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Security report for unibas.ch

Universität Basel · Education · Switzerland

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

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Universität Basel is the oldest university in Switzerland, founded in 1460, with a strong research profile and a comprehensive educational offering. The website serves a broad audience including prospective students, current students, doctoral candidates, staff, alumni, and faculty. It operates as a public university providing higher education and research services. The site is professionally designed, well-branded, and provides clear navigation and relevant content in German and English. Technically, the site uses Magnolia CMS, jQuery, Cookiebot for consent management, and Matomo and Google Analytics for visitor analytics. Hosting and analytics are supported by trusted providers. Security posture is strong with HTTPS, security headers, and cookie consent mechanisms in place. No critical vulnerabilities or suspicious content were detected. Privacy compliance is good with GDPR-aligned cookie consent and privacy policy. However, explicit security policies and incident response contacts are not publicly available, which could be improved. Overall, the website is trustworthy, professional, and well-maintained, reflecting the university's reputable position.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of unibas.ch. View the latest report

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

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 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
    • High

      Weak SSL Key Length

      SSL certificate uses 384-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 unibas.ch

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.

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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
42
Security headers
65
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
83
Average
73

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 Universität Basel holds a prominent position in the Swiss education sector as the oldest university with a large size and extensive academic offerings. Its business model is focused on public education and research, targeting students, academics, and staff. The website supports multiple target groups with dedicated navigation and content. The university leverages partnerships with trusted analytics and consent providers, indicating a mature digital ecosystem. The absence of commercial advertising and affiliate programs aligns with its public institution status. Growth indicators include multilingual support and modern web technologies. Strategic observations suggest opportunities to enhance transparency around security policies and incident response to further strengthen stakeholder trust.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, comprehensive security headers, and a robust cookie consent mechanism that blocks non-essential cookies until consent is given. Session management and CSRF protection cookies are present, indicating secure handling of user sessions. No exposed sensitive data or vulnerable libraries were detected in the provided content. However, the lack of a publicly accessible security policy or incident response contact limits transparency and readiness perception. There is no evidence of a vulnerability disclosure program or security.txt file. Overall, the site is secure but could improve by publishing explicit security governance documents and contact channels for security incidents.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a dedicated security policy page outlining security practices and commitments.
  2. Provide clear incident response contact information, such as a security@ or abuse@ email address.
  3. Implement and publish a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to encourage responsible reporting.
  4. Regularly review and update cookie and privacy policies to maintain GDPR compliance and transparency.
  5. Enhance accessibility and mobile optimization continuously to maintain excellent user experience.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Universität Basel
Description
Die Universität Basel ist die älteste Hochschule der Schweiz. Als forschungsstarke Universität bietet sie Studierenden ein attraktives Bildungsangebot.
Key services
Higher education, Research, Academic services
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.7.1, Cookiebot, Magnolia CMS, Piwik/Matomo Analytics
Frameworks
Magnolia CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Cookie consent with blocking mode
  • CSRF protection cookies (csrf)
  • Session management cookies (JSESSIONID)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo, Google Analytics
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Ad networks
Google
Tracking pixels
Cookiebot, Matomo
Marketing tools
Cookiebot
Transparency
good

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website uses HTTPS with strong security headers.
  2. Cookie consent implemented with detailed cookie declaration.
  3. No explicit terms of service found.
  4. No explicit security policy or incident response information found.
  5. Website content is comprehensive and professionally presented.
  6. Use of modern web technologies and CMS (Magnolia).
  7. Multiple external trusted domains used for analytics and content delivery.
  8. No suspicious or malicious content detected.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Magnolia CMS with jQuery 3.7.1 and uses Cookiebot for cookie consent management. Analytics are handled via Matomo hosted on stucki.io and Google Analytics. The site uses modern web fonts and optimized font loading strategies. Performance is moderate with some loading indicators and deferred scripts. SEO is supported by canonical and hreflang tags, Open Graph metadata, and Twitter card integration. Accessibility features such as skip links and ARIA roles are implemented. Hosting appears stable and secure with no WAF blocking detected. Technical risks are minimal, but continuous monitoring of third-party scripts and cookie management is recommended to avoid privacy or security regressions.
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. 73/100Medium27 findingsView report
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