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Infrastructure

· 17 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
92
GRADE
A
FIX
1
REVIEW
7
PASS
9
INFO
0
Probed from Madrid, Spain
200 OK
Checks
17
9 PASS 7 REVIEW 1 FIX
D
CDN & Delivery
Action
No CDN detected
FIX
No CDN detected
Warning::
No CDN detected
A CDN can significantly improve load times for users around the world by caching content at edge nodes closer to them.
No CDN detected

Consider using a CDN to improve global delivery speed and reduce origin load.

B
DNSSEC
Unsigned (DNSSEC not deployed)
REVIEW
Unsigned (DNSSEC not deployed)
Info::
DNSSEC is not deployed
The zone is not DNSSEC-signed. Users on validating resolvers (Cloudflare 1.1.1.1, Quad9 9.9.9.9, growing default in mobile resolvers) get no protection against DNS spoofing for this domain. Most registrars now offer DNSSEC at a single click; consider enabling it for sites where authenticity matters (banking, healthcare, government).
B
CAA Records
No CAA records (any CA may issue certificates)
REVIEW
No CAA records (any CA may issue certificates)
Info::
No CAA records published
Without CAA records, any publicly-trusted CA can issue certificates for this domain. Adding a CAA record (`yourdomain. IN CAA 0 issue "letsencrypt.org"`) restricts issuance to CAs you authorize. Required by CAB Forum baseline since 2017; the default of 'any CA' is widely supported but is the broader attack surface for issuance fraud.
B
Crawlability
robots.txt present, no sitemap
REVIEW
robots.txt present, no sitemap
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 243 bytes
Info::
No sitemap.xml found
A sitemap helps search engines discover and index your pages more efficiently.
Info::
robots.txt does not reference a sitemap
Add a 'Sitemap:' directive to robots.txt so search engines can discover your sitemap.

A sitemap helps search engines discover and index your pages more efficiently.

Why this matters

No sitemap.xml — Google relies on crawl-graph discovery alone, slowing indexing of deep or fresh URLs.

Learn more

A sitemap accelerates Google's discovery of new and updated content. Most CMSes auto-generate one; static-site frameworks need a build-step plugin. Reference it from robots.txt and submit in Search Console to confirm Google can fetch it.

Source: sitemaps.org / Google Search Central

Add a 'Sitemap:' directive to robots.txt so search engines can discover your sitemap.

Why this matters

robots.txt omits Sitemap: directive — crawlers must fetch /sitemap.xml by convention; reliable but missing the explicit hint.

Source: sitemaps.org

robots.txt 200 OK
Size 243 B Sitemaps referenced 0 User-agents * Blocking No — crawling allowed
User-Agent: *
Crawl-delay: 30
Disallow: /collapse?
Disallow: /context?
Disallow: /fave?
Disallow: /flag?
Disallow: /hide?
Disallow: /login
Disallow: /logout
Disallow: /r?
Disallow: /reply?
Disallow: /submitlink?
Disallow: /vote?
Disallow: /x?

sitemap.xml No sitemap found

No sitemap found

Adding a sitemap helps search engines discover your pages.

B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
33 days until leaf cert expires — 5 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

33
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • Prefer TLS 1.3 — TLS 1.2 is acceptable but TLS 1.3 removes RSA key exchange and improves latency
  • Add includeSubDomains to the HSTS directive
  • Add the preload directive and submit to hstspreload.org once max-age + includeSubDomains are in place
  • Enable DNSSEC on your domain for DNS spoofing protection
  • Enable OCSP stapling on your TLS server to remove a CA roundtrip and protect user privacy
B
CDN Cache Observability
No CDN cache-status headers in the response
REVIEW
No CDN cache-status headers in the response
Info::
No CDN cache-status headers in the response
Without an X-Cache / CF-Cache-Status / X-Vercel-Cache / Age header, you can't tell from outside whether a request hit the cache or went to origin. Operationally important: enables debugging stale-content reports and verifying cache rules. Most managed CDN platforms emit at least one of these by default; absence often means the platform's diagnostic headers are stripped at an upstream proxy.
B
Operational Status Page
No status page link detected
REVIEW
No status page link detected
Info::
No operational status page link detected
Status pages communicate planned maintenance and incidents to users -- a hallmark of operationally-mature services. Most SaaS teams publish one via Atlassian Statuspage, Instatus, BetterUptime, or a self-hosted Cachet. Smaller sites legitimately don't need one; flagged as Info, not a failure.
B
Health Check Endpoint
No conventional health endpoint found
REVIEW
No conventional health endpoint found
Info::
No conventional health endpoint found
Health endpoints (/health, /healthz, /status, /ping, /api/health) let uptime monitors, load balancers, and orchestration systems (Kubernetes, ECS, Fly.io) verify the service is alive. Marketing sites and small services often skip them legitimately; flagged as Info, not a failure. Probe results: /api/health: 404, /health: 404, /healthz: 404, /ping: 404, /status: 404.
A
DNS Records
1 A records, 34 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 34 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 209.216.230.207
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
Has 1 IPv6 (AAAA) record(s)
Got: 2606:7100:1:67::26
Info::
No NS records found
Info::
No MX records — email not configured via DNS
Info::
No SPF record found in TXT records
SPF helps prevent email spoofing. Add a TXT record starting with 'v=spf1'.
Info::
DNS resolution time: 34 ms
Got: 34 ms
A209.216.230.207
AAAA2606:7100:1:67::26
CNAME
NS
MX
TXT
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 34 ms

Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.

Why this matters

Single A record means a single point of failure — if that IP goes down, your site is unreachable until DNS TTL expires.

Learn more

Add multiple A records for round-robin failover, or use a managed DNS provider with health-checked failover (Route 53, Cloudflare, NS1). Short TTL (60-300s) lets clients recover faster on outages.

Source: SRE practice / DNS architecture

SPF helps prevent email spoofing. Add a TXT record starting with 'v=spf1'.

Why this matters

Without SPF, receiving servers can't validate sending IPs — your domain is easier to spoof in phishing.

Learn more

SPF complements DMARC. Both should be published. SPF records list authorized sending IPs (e.g., `v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all` for Google Workspace). After publishing, verify in Google Postmaster Tools or mxtoolbox.

Source: RFC 7208 (SPF)

A+
Subdomain Takeover
No subdomain takeover risk detected
PASS
No subdomain takeover risk detected
Info::
No CNAME record present
A
Reverse DNS
1/2 IPs match cert SAN
PASS
1/2 IPs match cert SAN
Info::
PTR for 209.216.230.207 matches certificate SAN: news.ycombinator.com
Info::
PTR lookup failed for 2606:7100:1:67::26: lookup 2606:7100:1:67::26: no such host
No reverse DNS record set for this IP. Common on bare cloud-VM IPs without provider-side PTR; not a security issue.
A+
Multi-Resolver DNS Speed
Mean 15ms across 3 resolvers (spread 23ms)
PASS
Mean 15ms across 3 resolvers (spread 23ms)
Info::
Quad9: 2ms
Got: 2ms via 9.9.9.9:53
Info::
Cloudflare: 19ms
Got: 19ms via 1.1.1.1:53
Info::
Google: 25ms
Got: 25ms via 8.8.8.8:53
A+
Redirect Chain
No redirects — direct access
PASS
No redirects — direct access
Info::
No redirects — direct access
Got: https://news.ycombinator.com

https://news.ycombinator.com

633 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://news.ycombinator.com200633 msHTTP/1.1nginx
A+
IPv6 Readiness
IPv6 reachable (158 ms)
PASS
IPv6 reachable (158 ms)
Info::
IPv6 is configured and reachable at 2606:7100:1:67::26
Got: 158 ms connect
IPv6 Ready
AAAA Records 2606:7100:1:67::26 Connection Reachable (158 ms)
A+
URL Variants
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
PASS
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
Info::
HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

www / non-www

https://www.news.ycombinator.com/
200https://news.ycombinator.com/

HTTP → HTTPS

301http://news.ycombinator.com/ https://news.ycombinator.com/

Consistent

A+
Domain Intelligence
ycombinator.com — via Gandi SAS, 21 years, 5 months old, hosted on AWS
PASS
ycombinator.com — via Gandi SAS, 21 years, 5 months old, hosted on AWS
Info::
Domain registered until Mar 20, 2027 (10 months remaining)
Info::
DNSSEC is not enabled
DNSSEC protects against DNS spoofing attacks. While not required, enabling DNSSEC adds an additional layer of security. Contact your DNS provider to enable it.
Info::
Registrar: Gandi SAS
Warning::
Registrar lock is NOT enabled
The domain can be transferred without an unlock step. Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) in your registrar's control panel to protect against unauthorized or accidental transfers.
Info::
Hosting: AWS
Got: AS16509
Domain expiry

307 days

March 20, 2027

SSL certificate

33 days

Issued by Let's Encrypt

Domain age

21 years, 5 months

Registered March 20, 2005

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

AWS

ASN AS16509

52.222.154.83

Registrar

Gandi SAS

Unlocked 4 NS records
Expiry timeline
Today
+1 year
Domain expiry SSL expiry Danger zone (≤30 days)
Recommended actions
  • Enable DNSSEC to protect visitors from DNS spoofing
  • Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) to block unauthorized domain transfers
Registrar Gandi SAS
Created March 20, 2005 (21 years, 5 months ago)
Expires March 20, 2027 (10 months)
Last Updated February 13, 2026
Name Servers ns-1411.awsdns-48.org, ns-1914.awsdns-47.co.uk, ns-225.awsdns-28.com, ns-556.awsdns-05.net
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 52.222.154.83
ASN AS16509 (AMAZON-02 - Amazon.com, Inc., US)
Provider AWS
Data source: rdap (0.3s)

DNSSEC protects against DNS spoofing attacks. While not required, enabling DNSSEC adds an additional layer of security. Contact your DNS provider to enable it.

Why this matters

Without DNSSEC, an attacker who can poison your DNS can hijack your domain — and SSL certs alone don't stop them.

Learn more

DNSSEC adds cryptographic signatures to DNS records, preventing forged responses from poisoning resolver caches. Without it, an attacker who controls the network path can redirect your domain to a malicious server before any HTTPS handshake happens. Most modern registrars (Cloudflare, Google Domains, Route 53) enable it with one toggle.

Source: ICANN / RFC 4033

The domain can be transferred without an unlock step. Enable registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited) in your registrar's control panel to protect against unauthorized or accidental transfers.

Why this matters

Without registrar lock, an attacker who phishes your registrar credentials can transfer the domain in minutes — total brand hijack.

Learn more

Registrar lock (clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited, clientDeleteProhibited) requires extra verification before any transfer/update/delete. Every major registrar offers it free. Combined with 2FA on your registrar account, it's the strongest defense against domain hijacking.

Source: ICANN / domain-security best practice

A
HTTP Probe Timing
Total 672 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
37 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
158 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
319 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
672 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
672 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 37 ms TCP Connect 158 ms TLS Handshake 319 ms Server Processing 159 ms Content Transfer 0 ms
All checks on this page are automated. Results are estimates - run targeted manual reviews when the score affects a release decision.

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