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Security report for tympanus.net

Codrops · Technology · N/a

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 2 other checks.

Security score

51/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Codrops is a well-established online platform founded in 2009 that provides high-quality tutorials, demos, and resources focused on web design and frontend development. It targets web professionals and enthusiasts seeking to stay current with the latest trends and techniques. The website is professionally designed, mobile-optimized, and offers a rich content experience supported by advertising and affiliate marketing. Technically, Codrops is built on WordPress, leveraging modern web technologies and hosted by Liquid Web with a fast and accessible infrastructure. Security posture is strong with HTTPS, security headers, and no visible vulnerabilities, though it lacks some advanced privacy compliance features such as cookie consent mechanisms and explicit security policies. Overall, Codrops presents a trustworthy, professional, and valuable resource in the web development community.

Scanned

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

7 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 tympanus.net

This scan found 27 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
62
Security headers
15
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
20
GDPR outside view
58
Average
51

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

Codrops occupies a niche leadership position in the web design and frontend development education market. Its business model revolves around content publishing with monetization through advertising and affiliate partnerships, including SureCart and EthicalAds. The platform maintains a consistent brand and high content quality, appealing to a global audience of developers and designers. Partnerships with hosting and CDN providers like Liquid Web and KeyCDN ensure reliable delivery. The site’s active social media presence and transparent policies further enhance its credibility and growth potential.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and no exposed sensitive data. Use of nonce tokens in forms and reputable third-party services like Matomo for analytics indicate good security hygiene. However, the absence of a published security policy, incident response contacts, and vulnerability disclosure mechanisms represents gaps in compliance and transparency. Enabling DNSSEC and implementing cookie consent would further strengthen security and privacy compliance.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to enhance DNS security.
  2. Implement a cookie consent banner/mechanism to comply with privacy regulations.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response information on the website.
  4. Add a vulnerability disclosure policy and security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting.
  5. Consider appointing and publishing contact details for a Data Protection Officer or privacy contact.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Codrops
Description
Founded in 2009, Codrops is a destination for web design and development enthusiasts. The site provides high-quality, innovative content exploring the latest trends and techniques in web design and frontend development.
Key services
Web design tutorials, Frontend development tutorials, Creative coding demos, UI/UX design tips, WordPress themes and plugins
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, jQuery, SureCart plugin, Advanced Ads, Matomo Analytics, EthicalAds, InterVariable font
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Security headers present
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Secure forms with nonce tokens

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Advanced Ads, EthicalAds
Tracking pixels
Matomo
Marketing tools
Advanced Ads, SureCart
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a well-established resource for web design and frontend development.
  2. Content is rich, updated, and professionally presented.
  3. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  4. Good use of modern web technologies and analytics.
  5. Advertising is transparent and uses reputable networks.
  6. Security posture is strong with HTTPS and security headers.
  7. Lacks explicit cookie consent mechanism and detailed security policy.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by WordPress with a modern tech stack including jQuery, SureCart e-commerce plugin, and Advanced Ads for monetization. It uses Matomo for privacy-conscious analytics and EthicalAds for ethical advertising. Hosting is provided by Liquid Web with CDN support from KeyCDN, contributing to fast load times and good performance. The site is mobile-optimized and accessible, with proper SEO meta tags and structured data (JSON-LD) for enhanced search engine visibility. Technical debt appears low, but opportunities exist to improve privacy compliance and security transparency.
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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