Overview
Findings
Actions
Details
Related
AI-Generated Summary
What this means
bitcointalk.org scored 70/100, meeting baseline requirements but with 8 findings that require attention. The vendor can proceed with a remediation timeline agreement.
Critical gaps in: Security Headers. Positive signals: MX Records & Mail Provider, TLS Protocol Support, TLS Configuration all passed.
5 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 bitcointalk.org compares
Grade distribution across 2436 companies we've scanned. bitcointalk.org scores better than 42% of them.
75
A+
24
A
183
A-
186
B+
70
B
342
B-
117
C+
111
C
307
C-
113
D+
93
D
220
D-
595
F
bitcointalk.org — Grade C- (70/100)
2436 companies scanned
Security checks
Each check inspects a different part of bitcointalk.org's public security setup. Green means healthy, yellow needs attention, red is a problem.
Security Headers
2/5 security headers present. Missing: CSP, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy. This exposes the application to clickjacking, MIME-sniffing, and other client-side 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 (amy.ns.cloudflare.com., brad.ns.cloudflare.com.); 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: 501,407. Breaches: Bitcoin Talk (2015-05-22, 501,407 accounts).
HSTS Header
HSTS configured with max-age=2592000s (30 days) — below the recommended 180-day minimum (15552000s). Browsers will enforce HTTPS but the policy caches for a short window. Increase max-age to 15552000 or higher.
Cookie Security
Strengths: 1 cookie(s) analyzed; All cookies have Secure flag; All cookies have HttpOnly flag. Issues: 1/1 cookie(s) missing SameSite attribute (sessionid).
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, 58 days remaining; Issued by Google Trust Services; 144 certificates logged in CT. Issues: Certificates issued by 8 different CAs (threshold: 5 for 144 logged certs) — possible misconfiguration or shadow IT. Note: Wildcard certificate in use (*.domain) — covers all subdomains. Common practice; worth noting that compromise would affect all subdomains.
MX Records & Mail Provider
Strengths: Mail handled by in1-smtp.messagingengine.com; 2 MX record(s) configured; Multiple MX records provide redundancy.
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.
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). Issues: DMARC has no aggregate report URI (rua); No DKIM records found for common selectors (domain may use custom selectors — this is not a confirmed gap).
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
5 items
Steps to improve bitcointalk.org's security grade, ranked by impact.
1
Add missing security headers (CSP, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy)
3 of 5 recommended security headers are missing on bitcointalk.org: CSP, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy. These headers protect against clickjacking, MIME-sniffing, and unauthorized browser feature access. Adding them is a server configuration change with no application code changes required.
Compliance impact
PCI-DSS 4.0Req 6.4.1
Security headers are required application controls
OWASPSecure Headers
Recommended baseline for web applications
How to fix this
1
Add a Content-Security-Policy header. Safe starting value (works with Google Fonts and inline styles/scripts): default-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' https://fonts.googleapis.com; font-src 'self' https://fonts.gstatic.com; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'; upgrade-insecure-requests. Test your site after adding it, then tighten over time by removing 'unsafe-inline'.
2
Add: Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin
3
Add: Permissions-Policy: camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()
4
Verify with: curl -sI https://bitcointalk.org | grep -iE 'content-security|x-frame|x-content|referrer|permissions'
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2
Enable DNSSEC on your domain
Without DNSSEC, DNS responses for bitcointalk.org 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 .org TLD
4
Verify: dig +dnssec bitcointalk.org
3
Review unverified breach disclosure
bitcointalk.org 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
4
Increase HSTS max-age duration
HSTS is enabled but the max-age (0s) is below the recommended minimum of 15768000s (6 months). A short max-age means browsers forget the HTTPS-only policy quickly, reducing protection between visits.
Compliance impact
PCI-DSS 4.0Req 6.4.1
Application security header configuration
How to fix this
1
Update header: Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload
2
Verify: curl -sI https://bitcointalk.org | grep -i strict
5
Review certificate configuration
Certificate issues found for bitcointalk.org: 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). Issues: DMARC has no aggregate report URI (rua); No DKIM records found for common selectors (domain may use custom selectors — this is not a confirmed gap).
SPF Record
Present
v=spf1 ip4:52.45.214.107 include:spf.messagingengine.com include:amazonses.com -all
Security Headers
2/5 present
Missing: CSP, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy
HSTS
Not enabled
HSTS configured with max-age=2592000s (30 days) — below the recommended 180-day minimum (15552000s). Browsers will enforce HTTPS but the policy caches for a short window. Increase max-age to 15552000 or higher.
SSL Certificate
Issues
Strengths: Certificate valid, 58 days remaining; Issued by Google Trust Services; 144 certificates logged in CT. Issues: Certificates issued by 8 different CAs (threshold: 5 for 144 logged certs) — possible misconfiguration or shadow IT. Note: Wildcard certificate in use (*.domain) — covers all subdomains. Common practice; worth noting that compromise would affect all subdomains.
DNSSEC
Not enabled
Strengths: 2 nameservers configured (amy.ns.cloudflare.com., brad.ns.cloudflare.com.); 2 MX records present; Zone transfers properly restricted. Issues: DNSSEC not configured — DNS responses can be spoofed.