Overview
Findings
Actions
Details
Related
AI-Generated Summary
What this means
duckduckgo.com scored 98/100, demonstrating a strong security posture. Minor improvements are noted below.
Positive signals: TLS Configuration, TLS Protocol Support, HSTS Header all passed.
1 action item 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 duckduckgo.com compares
Grade distribution across 2445 companies we've scanned. duckduckgo.com scores better than 97% of them.
75
A+
24
A
180
A-
187
B+
71
B
342
B-
118
C+
112
C
308
C-
114
D+
93
D
226
D-
595
F
duckduckgo.com — Grade A+ (98/100)
2445 companies scanned
Security checks
Each check inspects a different part of duckduckgo.com's public security setup. Green means healthy, yellow needs attention, red is a problem.
MX Records & Mail Provider
Strengths: Mail handled by Microsoft 365; 1 MX record(s) configured. Issues: Only 1 MX record — no failover if primary mail server is unavailable.
MTA-STS & TLS Reporting
Strengths: SMTP TLS Reporting (TLSRPT) configured — delivery failures will be reported. Issues: No MTA-STS configured — email in transit is vulnerable to TLS downgrade attacks. Sending servers cannot verify that your mail server requires TLS.
DNS CAA Records
Strengths: CAA records configured (2 record(s)); Authorized CAs: digicert.com, letsencrypt.org. Issues: No iodef record — CA violations won't be reported to the domain owner.
DNS Configuration
Strengths: 8 nameservers configured (dns3.p05.nsone.net., dns4.p05.nsone.net., ns01.quack-dns.com., ns02.quack-dns.com.); 1 MX records present; Zone transfers properly restricted. Issues: DNSSEC not configured — DNS responses can be spoofed.
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.
TLS Configuration
TLSv1.3 negotiated with TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256-bit). Strong configuration with no deprecated protocols or weak ciphers detected.
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.
HSTS Header
HSTS enabled: max-age=31536000s (365 days). Missing includeSubDomains — subdomains not covered. Missing preload directive.
Security Headers
All 5 recommended security headers present: CSP, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy.
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.
DMARC / Email Security
Strengths: DMARC policy set to reject (strongest); SPF record present with hard-fail (-all); DKIM configured (selectors: selector1, s1).
CVE Exposure
Detected technologies: nginx. No version information exposed — CVE matching not possible (this is good practice).
Certificate Hygiene
Strengths: Certificate valid, 258 days remaining; Issued by DigiCert Inc. Note: Wildcard certificate in use (*.domain) — covers all subdomains. Common practice; worth noting that compromise would affect all subdomains.
Recommended actions
1 item
Steps to improve duckduckgo.com's security grade, ranked by impact.
1
Enable DNSSEC on your domain
Without DNSSEC, DNS responses for duckduckgo.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 duckduckgo.com
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=reject
Strengths: DMARC policy set to reject (strongest); SPF record present with hard-fail (-all); DKIM configured (selectors: selector1, s1).
SPF Record
Present
v=spf1 include:mailer.duckduckgo.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:duck.com -all
Security Headers
5/5 present
All headers configured.
HSTS
Enabled
HSTS enabled: max-age=31536000s (365 days). Missing includeSubDomains — subdomains not covered. Missing preload directive.
SSL Certificate
Valid
Strengths: Certificate valid, 258 days remaining; Issued by DigiCert Inc. Note: Wildcard certificate in use (*.domain) — covers all subdomains. Common practice; worth noting that compromise would affect all subdomains.
DNSSEC
Not enabled
Strengths: 8 nameservers configured (dns3.p05.nsone.net., dns4.p05.nsone.net., ns01.quack-dns.com., ns02.quack-dns.com.); 1 MX records present; Zone transfers properly restricted. Issues: DNSSEC not configured — DNS responses can be spoofed.