# BeaverCheck Audit Report — http://theonion.org **Date:** November 5, 2026 **URL:** http://theonion.org **Overall Grade:** D (68/100) **Report:** https://beavercheck.com/results/a79fa234-d482-455b-b724-caa5991e6e2c ## Top Findings 1. **[CRITICAL]** Connection is not encrypted (plain HTTP) — Security > TLS & Certificates 2. **[CRITICAL]** Content-Security-Policy header is missing — Security > Security Headers 3. **[CRITICAL]** HSTS header is missing — Security > Security Headers 4. **[CRITICAL]** No favicon or icon links detected — Accessibility > Favicon & Branding 5. **[WARNING]** Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy header is missing — Security > Security Headers --- ## Lighthouse Scores | Category | Score | |----------|-------| | Performance | 0 | | Accessibility | 98 | | Best Practices | 0 | | SEO | 0 | --- ## 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 - **[INFO]** Domain is not in the Chrome HSTS preload list (status: unknown) — Submit your domain to hstspreload.org to close the trust-on-first-use gap. Requires a preload-ready HSTS header (max-age=31536000+, includeSubDomains, preload). ### 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 (F — 0/100) *Connection is not encrypted* - **[CRITICAL]** Connection is not encrypted (plain HTTP) — The site does not use HTTPS. All traffic is sent in plaintext and vulnerable to interception. Enable TLS with a valid certificate. ### Cookie Security (A+ — 100/100) *No cookies set — no cookie security risks* - **[PASS]** No cookies set — no cookie security risks ### Cookie Hygiene (A+ — 100/100) *No cookies set -- cookie-hygiene check is N/A* - **[PASS]** No cookies set ### WAF / Bot Protection (B — 75/100) *No WAF detected via response headers* - **[INFO]** No WAF detected — Response headers don't match any known WAF or bot-management product. Sites exposed to abuse (login, signup, payment) typically benefit from a WAF such as Cloudflare, Akamai, AWS WAF, or Imperva. ### security.txt (C — 60/100) *No security.txt file found* - **[INFO]** No security.txt file found — security.txt (RFC 9116) provides a standardized way for security researchers to report vulnerabilities. Create one at /.well-known/security.txt with at least a Contact field. ### CSP Inline-Style Readiness (A+ — 100/100) *No inline style attributes -- strict CSP is feasible* - **[PASS]** No inline style attributes detected ### Trusted Types (XSS Sink Hardening) (A+ — 100/100) *No CSP header -- Trusted Types check is N/A* - **[PASS]** No CSP header found -- Trusted Types check is N/A ### CORS Depth (A+ — 100/100) *No CORS response headers -- the resource is same-origin-only by browser default* - **[PASS]** No CORS response headers -- the resource is same-origin-only by browser default ### Permissions-Policy Granularity (C — 60/100) *No Permissions-Policy header set -- powerful features (camera / microphone / geolocation / payment / USB) default to allow-on-same-origin* - **[WARNING]** Permissions-Policy header not set -- features default to allow-on-same-origin — Without a `Permissions-Policy` (or legacy `Feature-Policy`) header, every powerful browser feature defaults to its spec default policy (typically `self`). A third-party iframe injected via XSS or a misconfigured embed can still request access to the user's camera, microphone, geolocation, payment APIs, USB devices, etc. Explicitly deny features the page doesn't need: ``` Permissions-Policy: camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=(), payment=(), usb=(), accelerometer=(), gyroscope=() ``` Features the page legitimately uses can stay enabled with `feature=(self)`. ### Referrer-Policy Strictness (B — 75/100) *Referrer-Policy header not set -- browser default applies (modern: strict-origin-when-cross-origin; legacy browsers: no-referrer-when-downgrade)* - **[INFO]** Referrer-Policy header not set -- browser default applies — Without an explicit `Referrer-Policy` header, the browser falls back to its default policy. Modern browsers (Chrome 85+, Firefox 87+, Safari 15+) default to `strict-origin-when-cross-origin`, which is privacy-safe. Legacy browsers default to the leaky `no-referrer-when-downgrade`, which sends the full URL (including path + query) on cross-origin HTTPS-to-HTTPS requests. Set an explicit header to ensure consistent behavior: ``` Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin ``` This matches the modern browser default and is privacy-safe without breaking referrer-based same-origin analytics. --- ## 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 — 20/100) *no DMARC, SPF: -all* - **[WARNING]** No DMARC record found — Without DMARC, email receivers have no policy for handling authentication failures. Add a TXT record at _dmarc. starting with v=DMARC1. - **[PASS]** SPF ends in -all (hard fail) — strongest setting - **[INFO]** No DKIM detected via common selectors — DKIM signs outbound mail to prove origin. We probed common selectors (default, google, selector1, etc.) without finding a record. If you use a non-standard selector, this is a false negative. - **[WARNING]** MTA-STS policy file present but DNS record missing — The policy file exists but no _mta-sts TXT record was found. Senders rely on the TXT record to discover and version the policy. - **[INFO]** TLS-RPT not configured — TLS-RPT (RFC 8460) lets MTAs report TLS-handshake failures, so you can detect and fix MTA-STS misconfigurations. Add a TXT record at _smtp._tls.. - **[INFO]** BIMI not configured — BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) lets supporting clients (Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo) display your verified logo next to your messages. Optional but raises trust signals. Requires DMARC at p=quarantine or p=reject to be honored. ### API Surface (A+ — 100/100) *No API specs or GraphQL introspection found (probed 11 candidate path(s))* - **[PASS]** No API specs or GraphQL introspection found (probed 11 path(s)) ### 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 (A — 85/100) *1 A records, 526 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 - **[PASS]** 2 nameserver(s) configured - **[PASS]** 1 mail exchanger(s) configured - **[PASS]** SPF record present in TXT - **[WARNING]** DNS resolution is slow (526 ms) — Slow DNS adds latency to every page load. Consider a faster DNS provider. ### Subdomain Takeover (A+ — 100/100) *No subdomain takeover risk detected* - **[PASS]** No CNAME record present ### DNSSEC (B — 80/100) *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). ### CAA Records (B — 80/100) *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. ### Reverse DNS (B — 75/100) *1 PTR record(s) found (no cert data to match against)* - **[INFO]** PTR for 103.224.182.244: lb-182-244.above.com ### Multi-Resolver DNS Speed (C — 65/100) *Mean 256ms across 3 resolvers (spread 282ms)* - **[PASS]** Quad9: 157ms - **[PASS]** Google: 173ms - **[PASS]** Cloudflare: 439ms - **[INFO]** High latency spread between resolvers: 282ms (min 157ms / max 439ms) — Wide gap between the fastest and slowest public resolver suggests a geographic anycast issue or an authoritative-server cache problem. Users in different regions will see materially different DNS times. ### 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 (C — 65/100) *robots.txt present, sitemap with 0 URLs* - **[PASS]** robots.txt is present - **[PASS]** sitemap.xml is present - **[WARNING]** sitemap.xml contains invalid XML — Search engines may not be able to parse the sitemap. Fix XML validation errors. - **[WARNING]** sitemap.xml is empty — no URLs found — An empty sitemap provides no value. Add entries for your pages. - **[INFO]** robots.txt does not reference a sitemap — Add a 'Sitemap:' directive to robots.txt so search engines can discover your sitemap. ### URL Variants (A+ — 100/100) *www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS* ### Domain Intelligence (A+ — 100/100) *theonion.org — via Register.com - Network Solutions, LLC, 27 years, 6 months old, hosted on TRELLIAN-AS-AP - Trellian Pty. Limited, AU* - **[PASS]** Domain registered until Sep 8, 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. - **[PASS]** Registrar: Register.com - Network Solutions, LLC - **[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: TRELLIAN-AS-AP - Trellian Pty. Limited, AU --- ## 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 in the page — No link matching the privacy-policy vocabulary was found in the rendered page. The common privacy-policy paths were not probed for this scan, so this is an unconfirmed absence and is excluded from the regulatory-risk estimate. - **[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. ### Consent UX Depth (A+ — 100/100) *No consent-UX depth issues detected* - **[PASS]** No consent-UX depth issues detected ### Tracker Inventory (A+ — 100/100) *No script URLs to scan -- tracker inventory is N/A* - **[PASS]** No script URLs to scan -- tracker inventory is N/A ### Language & i18n (A — 90/100) *Lang attribute present* - **[PASS]** attribute is present - **[PASS]** value is valid - **[INFO]** No Content-Language HTTP header - **[INFO]** Language signals are inconsistent — The attribute and Content-Language header should agree. ### Hreflang Configuration (A+ — 100/100) *No hreflang tags on this page* - **[PASS]** No hreflang tags found (single-language site) ### Internationalization Extras (A+ — 100/100) *No HTML captured -- i18n extras check is N/A* - **[PASS]** No HTML captured -- i18n extras check is N/A ### 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. ### Accessibility Statement (B — 70/100) *No accessibility statement detected* - **[WARNING]** No accessibility statement detected — Sites are increasingly expected to publish an accessibility statement. Required by EU Web Accessibility Directive 2016/2102 for public-sector bodies; recommended best practice elsewhere. Common URLs: /accessibility, /accessibility-statement, /a11y. Detection is by link URL and anchor text, in a limited set of languages, so this is an unconfirmed absence. ### GDPR Article 13 Disclosures (F — 25/100) *0 / 8 Art. 13 categories matched in homepage body* - **[WARNING]** GDPR Article 13 disclosure coverage: 0 / 8 categories — Scanned the homepage body text AND the linked /privacy page for GDPR Article 13 disclosures. Matched 0 of 8 categories: . Missing: . Note: only the FIRST same-origin privacy-policy link is followed; deeper sub-pages (e.g. /legal/data-subject-rights) are not fetched. ### Third-Party Trackers (A+ — 100/100) *No third-party trackers detected* - **[PASS]** No third-party trackers detected ### Browser Fingerprinting (A+ — 100/100) *No browser-fingerprinting libraries detected* - **[PASS]** No browser-fingerprinting libraries detected ### Cross-Site Cookies (SameSite=None) (A+ — 100/100) *No cookies on the page* - **[PASS]** No cookies set on the page response ### Beacon Tracking (sendBeacon) (A+ — 100/100) *No HTML captured -- beacon-tracking check is N/A* - **[PASS]** No HTML captured -- beacon-tracking check is N/A --- ## Availability ### CDN & Delivery (D — 50/100) *No CDN (document or assets)* - **[WARNING]** No CDN (document or assets) — Neither the HTML document nor the page's subresources are served through an edge network. 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. ### Operational Status Page (B — 80/100) *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. ### Transport Security (B — 75/100) *HTTP/3, HSTS, and TLS version analysis* - **[INFO]** HTTP/3 (QUIC) not advertised — HTTP/3 eliminates head-of-line blocking. If your CDN supports it, consider enabling it. - **[WARNING]** Missing Strict-Transport-Security header — HSTS tells browsers to only use HTTPS, preventing SSL stripping attacks. ### Health Check Endpoint (B — 80/100) *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: 429, /health: 429, /healthz: 429, /ping: 429, /status: 429. ### CDN Cache Observability (B — 85/100) *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. --- ## Accessibility ### Tap Target Adequacy (A+ — 100/100) *All tap targets meet WCAG 2.5.5/2.5.8 sizing* - **[PASS]** All tap targets meet WCAG 2.5.5 (44x44px) sizing ### Mobile-Readable Font Sizes (A+ — 100/100) *Font-size measurement not available for this scan* - **[PASS]** Font-size measurement not available for this scan --- ## UX ### 404 Error Page (F — 0/100) *HTTP 429, bare page* - **[WARNING]** Unexpected status code: HTTP 429 — Expected HTTP 404 but received 429. This may confuse search engine crawlers. - **[WARNING]** Bare server default 404 page — The 404 page has no custom styling. Users hitting a broken link see a generic error with no way to navigate back. Add a custom 404 page with your site navigation and a search bar. ### Favicon & Branding (F — 0/100) *No icons detected* - **[WARNING]** No favicon.ico at site root — Some older browsers, bookmark tools, and RSS readers look for /favicon.ico. Add one as a fallback. - **[INFO]** No apple-touch-icon detected — iOS devices use this when users add your site to their home screen. Add . - **[CRITICAL]** No favicon or icon links detected — Your site will show the browser's generic page icon in tabs, bookmarks, and home screens. ### 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. ### PWA Depth (A+ — 100/100) *No PWA depth issues detected* - **[PASS]** No PWA depth issues detected ### 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 . - **[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. ### Mobile UX Depth (A+ — 100/100) *No HTML captured -- mobile-depth check is N/A* - **[PASS]** No HTML captured -- mobile-depth check is N/A --- ## SEO ### SEO Audit Unavailable *Content probe data missing -- see finding for details* - **[INFO]** SEO checks could not run for this scan — Content probe data is missing for this scan -- SEO checks need the rendered DOM (canonical tag, meta description, hreflang, etc.). Common causes: bot-detection block (Akamai/Cloudflare/Imperva served the worker a challenge instead of the page), worker timeout, or the site redirected to an unrelated host. --- --- *Generated by [BeaverCheck](https://beavercheck.com) — https://beavercheck.com/results/a79fa234-d482-455b-b724-caa5991e6e2c*