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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, established in 1460, with a strong research focus and a comprehensive educational offering. The website reflects its academic stature with professional design, clear navigation, and multilingual support. The institution targets students, researchers, alumni, and academic staff, positioning itself as a leading educational entity in Switzerland. Technically, the site employs modern web technologies including Magnolia CMS, jQuery, and Cookiebot for consent management, hosted likely on Swiss infrastructure with good performance and mobile optimization. Security posture is solid with HTTPS, session management, and cookie consent mechanisms, though explicit security headers could be enhanced. Privacy compliance is well addressed with a comprehensive privacy policy and GDPR-compliant cookie consent. Overall, the domain registration aligns perfectly with the university's identity, reinforcing trust and legitimacy.

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

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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  • 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 operates as a public educational institution with a large scale and long history. Its business model centers on providing higher education and research services. The website supports multiple target audiences including prospective and current students, doctoral candidates, faculty, and alumni. The university leverages partnerships and third-party services such as Google and Vimeo for analytics and media. The presence of Cookiebot and Matomo indicates a mature approach to privacy and analytics. The institution's market position as the oldest Swiss university and its research strength provide competitive advantages. No commercial or affiliate programs are evident, consistent with its public educational nature.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, session cookies with CSRF protection, and a robust cookie consent mechanism. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. However, the absence of explicit security headers like Content-Security-Policy and X-Frame-Options suggests room for improvement. There is no publicly visible security policy or incident response contact, which could enhance transparency and readiness. The use of reputable third-party services and hosting on Swiss infrastructure further supports security. Overall, the site is secure but could benefit from formalizing security policies and disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to enhance protection against common web attacks.
  2. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information to improve transparency and user trust.
  3. Consider adding a vulnerability disclosure policy or security.txt file to facilitate responsible reporting of security issues.
  4. Enhance contact information visibility by including verified company emails and phone numbers on the website.
  5. Regularly review and update third-party scripts and libraries to mitigate risks from vulnerable dependencies.
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 programs, Student services
Content quality
good
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery 3.7.1, Cookiebot, Piwik/Matomo analytics, Google Maps API (commented out), Handlebars.js (templating), Custom fonts (PTSerif, Inter)
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 cookie present)
  • 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
good
User experience
good
Content relevance
good
Navigation
good
Professionalism
good
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website uses Cookiebot for GDPR-compliant cookie consent management.
  2. Content is primarily in German with English alternate versions.
  3. No explicit terms of service found in provided content.
  4. Multiple cookie categories detailed: Necessary, Preferences, Statistics, Marketing, Unclassified.
  5. Use of modern web fonts and responsive design elements.
  6. No exposed sensitive data or security misconfigurations detected in HTML.
  7. No suspicious or malicious external domains found.
  8. No direct contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in provided HTML snippet.
  9. Social media presence indicated via Twitter handle @UniBasel.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on Magnolia CMS with a modern tech stack including jQuery 3.7.1 and Cookiebot for consent management. It uses custom web fonts and supports responsive design for mobile optimization. Analytics are handled via Matomo and Google Analytics, with data collection through cookies and local storage. Hosting appears to be Swiss-based, likely via Stucki Hosting, supporting good performance and compliance with local regulations. The site includes multilingual support and SEO best practices such as canonical and hreflang tags. Some commented-out scripts (Google Maps API) suggest potential for interactive features. Overall, the technical infrastructure is solid with opportunities to improve security headers and formal documentation.
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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