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Security report for wikiquote.org

Wikimedia Foundation · Non-profit · N/a

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

Security score

68/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Wikiquote is a free, multilingual compendium of quotations maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation, a reputable non-profit organization. The website serves a broad audience interested in quotes from notable individuals and creative works. It operates as a sister project to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, offering a valuable educational resource under a Creative Commons license. The business model is community-driven and non-commercial, focusing on free knowledge dissemination.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of wikiquote.org. View the latest report

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 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

  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 wikiquote.org

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

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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
75
Security headers
30
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
53
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 site holds a strong market position as a trusted source for quotations, leveraging the Wikimedia Foundation's brand and infrastructure. Its multilingual support and integration with other Wikimedia projects enhance its reach and user engagement. The absence of direct commercial activities aligns with its non-profit status. The partnership ecosystem includes numerous Wikimedia sister projects, reinforcing its credibility and collaborative nature.

Security posture

The website benefits from Wikimedia's robust infrastructure, including HTTPS usage and likely server-level security controls. However, the absence of visible security headers and explicit security policies on the main page suggests room for improvement. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The lack of a security.txt or vulnerability disclosure program limits transparency in incident response readiness.

Recommendations

  1. Implement and publish explicit security headers such as Content-Security-Policy and HSTS.
  2. Add a clear cookie policy and consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response contact information.
  4. Establish a vulnerability disclosure program and security.txt file to enhance transparency.
  5. Improve visibility of contact information for privacy and security inquiries to build trust.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Wikimedia Foundation
Description
Wikiquote is a free compendium of quotations from notable people and creative works, maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation.
Key services
Free quote compendium, Multilingual quote collections, Searchable quote database
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5
Frameworks
MediaWiki
Performance
fast
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
70/100
Good practices seen
  • Use of HTTPS (implied by URL)
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
poor

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is a Wikimedia Foundation project with multilingual support.
  2. Content is educational and freely licensed under Creative Commons.
  3. No direct contact emails or phone numbers found on the main page.
  4. No advertising or tracking scripts detected in the provided HTML.
  5. No explicit security headers visible in HTML source; likely handled at server level.
  6. WHOIS data is unavailable due to malformed request or privacy protection.
  7. Site uses MediaWiki software and standard Wikimedia branding.
  8. Privacy and Terms of Use policies are linked to Wikimedia Foundation pages.
  9. No cookie consent banner or explicit cookie policy found on main page.
  10. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure information found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on the MediaWiki platform, utilizing modern web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. The design is responsive and accessible, providing a good user experience across devices. Performance appears optimized with fast loading times. SEO practices are evident through proper meta tags and structured navigation. The technical stack is mature and well-maintained, consistent with Wikimedia's standards.
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. 68/100 −3Medium30 findingsView report
  2. 71/100Medium24 findingsView report
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