Overview
Findings
Actions
Details
Related
AI-Generated Summary
What this means
ancestry.com scored 80/100, demonstrating a strong security posture. Minor improvements are noted below.
Positive signals: TLS Configuration, DMARC / Email Security, HSTS Header 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 ancestry.com compares
Grade distribution across 2378 companies we've scanned. ancestry.com scores better than 64% of them.
71
A+
22
A
180
A-
181
B+
69
B
333
B-
111
C+
111
C
295
C-
110
D+
92
D
216
D-
587
F
ancestry.com — Grade B- (80/100)
2378 companies scanned
Security checks
Each check inspects a different part of ancestry.com's public security setup. Green means healthy, yellow needs attention, red is a problem.
DNS Configuration
Strengths: 4 nameservers configured (ns-1429.awsdns-50.org., ns-1996.awsdns-57.co.uk., ns-415.awsdns-51.com., ns-737.awsdns-28.net.); 2 MX records present; Zone transfers properly restricted. Issues: DNSSEC not configured — DNS responses can be spoofed.
Known Breaches
1 breach(es) found (1 verified). Total accounts affected: 297,806. Breaches: Ancestry (2015-11-07, 297,806 accounts).
Security Headers
3/5 security headers present. Missing: Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy.
Certificate Hygiene
Strengths: Certificate valid, 50 days remaining; Issued by Google Trust Services. Issues: Wildcard certificate in use — broader attack surface if compromised.
TLS Configuration
TLSv1.3 negotiated with TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256-bit). Strong configuration with no deprecated protocols or weak ciphers detected.
DMARC / Email Security
Strengths: DMARC policy set to quarantine; SPF record present with hard-fail (-all); DKIM configured (selectors: s1, s2, smtpapi).
HSTS Header
HSTS enabled: max-age=31536000 with includeSubDomains and preload. Meets best-practice configuration.
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 ancestry.com's security grade, ranked by impact.
1
Enable DNSSEC on your domain
Without DNSSEC, DNS responses for ancestry.com 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 .com TLD
4
Verify: dig +dnssec ancestry.com
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2
Review unverified breach disclosure
ancestry.com appears in an unverified breach report. This may be a false positive or data aggregation error. Investigate to confirm or rule out exposure.
How to fix this
1
Review the breach details on haveibeenpwned.com
2
Cross-reference with internal incident records
3
If confirmed, follow breach response procedures
3
Add optional security headers (Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy)
ancestry.com has most security headers configured. Missing: Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy. These are best-practice additions that reduce the attack surface for client-side vulnerabilities.
How to fix this
1
Add: Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
2
Add: Permissions-Policy: camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()
3
Verify with: curl -sI https://ancestry.com | grep -iE 'content-security|x-frame|x-content|referrer|permissions'
4
Review certificate configuration
Certificate issues found for ancestry.com: wildcard certificate in use. Wildcard certificates have a broader blast radius if compromised. Ensure auto-renewal is configured to prevent expiry. These are operational hygiene items, not immediate security risks.
How to fix this
1
Verify auto-renewal is configured (Let's Encrypt: certbot renew --dry-run)
2
Consider replacing wildcard cert with individual certs for critical subdomains
3
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=quarantine
Strengths: DMARC policy set to quarantine; SPF record present with hard-fail (-all); DKIM configured (selectors: s1, s2, smtpapi).
SPF Record
Present
v=spf1 ip4:148.163.143.216 ip4:148.163.146.21 ip4:40.92.0.0/15 ip4:40.107.0.0/16 ip4:52.100.0.0/14 i
Security Headers
3/5 present
Missing: Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy
HSTS
Enabled
HSTS enabled: max-age=31536000 with includeSubDomains and preload. Meets best-practice configuration.
SSL Certificate
Issues
Strengths: Certificate valid, 50 days remaining; Issued by Google Trust Services. Issues: Wildcard certificate in use — broader attack surface if compromised.
DNSSEC
Not enabled
Strengths: 4 nameservers configured (ns-1429.awsdns-50.org., ns-1996.awsdns-57.co.uk., ns-415.awsdns-51.com., ns-737.awsdns-28.net.); 2 MX records present; Zone transfers properly restricted. Issues: DNSSEC not configured — DNS responses can be spoofed.