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

**Date:** April 12, 2026  
**URL:** https://www.brave.com  
**Overall Grade:** C (79/100)  
**Report:** https://beavercheck.com/results/a3a3e500-377c-4ff7-9169-1fad7cf371c1

## Top Findings

1. **[CRITICAL]** Content-Security-Policy header is missing — Security > Security Headers
2. **[CRITICAL]** HSTS header is missing — Security > Security Headers
3. **[CRITICAL]** No Content-Security-Policy header found — Security > Content Security Policy
4. **[CRITICAL]** 2 button(s) with no accessible text — Accessibility > Link & Button Quality
5. **[CRITICAL]** 2 image-only link(s) without alt text — Accessibility > Link & Button Quality

---

## Lighthouse Scores

| Category | Score |
|----------|-------|
| Performance | 84 |
| Accessibility | 93 |
| Best Practices | 100 |
| SEO | 92 |

---

## Security

### Security Headers (F — 10/100)

*2 of 10 headers properly configured*

- **[CRITICAL]** HSTS header is missing — Strict-Transport-Security forces browsers to use HTTPS, preventing downgrade attacks. Add the header with a max-age of at least 1 year.
- **[WARNING]** X-Content-Type-Options header is missing — This header prevents MIME-type sniffing, which can lead to XSS attacks. Set it to 'nosniff'.
- **[WARNING]** X-Frame-Options header is missing — This header prevents clickjacking by controlling who can embed your page in a frame. Set it to DENY or SAMEORIGIN.
- **[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.
- **[CRITICAL]** Content-Security-Policy header is missing — CSP is the most important header for preventing XSS attacks. See the CSP section for detailed analysis.
- **[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 (F — 0/100)

*No enforcing CSP policy found*

- **[CRITICAL]** No Content-Security-Policy header found — CSP is the most effective defense against XSS attacks. Add a Content-Security-Policy header to restrict resource loading.

### 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 190 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 (A+ — 100/100)

*No cookies set — no cookie security risks*

- **[PASS]** No cookies set — no cookie security risks

---

## 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*

- **[PASS]** security.txt is present — good practice
- **[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

---

## Performance

### Page Weight Budget (A+ — 100/100)

*522 KB transferred, 55 requests*

- **[PASS]** Page weighs 2.2 MB (522 KB transferred)
- **[INFO]** 55 HTTP requests
- **[INFO]** Estimated 0.11 g CO2 per page load

### Third-Party Impact (D — 50/100)

*100% third-party, 0 ms blocking*

- **[WARNING]** Third-party code accounts for 100% of page weight (521.3 KiB of 521.5 KiB)
- **[PASS]** Third-party blocking time is low (0 ms)

### Text Compression (A+ — 100/100)

*All text resources are compressed*

- **[PASS]** All text resources are compressed

### Image Optimization (C — 60/100)

*21 images, 0 KB saveable*

- **[WARNING]** https://brave.com/static-assets/images/brave-logo.... is missing width/height — may cause layout shift — Set explicit width and height to prevent CLS.
- **[WARNING]** https://brave.com/static-assets/images/brave-logo-... is missing width/height — may cause layout shift — Set explicit width and height to prevent CLS.
- **[WARNING]** https://brave.com/home-assets/images/app-illustrat... is missing width/height — may cause layout shift — Set explicit width and height to prevent CLS.

### JS Execution Cost (D — 40/100)

*2368ms total JS execution*

- **[WARNING]** https://brave.com/js/lottie-player.f8a02068d6eea90...: 785ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** https://brave.com/: 674ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** Unattributable: 464ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** https://brave.com/js/tabs.4422877367929b6c6bcf6f97...: 379ms CPU time
- **[INFO]** https://brave.com/js/navigation.dfd1f44125a1e31a3a...: 66ms CPU time
- **[WARNING]** Third-party scripts: 2368ms (100% of total)

### Font Loading (A+ — 100/100)

*7 fonts (134 KB)*

- **[INFO]** 7 font(s) use font-display: swap (FOUT risk but functional)

### JS Bundles (A+ — 100/100)

*17 scripts, 21 KB unused*

- **[WARNING]** https://brave.com/js/lottie-player.f8a02068d6eea90...: 21 KB unused (47%) — Consider code splitting or tree shaking to reduce unused code.
- **[INFO]** Total unused JavaScript: 21 KB

### Resource Caching (A+ — 100/100)

*All resources properly cached*

- **[PASS]** No caching issues found

### Critical Rendering Path (A+ — 100/100)

*No render-blocking resources*

- **[PASS]** No render-blocking resources detected

### Resource Hints (A+ — 100/100)

*3 hints, 0 missing preconnects*

- **[PASS]** Page uses 3 resource hint(s)

### Render-Blocking Resources (A+ — 100/100)

*No render-blocking resources detected*

- **[PASS]** No render-blocking resources detected in <head>

### Third-Party Resources (A+ — 100/100)

*No third-party resources detected*


---

## Content Quality

### Links (B — 88/100)

*188 links checked, 185 healthy, 2 broken*

- **[WARNING]** 185 of 188 links are healthy
- **[WARNING]** Broken link: https://referrals.brave.com — Found in <link href>. Returns HTTP 404.
- **[WARNING]** Broken link: https://analytics.brave.com — Found in <link href>. Returns HTTP 401.
- **[INFO]** Long redirect chain: https://www.brave.com/ios/ (4 hops)

### Mixed Content (A+ — 100/100)

*No mixed content detected — all resources use HTTPS.*

- **[PASS]** No mixed content detected — all resources use HTTPS

### Open Graph (A+ — 100/100)

*Open Graph tags are well configured for social sharing.*

- **[INFO]** og:description is long (206 characters) — Descriptions over 200 characters may be truncated in social sharing previews.

### Structured Data (A+ — 100/100)

*2 JSON-LD block(s) found — structured data is well configured.*

- **[PASS]** Custom type "WebPage" — unable to validate specific properties
- **[PASS]** 2 JSON-LD blocks found

---

## Infrastructure

### DNS Records (A — 85/100)

*4 A records, 37 ms lookup*

- **[PASS]** Resolves to 4 IPv4 address(es)
- **[PASS]** Has 8 IPv6 (AAAA) record(s)
- **[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.
- **[PASS]** 4 nameserver(s) configured
- **[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: 37 ms

### Redirect Chain (A — 90/100)

*1 redirect(s), 172 ms total*

- **[PASS]** Single redirect
- **[INFO]** WWW normalization redirect

### IPv6 Readiness (A+ — 100/100)

*IPv6 reachable (16 ms)*

- **[PASS]** IPv6 is configured and reachable at 2600:9000:281b:c400:6:d0d2:780:93a1, 2600:9000:281b:c000:6:d0d2:780:93a1, 2600:9000:281b:7800:6:d0d2:780:93a1, 2600:9000:281b:800:6:d0d2:780:93a1, 2600:9000:281b:f800:6:d0d2:780:93a1, 2600:9000:281b:a000:6:d0d2:780:93a1, 2600:9000:281b:aa00:6:d0d2:780:93a1, 2600:9000:281b:f600:6:d0d2:780:93a1

### Crawlability (A+ — 100/100)

*robots.txt present, sitemap with 44 URLs*

- **[PASS]** robots.txt is present
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml is present
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml is valid XML
- **[PASS]** sitemap.xml contains 44 entries
- **[PASS]** Sitemap index with 44 child sitemaps
- **[PASS]** robots.txt references sitemap

### URL Variants (B — 75/100)

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

- **[CRITICAL]** Both www and non-www versions serve content
- **[PASS]** HTTP correctly 301-redirects to HTTPS

### Domain Intelligence (A+ — 100/100)

*brave.com — via NameCheap, Inc., 31 years old*

- **[PASS]** Domain registered until Sep 17, 2029 (3 years, 5 months remaining)
- **[PASS]** DNSSEC is enabled
- **[PASS]** Registrar: NameCheap, Inc.

---

## 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
- **[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 (A — 90/100)

*Lang attribute present*

- **[PASS]** <html lang> attribute is present
- **[PASS]** <html lang> value is valid
- **[INFO]** No Content-Language HTTP header
- **[INFO]** Language signals are inconsistent — The <html lang> attribute and Content-Language header should agree.

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

*Font sizes and tap targets checked*


### Viewport Configuration (A+ — 100/100)

*Viewport properly configured*

- **[PASS]** Viewport meta tag is present
- **[PASS]** width=device-width is set
- **[PASS]** User zooming is allowed

### Third-Party Trackers (C — 55/100)

*1 trackers detected*

- **[INFO]** 1 third-party trackers detected — Found 1 analytics, 0 advertising, 0 marketing, 0 tag manager trackers.
- **[WARNING]** Trackers detected but no cookie policy found — This page loads 1 trackers but no cookie policy was detected. GDPR requires disclosure when using tracking cookies.
- **[WARNING]** Trackers detected but no privacy policy found — Most data protection regulations require a privacy policy when collecting user data via trackers.

---

## Legal

### Legal Page Ecosystem (C — 60/100)

*2 of 7 expected legal pages detected*

- **[PASS]** Privacy Policy detected — Found at /privacy-features/.
- **[PASS]** Terms of Service detected — Found at /terms-of-use/, linked from footer.
- **[INFO]** Cookie Policy not detected — No link matching common Cookie Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Cookie Policy, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** Accessibility Statement not detected — No link matching common Accessibility Statement URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Accessibility Statement, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** DMCA / Copyright Notice not detected — No link matching common DMCA / Copyright Notice URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a DMCA / Copyright Notice, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** Refund / Returns Policy not detected — No link matching common Refund / Returns Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Refund / Returns Policy, especially those collecting user data.
- **[INFO]** Acceptable Use Policy not detected — No link matching common Acceptable Use Policy URL patterns or link text was found. Most websites are expected to have a Acceptable Use Policy, especially those collecting user data.

### Copyright Notice (A+ — 100/100)

*© 2015 - 2026 Brave Software*

- **[PASS]** Copyright notice is up to date — Copyright notice is up to date: © 2015 - 2026 Brave Software
- **[PASS]** Copyright holder: Brave Software

### Regulatory Indicators

*3 regulatory indicator(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** This is a technical scan, not a legal assessment — BeaverCheck detects technical indicators that may suggest regulatory relevance. This is not a compliance audit and should not be relied upon for legal decisions. Consult qualified legal counsel for compliance assessments.
- **[INFO]** GDPR indicators detected (moderate confidence) — Indicators suggesting GDPR may be relevant: Privacy policy page found. EU General Data Protection Regulation — governs collection and processing of personal data of EU residents.
- **[INFO]** CCPA indicators detected (strong confidence) — Indicators suggesting CCPA may be relevant: Text mentions: ccpa; Link URL pattern: /privacy/ccpa/. California Consumer Privacy Act — gives California residents rights over their personal data.
- **[INFO]** HIPAA indicators detected (weak confidence) — Indicators suggesting HIPAA may be relevant: Text mentions: phi. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — protects sensitive patient health information.

### Third-Party Data Sharing

*0 third-party service(s) detected*

- **[INFO]** Data inventory for transparency purposes — This inventory identifies third-party services that receive data from your site visitors. Under regulations like GDPR (Article 30), maintaining records of data processing activities is commonly considered a best practice. This automated scan provides a starting point — it may not capture all data flows.
- **[INFO]** No recognized third-party data-sharing services detected — This page does not appear to load external tracking, analytics, or advertising scripts.

### Compliance Badges (B — 70/100)

*1 compliance badge(s) detected*

- **[WARNING]** Privacy Shield reference detected — note: framework invalidated — A Privacy Shield badge or mention was detected. The EU-US Privacy Shield framework was invalidated by the EU Court of Justice in July 2020 (Schrems II). References to Privacy Shield may be outdated. The replacement framework is the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

---

## Availability

### CDN & Delivery (A+ — 100/100)

*AWS CloudFront (Hit from cloudfront)*

- **[PASS]** Site is served via AWS CloudFront CDN (edge: CDG55-P3)
- **[PASS]** CDN cache status: Hit from cloudfront

### 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.

### Transport Security (A — 85/100)

*HTTP/3, HSTS, and TLS version analysis*

- **[PASS]** HTTP/3 (QUIC) supported — The server advertises HTTP/3 via Alt-Svc for faster connections on mobile networks.
- **[WARNING]** Missing Strict-Transport-Security header — HSTS tells browsers to only use HTTPS, preventing SSL stripping attacks.
- **[PASS]** TLS 1.3 in use (fastest handshake, 1-RTT)

---

## Accessibility

### Landmark Structure (A — 85/100)

*6 landmarks*

- **[PASS]** <main> landmark present
- **[PASS]** 1 <nav> landmark(s) found
- **[WARNING]** Skip navigation link is missing (WCAG 2.4.1) — Add a skip link as the first focusable element so keyboard users can bypass repeated navigation.

### Heading Hierarchy (C — 55/100)

*38 headings, 3 skip(s)*

- **[PASS]** Single H1 present
- **[WARNING]** Heading level skipped: H1 → H4 (missing H2) — Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline. Screen readers may interpret missing levels as structural errors.
- **[WARNING]** Heading level skipped: H2 → H4 (missing H3) — Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline. Screen readers may interpret missing levels as structural errors.
- **[WARNING]** Heading level skipped: H2 → H4 (missing H3) — Skipping heading levels breaks the document outline. Screen readers may interpret missing levels as structural errors.

### Alt Text Quality (A+ — 100/100)

*All 29 images OK*

- **[PASS]** 7 decorative image(s) correctly marked
- **[PASS]** 22 image(s) with good alt text

### Form Accessibility (D — 47/100)

*10 of 11 controls have issues*

- **[CRITICAL]** 9 control(s) without accessible label — Form controls need a <label>, aria-label, or aria-labelledby for screen readers.
- **[WARNING]** 1 control(s) rely on placeholder only — Placeholder text disappears on focus and is not a reliable label.
- **[PASS]** 1 control(s) properly labeled

### Link & Button Quality (F — 33/100)

*5 issue(s) across 129 links and 10 buttons*

- **[WARNING]** 3 link(s) with generic text — Generic link text like 'click here' doesn't describe the destination.
- **[CRITICAL]** 2 image-only link(s) without alt text
- **[WARNING]** 37 link(s) open in new tab without warning — Add '(opens in new tab)' to link text or aria-label.
- **[CRITICAL]** 2 button(s) with no accessible text
- **[PASS]** 87 link(s) with descriptive text

---

## UX

### 404 Error Page (B — 80/100)

*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

### Favicon & Branding (B — 70/100)

*5 icon(s) detected*

- **[PASS]** favicon.ico present at site root
- **[PASS]** HTML icon links detected
- **[PASS]** Apple touch icon present
- **[PASS]** Multiple icon sizes detected

### 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 — 15/100)

*No navigation patterns*

- **[PASS]** 1 navigation landmark(s) detected
- **[INFO]** No breadcrumbs, search, or skip link detected — These navigation aids help users orient themselves and find content efficiently, especially on large sites.

---

## SEO

### Canonical URL (A+ — 95/100)

*Properly configured*

- **[PASS]** Canonical tag present
- **[PASS]** Canonical is self-referencing
- **[PASS]** Canonical matches final URL after redirects
- **[PASS]** Canonical target returns 200
- **[INFO]** Canonical points to a different domain

### Meta Tags (A+ — 100/100)

*Title optimized*

- **[PASS]** Page title is set
- **[PASS]** Title length (39 chars) is optimal
- **[PASS]** Title and H1 are well-aligned

### Content Depth (A+ — 100/100)

*1617 words, Fairly Difficult*

- **[PASS]** Page has 1617 words — good depth for search engines
- **[INFO]** Reading level: Fairly Difficult (grade 8)

### Internal Links (A+ — 100/100)

*83 internal, 46 external*

- **[PASS]** 83 internal links (64%)
- **[PASS]** 98% of links use descriptive anchor text
- **[INFO]** 83 internal / 46 external links

### Image SEO (A+ — 95/100)

*29 images, 29 descriptive filenames*

- **[PASS]** All images have descriptive filenames
- **[INFO]** 1 image(s) missing alt text — see Accessibility tab

### Hreflang

*0 hreflang tags*


---

## Sustainability

### CO2 Per Page Load (A+ — 100/100)

*0.14g CO2 per view*

- **[PASS]** 0.14g CO2 per page view — This page transfers 0.5 MB, producing an estimated 0.14g of CO2 per visit using the Sustainable Web Design model (v4). Breakdown: data center 0.03g, network 0.02g, end-user device 0.09g.
- **[INFO]** At 10,000 monthly views: 17.3 kg CO2/year — With 10,000 page views per month, this page would generate approximately 17.3 kg of CO2 annually — equivalent to charging 2163 smartphones.

### Green Hosting (D — 40/100)

*Not green*

- **[INFO]** No confirmed renewable energy commitment detected — Consider providers like Cloudflare, Google Cloud, or Vercel that match 100% of their energy use with renewables.
- **[INFO]** AWS: Renewable energy varies by region; committed to 100% by 2025
- **[INFO]** AWS CloudFront: Renewable varies by edge location
- **[INFO]** Green hosting status based on known provider commitments — Green hosting detection uses a curated database of provider renewable energy commitments. This is not a real-time verification. For authoritative checks, visit thegreenwebfoundation.org.

### Repeat Visit Weight (A+ — 100/100)

*96% cached*

- **[PASS]** 96% reduction on repeat visits — Returning visitors download only 22 KB (vs 521 KB first visit). 54 of 55 resources are served from browser cache, saving 0.14g CO2 per repeat visit.
- **[INFO]** Repeat visit: 0.01g CO2 (first visit: 0.14g)

### Carbon Budget (A+ — 100/100)

*10th percentile*

- **[PASS]** 0.14g CO2 — below the sustainability target of 0.50g — Cleaner than an estimated 90% of websites analyzed. This page meets the Web Sustainability Guidelines target.
- **[INFO]** Estimated 10th percentile — Compared to: top 10% = 0.20g, target = 0.50g, median = 0.60g per page view.

### Transfer Efficiency (A+ — 100/100)

*96% efficient*

- **[PASS]** Transfer efficiency: 96% — Only 21 KB of potential savings identified. Your page is well-optimized for size.

---

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*Generated by [BeaverCheck](https://beavercheck.com) — https://beavercheck.com/results/a3a3e500-377c-4ff7-9169-1fad7cf371c1*