for various projects without requiring attribution. It serves photographers and artists sharing their work globally.
Key services
Free stock photos, Textures and backgrounds, Graphics and vectors, Premium stock photos, vectors, and footage
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 1.11.3, Google Analytics, MailerLite, BuySellAds, Google Translate
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
basic
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure form submission

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Ad networks
BuySellAds
Tracking pixels
BuySellAds, Bidr.io, AppNexus
Marketing tools
MailerLite
Transparency
basic

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with rich content and advanced search features.
  2. No WHOIS data available, which is unusual for a .net domain.
  3. Strong social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.
  4. No direct company contact emails or phone numbers found; contact via form only.
  5. No explicit cookie consent mechanism detected despite GDPR relevance.
  6. Use of multiple third-party marketing and advertising services.
  7. Good SEO and structured data implementation.
  8. No security headers detected in HTML source; potential improvement area.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a traditional tech stack with jQuery 1.11.3, Google Analytics, MailerLite for email marketing, and BuySellAds for advertising. The site is moderately performant with good mobile optimization and SEO practices including structured data (JSON-LD) for search engines. Accessibility features are basic but present. The CMS or hosting provider is not explicitly identified. The site could benefit from modernization by updating jQuery and improving security headers. The integration of multiple third-party domains for ads and marketing is extensive, which may impact privacy and performance.
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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