Overview
Findings
Actions
Details
Related
AI-Generated Summary
What this means
alternativeto.net scored 75/100, meeting baseline requirements but with 6 findings that require attention. The vendor can proceed with a remediation timeline agreement.
Critical gaps in: HSTS Header. Positive signals: MX Records & Mail Provider, TLS Configuration, Security Headers all passed.
4 action items identified, including 0 critical. The issues are configuration gaps, not architectural problems. A focused remediation effort of 2–5 days could address all findings.
How alternativeto.net compares
Grade distribution across 2497 companies we've scanned. alternativeto.net scores better than 55% of them.
78
A+
25
A
183
A-
190
B+
72
B
347
B-
120
C+
116
C
319
C-
116
D+
94
D
237
D-
600
F
alternativeto.net — Grade C (75/100)
2497 companies scanned
Security checks
Each check inspects a different part of alternativeto.net's public security setup. Green means healthy, yellow needs attention, red is a problem.
HSTS Header
Strict-Transport-Security header is missing. Connections can be downgraded to HTTP via man-in-the-middle attacks.
MTA-STS & TLS Reporting
Issues: No MTA-STS configured — email in transit is vulnerable to TLS downgrade attacks. Sending servers cannot verify that your mail server requires TLS; No TLSRPT record — TLS delivery failures won't be reported to domain owner.
DNS CAA Records
No CAA records found. Without CAA, any Certificate Authority can issue certificates for this domain. Adding CAA records restricts issuance to authorized CAs only, reducing the risk of misissued certificates.
DNS Configuration
Strengths: 2 nameservers configured (bill.ns.cloudflare.com., jasmine.ns.cloudflare.com.); 7 MX records present; Zone transfers properly restricted. Issues: DNSSEC not configured — DNS responses can be spoofed.
DMARC / Email Security
Strengths: SPF record present with soft-fail (~all); DKIM configured (selectors: google, s1, s2). Issues: DMARC policy is 'none' (monitoring only, no enforcement).
security.txt (RFC 9116)
No security.txt found. Publishing a security.txt at /.well-known/security.txt is the industry standard (RFC 9116) for vulnerability disclosure policies. Its absence may indicate a less mature security program.
Certificate Hygiene
Strengths: Certificate valid, 85 days remaining; Issued by Google Trust Services; 1075 certificates logged in CT. Issues: Certificates issued by 11 different CAs (threshold: 8 for 1075 logged certs) — possible misconfiguration or shadow IT.
MX Records & Mail Provider
Strengths: Mail handled by Google Workspace; 7 MX record(s) configured; Multiple MX records provide redundancy.
TLS Configuration
TLSv1.3 negotiated with TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256-bit). Strong configuration with no deprecated protocols or weak ciphers detected.
Security Headers
4/5 security headers present. Missing: CSP.
TLS Protocol Support
Strengths: TLS 1.3 supported; TLS 1.2 supported; TLS 1.3 supported (strongest). Protocol support: TLS 1.3: Yes, TLS 1.2: Yes, TLS 1.1: No, TLS 1.0: No.
Cookie Security
No cookies set on the homepage response. No cookie security flags to evaluate.
Known Breaches
No known breaches found in public disclosure databases.
CVE Exposure
Detected technologies: cloudflare. (cloudflare detected but excluded from CVE matching — upstream infrastructure). All detected technologies are upstream CDN/proxy infrastructure. No application-level software versions exposed.
Recommended actions
4 items
Steps to improve alternativeto.net's security grade, ranked by impact.
1
Enable HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security)
The HSTS header is missing on alternativeto.net. Without it, connections can be downgraded from HTTPS to HTTP via man-in-the-middle attacks. This is a straightforward server configuration change.
Compliance impact
PCI-DSS 4.0Req 6.4.1
Required application security controls
NIST 800-53SC-8
Transmission confidentiality and integrity
How to fix this
1
Add header: Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload
2
Verify all subdomains support HTTPS before adding includeSubDomains
3
Test with: curl -sI https://alternativeto.net | grep -i strict
4
Submit to hstspreload.org after confirming the header is correct
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2
Strengthen email authentication configuration
Email authentication is partially configured for alternativeto.net but has gaps. Actions needed: upgrade DMARC policy from 'none' to 'quarantine' or 'reject'. Until DMARC enforcement is active, spoofed emails may still reach recipients.
Compliance impact
NIST CSFPR.AC-7
Email authentication is a required access control
How to fix this
1
Upgrade DMARC policy to p=quarantine (then p=reject after monitoring)
2
Verify with: nslookup -type=txt _dmarc.alternativeto.net
3
Enable DNSSEC on your domain
Without DNSSEC, DNS responses for alternativeto.net can be spoofed, potentially redirecting users to malicious sites. This requires coordination with your domain registrar to publish DS records.
Compliance impact
NIST 800-53SC-20
Secure name/address resolution service
How to fix this
1
Check if your DNS provider supports DNSSEC (Cloudflare, Route53, etc.)
2
Enable DNSSEC signing in your DNS provider dashboard
3
Add the DS record to your registrar for .net TLD
4
Verify: dig +dnssec alternativeto.net
4
Review certificate configuration
Certificate issues found for alternativeto.net: . These are operational hygiene items, not immediate security risks.
How to fix this
1
Consolidate certificate issuance to 1–2 trusted CAs
At a glance
Key data points from the scan.
TLS Version
TLSv1.3
TLSv1.3 negotiated with TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256-bit). Strong configuration with no deprecated protocols or weak ciphers detected.
DMARC Policy
p=none
Strengths: SPF record present with soft-fail (~all); DKIM configured (selectors: google, s1, s2). Issues: DMARC policy is 'none' (monitoring only, no enforcement).
SPF Record
Present
v=spf1 a include:_spf.google.com include:mailgun.org include:sendgrid.net include:_spf.mlsend.com ~a
Security Headers
4/5 present
Missing: CSP
HSTS
Not enabled
Strict-Transport-Security header is missing. Connections can be downgraded to HTTP via man-in-the-middle attacks.
SSL Certificate
Issues
Strengths: Certificate valid, 85 days remaining; Issued by Google Trust Services; 1075 certificates logged in CT. Issues: Certificates issued by 11 different CAs (threshold: 8 for 1075 logged certs) — possible misconfiguration or shadow IT.
DNSSEC
Not enabled
Strengths: 2 nameservers configured (bill.ns.cloudflare.com., jasmine.ns.cloudflare.com.); 7 MX records present; Zone transfers properly restricted. Issues: DNSSEC not configured — DNS responses can be spoofed.