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Security report for wikisource.org

Wikimedia Foundation · Education · N/a

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

72/100

Risk levelMedium

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

Wikisource is a free digital library project operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, providing access to source texts in multiple languages under free licenses. It serves a broad audience including researchers, students, and the general public interested in freely accessible source materials. The website is well-established, with a domain age consistent with the project's founding in 2003, and is part of the trusted Wikimedia ecosystem. Technically, the site is powered by MediaWiki software, a mature and widely used platform for collaborative content management. The infrastructure appears robust, with modern web technologies, good mobile optimization, and fast performance. Security is strong with HTTPS enforced and domain status flags preventing unauthorized domain changes, although DNSSEC is not enabled. Security posture is solid with no visible vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data. However, explicit security policies, privacy policies, and cookie consent mechanisms are not found on the main page, which slightly reduces privacy compliance scores. The site does not engage in advertising or extensive user tracking, aligning with Wikimedia's non-profit and privacy-respecting ethos. Overall, Wikisource presents a trustworthy, professional, and high-quality educational resource with strong technical and security foundations. Strategic recommendations include publishing explicit privacy and security policies and enabling DNSSEC to further enhance domain security.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
68/ 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

4 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 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 wikisource.org

This scan found 19 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
40
Email security
70
DNS health
80
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
68
Average
72

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

Wikisource operates as a non-profit digital library under the Wikimedia Foundation, targeting a global audience interested in free source texts. Its business model relies on community contributions and donations, with no commercial advertising. The project benefits from the strong brand and infrastructure of the Wikimedia Foundation, positioning it as a leading free source text repository. Partnerships with Wikimedia donation and foundation domains support its funding and governance. The platform's open and collaborative nature fosters continuous content growth and quality improvement.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with enforced HTTPS, domain status protections, and no visible security vulnerabilities in the HTML content. The absence of DNSSEC is a minor gap. No explicit security or incident response policies are published on the main page, which could be improved for transparency. The site uses CSRF tokens in scripts, indicating protection against common web attacks. No tracking or advertising scripts reduce privacy risks. Overall, the security maturity is high but could benefit from more explicit policy disclosures.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with GDPR compliance details.
  2. Implement and enable DNSSEC to enhance DNS security.
  3. Publish explicit security and incident response policies accessible to users.
  4. Consider adding contact information or a dedicated security contact channel.
  5. Maintain and regularly audit security headers and web application protections.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Wikimedia Foundation
Description
Wikisource is a free library of source texts, part of the Wikimedia Foundation projects, providing access to freely licensed or public domain texts in multiple languages.
Key services
Free access to source texts, Multilingual content, Collaborative editing and proofreading
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
MediaWiki 1.45.0, JavaScript, CSS, HTML5
Frameworks
MediaWiki
Platforms
Web
Performance
fast
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status includes clientDeleteProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • CSRF tokens present in scripts

Analytics and tracking

Tracking level
minimal
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Transparency
excellent

Site quality

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

Key observations

  1. Website is part of the Wikimedia Foundation ecosystem.
  2. Content is freely accessible and educational.
  3. No commercial advertising or tracking detected.
  4. Strong use of HTTPS and domain security status flags.
  5. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found on main page.
  6. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly listed on main page.
  7. Site uses MediaWiki platform with modern version.
  8. No signs of WAF or content blocking.
Technical notes

Notes

The site uses MediaWiki 1.45.0, a modern and well-supported CMS platform. The technology stack includes standard web technologies (HTML5, CSS, JavaScript) with no deprecated or vulnerable libraries detected. Performance is fast with good mobile optimization and accessibility features. SEO is supported by proper meta tags and Open Graph data. Hosting is likely Wikimedia Foundation's own infrastructure, ensuring reliability and scalability. Technical risks are minimal, with opportunities to improve DNS security and policy 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

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 72/100 −1Medium28 findingsView report
  2. 73/100Medium23 findingsView report
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