# BeaverCheck Audit Report — https://www.msn.com

**Date:** April 17, 2026  
**URL:** https://www.msn.com  
**Overall Grade:** D (63/100)  
**Report:** https://beavercheck.com/results/979ec07d-bfaa-4c92-9ff1-06ae7adc5765

## Top Findings

1. **[CRITICAL]** 'unsafe-eval' found in script source — Security > Content Security Policy
2. **[CRITICAL]** 'unsafe-inline' found in script source — Security > Content Security Policy
3. **[CRITICAL]** Cookie 'MUIDB' is missing the Secure flag — Security > Cookie Security
4. **[CRITICAL]** Cookie '_C_Auth' is missing the Secure flag — Security > Cookie Security
5. **[CRITICAL]** Cookie '_EDGE_S' is missing the Secure flag — Security > Cookie Security

---

## Security

### Security Headers (C — 55/100)

*5 of 10 headers properly configured*

- **[WARNING]** HSTS max-age is too short (1209600s, should be ≥ 31536000s) — A short max-age leaves a window for downgrade attacks. Set max-age to at least 31536000 (1 year).
- **[PASS]** X-Content-Type-Options is properly configured
- **[PASS]** X-Frame-Options is properly configured
- **[WARNING]** Referrer-Policy header is missing — Controls how much referrer information is sent with requests. Set to 'strict-origin-when-cross-origin' or stricter.
- **[WARNING]** Permissions-Policy header is missing — Controls which browser features (camera, microphone, geolocation) are allowed. Set it to restrict unused features.
- **[PASS]** Content-Security-Policy is present
- **[WARNING]** Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy header is missing — COOP isolates your browsing context, preventing cross-origin side-channel attacks. Set to 'same-origin'.
- **[WARNING]** Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy header is missing — COEP prevents loading cross-origin resources without explicit permission. Required for SharedArrayBuffer and high-resolution timers.
- **[PASS]** X-Powered-By header is not present
- **[PASS]** Server header is present without version info

### Content Security Policy (D — 45/100)

*4 of 10 CSP checks passed*

- **[INFO]** Raw CSP policy
- **[PASS]** default-src directive is set
- **[CRITICAL]** 'unsafe-inline' found in script source — 'unsafe-inline' allows inline <script> tags, defeating CSP against XSS. Remove it and use nonces or hashes instead.
- **[CRITICAL]** 'unsafe-eval' found in script source — 'unsafe-eval' allows eval() and similar functions, enabling code injection. Remove it.
- **[PASS]** No wildcard in script source
- **[PASS]** object-src falls back to default-src
- **[WARNING]** base-uri directive is missing — Without base-uri, attackers can inject a <base> tag to hijack relative URLs. Set it to 'self' or 'none'.
- **[PASS]** frame-ancestors directive is set
- **[WARNING]** form-action directive is missing — form-action restricts where forms can submit data, preventing form hijacking.
- **[INFO]** upgrade-insecure-requests is not set — This directive upgrades HTTP resources to HTTPS automatically, preventing mixed content.

### TLS & Certificates (A+ — 100/100)

*TLS 1.3, 7 checks passed*

- **[PASS]** TLS 1.3 is used
- **[PASS]** Strong cipher suite is used
- **[INFO]** HTTP/2 is not negotiated — HTTP/2 provides multiplexing and header compression for better performance.
- **[PASS]** Certificate is valid (expires in 293 days)
- **[PASS]** Certificate chain has 3 certificates
- **[PASS]** Certificate uses modern signature algorithm
- **[PASS]** Certificate covers 3 domain(s)
- **[PASS]** Certificate is issued by a trusted CA

### Cookie Security (D — 40/100)

*9 cookies analyzed, 13 checks passed*

- **[PASS]** Cookie '_C_ETH' has the Secure flag
- **[PASS]** Cookie '_C_ETH' has the HttpOnly flag
- **[WARNING]** Cookie '_C_ETH' has no SameSite attribute — Without an explicit SameSite attribute, browser default behavior varies. Set SameSite=Lax or Strict.
- **[CRITICAL]** Cookie '_C_Auth' is missing the Secure flag — Without the Secure flag, this cookie can be sent over unencrypted HTTP, exposing it to interception.
- **[WARNING]** Cookie '_C_Auth' is missing the HttpOnly flag — Without HttpOnly, this cookie can be accessed by JavaScript, making it vulnerable to XSS-based theft.
- **[WARNING]** Cookie '_C_Auth' has no SameSite attribute — Without an explicit SameSite attribute, browser default behavior varies. Set SameSite=Lax or Strict.
- **[PASS]** Cookie 'Web-User' has the Secure flag
- **[PASS]** Cookie 'Web-User' has the HttpOnly flag
- **[PASS]** Cookie 'Web-User' has SameSite=None
- **[CRITICAL]** Cookie 'sptmarket' is missing the Secure flag — Without the Secure flag, this cookie can be sent over unencrypted HTTP, exposing it to interception.
- **[WARNING]** Cookie 'sptmarket' is missing the HttpOnly flag — Without HttpOnly, this cookie can be accessed by JavaScript, making it vulnerable to XSS-based theft.
- **[WARNING]** Cookie 'sptmarket' has no SameSite attribute — Without an explicit SameSite attribute, browser default behavior varies. Set SameSite=Lax or Strict.
- **[PASS]** Cookie 'USRLOC' has the Secure flag
- **[PASS]** Cookie 'USRLOC' has the HttpOnly flag
- **[PASS]** Cookie 'USRLOC' has SameSite=None
- **[PASS]** Cookie 'MUID' has the Secure flag
- **[WARNING]** Cookie 'MUID' is missing the HttpOnly flag — Without HttpOnly, this cookie can be accessed by JavaScript, making it vulnerable to XSS-based theft.
- **[PASS]** Cookie 'MUID' has SameSite=None
- **[CRITICAL]** Cookie 'MUIDB' is missing the Secure flag — Without the Secure flag, this cookie can be sent over unencrypted HTTP, exposing it to interception.
- **[PASS]** Cookie 'MUIDB' has the HttpOnly flag
- **[WARNING]** Cookie 'MUIDB' has no SameSite attribute — Without an explicit SameSite attribute, browser default behavior varies. Set SameSite=Lax or Strict.
- **[CRITICAL]** Cookie '_EDGE_S' is missing the Secure flag — Without the Secure flag, this cookie can be sent over unencrypted HTTP, exposing it to interception.
- **[PASS]** Cookie '_EDGE_S' has the HttpOnly flag
- **[WARNING]** Cookie '_EDGE_S' has no SameSite attribute — Without an explicit SameSite attribute, browser default behavior varies. Set SameSite=Lax or Strict.
- **[CRITICAL]** Cookie '_EDGE_V' is missing the Secure flag — Without the Secure flag, this cookie can be sent over unencrypted HTTP, exposing it to interception.
- **[PASS]** Cookie '_EDGE_V' has the HttpOnly flag
- **[WARNING]** Cookie '_EDGE_V' has no SameSite attribute — Without an explicit SameSite attribute, browser default behavior varies. Set SameSite=Lax or Strict.

---

## Advanced Security

### Subresource Integrity (A+ — 100/100)

*No external resources*

- **[PASS]** No external resources to protect

### JS Library Vulnerabilities (A+ — 100/100)

*No known vulnerabilities*

- **[PASS]** No known JavaScript library vulnerabilities detected

### Information Leakage (A+ — 100/100)

*No exposures*

- **[INFO]** No security.txt found — Consider adding a security.txt at /.well-known/security.txt.
- **[PASS]** No sensitive files exposed

### Email Security (F — 30/100)

*No DMARC*

- **[WARNING]** No DMARC record found — Without DMARC, email receivers have no policy for handling authentication failures.

### Permissions-Policy (D — 40/100)

*No header set*

- **[WARNING]** No Permissions-Policy header — Consider adding a Permissions-Policy header to restrict browser feature access from embedded content.

### CORS Configuration (B — 80/100)

*No CORS headers*

- **[PASS]** No CORS headers present — secure default

---

## Infrastructure

### DNS Records (B — 75/100)

*1 A records, 62 ms lookup*

- **[PASS]** Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
- **[INFO]** Single A record — no DNS redundancy — Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
- **[INFO]** No IPv6 (AAAA) records
- **[WARNING]** CNAME record at zone apex — A CNAME at the zone apex can break MX and NS records. Use ALIAS/ANAME or A records instead.
- **[INFO]** No NS records found
- **[INFO]** No MX records — email not configured via DNS
- **[INFO]** CAA records not checked — CAA record lookup requires a specialized DNS resolver. This check will be available in a future update.
- **[INFO]** No SPF record found in TXT records — SPF helps prevent email spoofing. Add a TXT record starting with 'v=spf1'.
- **[PASS]** DNS resolution time: 62 ms

### Redirect Chain (A+ — 100/100)

*No redirects — direct access*

- **[PASS]** No redirects — direct access

### IPv6 Readiness (C — 60/100)

*No IPv6 support*

- **[INFO]** No IPv6 (AAAA) records found — IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.

### Crawlability (A+ — 100/100)

*robots.txt present, sitemap with 60 URLs*

- **[PASS]** robots.txt is present
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml is present
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml is valid XML
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml contains 60 entries
- **[PASS]** Sitemap index with 60 child sitemaps
- **[PASS]** robots.txt references sitemap

### URL Variants (A+ — 100/100)

*www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS*

- **[PASS]** www/non-www redirect configured correctly (preferred: www)
- **[PASS]** HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

### Domain Intelligence (A — 90/100)

*msn.com — via MarkMonitor Inc., 31 years, 10 months old, hosted on Microsoft Azure*

- **[WARNING]** Domain expires in 38 days — Consider enabling auto-renewal to prevent accidental expiration.
- **[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.
- **[PASS]** Registrar: MarkMonitor Inc.
- **[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.
- **[PASS]** Hosting: Microsoft Azure

---

## Compliance

### WCAG Compliance (A+ — 100/100)

*No testable criteria*


### Cookie Consent & Privacy (B — 80/100)

*No consent signals detected*

- **[WARNING]** No privacy policy link detected — A privacy policy page is recommended for transparency and may be legally required.
- **[INFO]** No terms of service link detected
- **[INFO]** No cookie consent banner detected
- **[PASS]** 9 cookie(s) set on initial load (functional)
- **[INFO]** This is an automated check, not legal advice — BeaverCheck detects technical indicators of consent management. This does not constitute a legal compliance assessment. Consult a privacy professional for GDPR/CCPA compliance.

### Language & i18n (F — 5/100)

*Missing <html lang>*

- **[WARNING]** <html lang> attribute is missing — The lang attribute on <html> is required for screen readers and WCAG 3.1.1 compliance.
- **[INFO]** No Content-Language HTTP header
- **[PASS]** Language signals are consistent

### Readability & Typography (A+ — 100/100)

*Font sizes and tap targets checked*


### Viewport Configuration (F — 30/100)

*No viewport meta tag*

- **[CRITICAL]** No viewport meta tag found — Without a viewport meta tag, the page will not render correctly on mobile devices.

---

## Availability

### CDN & Delivery (D — 50/100)

*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.

### HTTP Caching (F — 30/100)

*No cache headers*

- **[WARNING]** No Cache-Control header found — Browsers will use heuristic caching, which can be unpredictable. Set explicit cache headers.

---

## UX

### 404 Error Page (A — 90/100)

*HTTP 404, custom page*

- **[PASS]** Correct 404 status code returned
- **[PASS]** Custom styled 404 page
- **[PASS]** Navigation links present on 404 page
- **[PASS]** Homepage link present on 404 page
- **[PASS]** Search form present on 404 page

### Favicon & Branding (F — 15/100)

*1 icon(s) detected*

- **[PASS]** favicon.ico present at site root
- **[INFO]** No apple-touch-icon detected — iOS devices use this when users add your site to their home screen. Add <link rel='apple-touch-icon' sizes='180x180' href='/apple-touch-icon.png'>.

### Web Manifest (D — 40/100)

*Not found*

- **[INFO]** No web manifest found — No manifest at standard paths (/manifest.json, /site.webmanifest). A manifest is optional but enables PWA features like home screen installation and standalone display.

### Dark Mode Support (D — 40/100)

*No dark mode signals*

- **[INFO]** No dark mode signals detected — Consider adding CSS with @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) and <meta name='color-scheme' content='light dark'>.
- **[INFO]** Detection limited to meta tags and inline styles — External CSS files may contain prefers-color-scheme rules not visible to this scan.

### Print Stylesheet (D — 40/100)

*No print styles*

- **[INFO]** No print-specific styles detected — When users print this page, they get the screen layout including navigation and non-essential elements. Add @media print rules to hide navigation and optimize layout for paper.

### Navigation UX (F — 0/100)

*No navigation patterns*

- **[INFO]** No breadcrumbs, search, or skip link detected — These navigation aids help users orient themselves and find content efficiently, especially on large sites.

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*Generated by [BeaverCheck](https://beavercheck.com) — https://beavercheck.com/results/979ec07d-bfaa-4c92-9ff1-06ae7adc5765*