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Security report for test.de

Stiftung Warentest · Media · Germany

Medium risk. 5 critical or high findings in Email security, Security headers and 2 other checks.

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Stiftung Warentest operates as a well-established independent consumer testing and advisory organization in Germany, providing product reviews and guidance across various sectors including electronics, household, health, finance, insurance, and taxes. The website reflects a professional and trusted brand with high-quality content tailored to general consumers seeking reliable product information. Technically, the site employs modern web standards and a custom CMS, hosted by a professional provider (iwelt AG), ensuring a stable and responsive user experience. However, the absence of explicit privacy, cookie, and security policies, as well as lack of visible contact information, indicates gaps in compliance and transparency. Security posture is limited due to missing security headers and incident response details, which could be improved to enhance trust and resilience. Overall, the site is safe and trustworthy but would benefit from enhanced privacy and security disclosures.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
83/ 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

5 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Email security

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC stop others sending email that looks like it comes from your domain, a common route to phishing and invoice fraud.

    • Critical

      No email authentication configured

      Domain is vulnerable to email spoofing

      What to do: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC immediately

    • High

      No SPF record found

      SPF helps prevent email spoofing

      What to do: Add SPF record: "v=spf1 include:_spf.yourmailprovider.com ~all"

  2. 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 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';…

  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 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

  4. DNS health

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

    • High

      Unregistered MX Record

      MX record points to unregistered domain: sw-proxy01.stiftung-warentest.de

      What to do: Remove or fix MX record pointing to unregistered domain

      • RFC 5321 §5.1
      • NIS2 21(2)(i)
      • IR 2024/2690 12.4: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690, Annex point 12.4: Asset inventory
      • NIST CM-8: NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CM-8: System Component Inventory

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

Keep watching test.de

This scan found 22 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

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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
50
Email security
40
DNS health
50
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
68

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 organization holds a strong market position as a leading independent testing authority in Germany, targeting general consumers interested in unbiased product evaluations. Its business model centers on providing comprehensive test reports and advice, likely funded through subscriptions, sales of reports, or partnerships. The lack of visible advertising or tracking suggests a focus on user trust and content integrity. The hosting and technical infrastructure indicate a mature digital presence, though the absence of detailed registrant WHOIS data limits full verification of ownership. No evident partnerships or subsidiaries were identified from the provided data.

Security posture

Current security maturity appears basic, with HTTPS likely enabled (inferred from canonical URL), but no explicit security headers or policies detected in the HTML content. There is no evidence of published incident response contacts or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms, which are important for compliance with GDPR and NIS2 regulations. The absence of privacy and cookie policies further highlights compliance gaps. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the provided content, but the lack of security best practices reduces the overall security score. Enhancing security headers, publishing security policies, and establishing incident response contacts are recommended.

Recommendations

  1. Publish comprehensive privacy and cookie policies with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Implement and verify security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Add explicit contact information including security incident response and data protection officer details.
  4. Establish a vulnerability disclosure policy and publish a security.txt file to improve transparency and trust.
  5. Conduct regular security audits and update technical infrastructure to maintain high security and privacy standards.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Stiftung Warentest
Description
Stiftung Warentest: Testberichte zu Elektronik, Haushalt und Gesundheit sowie Finanzen, Versicherung und Steuern
Key services
Product testing, Consumer advice, Test reports
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Custom fonts (woff2), Responsive design
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is fully accessible with no blocking or WAF challenges.
  2. Content is professional, well-structured, and targeted at German consumers.
  3. No explicit privacy, cookie, or terms of service policies found in the provided HTML.
  4. No contact emails, phone numbers, or social media links explicitly found in the provided content.
  5. No security policies, incident response contacts, or vulnerability disclosure mechanisms detected.
  6. Technical implementation uses custom CMS and modern web standards.
  7. No advertising or tracking technologies detected in the provided content.
  8. WHOIS data is minimal but consistent with professional hosting.
Technical notes

Notes

The website uses a custom CMS platform with modern HTML5 and CSS3 standards, including responsive design and custom web fonts. Hosting is managed by iwelt AG, a professional hosting provider, indicating reliable infrastructure. Performance is moderate with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and canonical URLs. However, no common JavaScript frameworks or analytics tools were detected in the provided content, suggesting a minimalistic or privacy-focused approach. Technical debt appears low, but opportunities exist to enhance security configurations and privacy compliance.
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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