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Infrastructure

· 17 checks — DNS, redirects, IPv6, crawlability, URL variants, and domain intelligence rolled into one auditable list.
SCORE
87
GRADE
B
FIX
1
REVIEW
7
PASS
9
INFO
0
Probed from Singapore, Singapore
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).
C
Reverse DNS
Action
0/1 IPs match cert SAN
REVIEW
0/1 IPs match cert SAN
Info::
PTR lookup failed for 20.43.161.105: lookup 20.43.161.105: 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.
C
IPv6 Readiness
Action
No IPv6 support
REVIEW
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.
No IPv6 Support
About 40% of internet users have IPv6. Consider adding AAAA records.

IPv6 support is increasingly important for global accessibility. About 40% of internet users have IPv6 connectivity.

Why this matters

No AAAA records — same impact as 'no IPv6 (AAAA) records'; IPv6-preferring clients pay extra latency falling back to IPv4.

Source: Google IPv6 stats

B
URL Variants
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
REVIEW
www/non-www, trailing slash, HTTP→HTTPS
Info::
www/non-www redirect configured correctly (preferred: non-www)
Critical::
HTTP version does not redirect to HTTPS
Got: HTTP 200 Expected: 301 redirect to HTTPS

www / non-www

301https://www.duckduckgo.com/
200https://duckduckgo.com/

Preferred variant: non-www

HTTP → HTTPS

200http://duckduckgo.com/

HTTP version does not redirect to HTTPS

B
TLS Certificate Expiry & Recommendations
178 days until leaf cert expires — 3 issues to address
REVIEW

Certificate validity

178
days left
0d 30d 60d 90d+

Recommended actions

  • 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
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.
A+
DNS Records
1 A records, 4 ms lookup
PASS
1 A records, 4 ms lookup
Info::
Resolves to 1 IPv4 address(es)
Got: 20.43.161.105
Info::
Single A record — no DNS redundancy
Multiple A records provide failover if one server goes down.
Info::
No IPv6 (AAAA) records
Info::
8 nameserver(s) configured
Got: dns1.p05.nsone.net, dns2.p05.nsone.net, dns3.p05.nsone.net, dns4.p05.nsone.net, ns01.quack-dns.com, ns02.quack-dns.com, ns03.quack-dns.com, ns04.quack-dns.com
Info::
1 mail exchanger(s) configured
Info::
SPF record present in TXT
Info::
DNS resolution time: 4 ms
Got: 4 ms
A20.43.161.105
AAAA
CNAME
NSdns1.p05.nsone.net, dns2.p05.nsone.net, dns3.p05.nsone.net, dns4.p05.nsone.net, ns01.quack-dns.com, ns02.quack-dns.com, ns03.quack-dns.com, ns04.quack-dns.com
MX
0 duckduckgo-com.mail.protection.outlook.com
TXT
MS=ms71454350
ZOOM_verify_QSjXtfOfRHiY0O9gD5E4Ug
SPF v=spf1 include:mailer.duckduckgo.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:...
OSSRH-87525
bw=IOlfo6xQJX+xewM7+IiPqOSIPtLXKrWoS2RXCTPMmQZc
stripe-verification=e508f445dbb94b1ae51f7b48901897714b661f5298da43bb66b224973c82...
apple-domain-verification=XeKEoqnRNUfkUc5l
openai-domain-verification=dv-OKbsaUeVbNte6OPtWDpdt4Xr
cursor-domain-verification-nxwg1m=QRyFwelq3dM8RzBmvRla2boHy
anthropic-domain-verification-c7d48c=mGBhXlQHsvOc64IFwZsaKKVoQ
mistral-domain-verification=1b914b8749d84fc51987d1cd2b9f86b38617aa4d
CAALookup not available with standard resolver
Resolved in 4 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

A+
Subdomain Takeover
No subdomain takeover risk detected
PASS
No subdomain takeover risk detected
Info::
No CNAME record present
A
CAA Records
issue: digicert.com, letsencrypt.org
PASS
issue: digicert.com, letsencrypt.org
Info::
CAA issue tag present — authorized CA(s): digicert.com, letsencrypt.org
Info::
No CAA iodef tag — won't be notified of failed issuance attempts
Add `0 iodef "mailto:security@example.com"` to receive notifications when a CA refuses issuance because it doesn't match your CAA policy. Useful signal for detecting issuance attempts by unauthorized CAs.
A+
Multi-Resolver DNS Speed
Mean 1ms across 3 resolvers (spread 0ms)
PASS
Mean 1ms across 3 resolvers (spread 0ms)
Info::
Cloudflare: 1ms
Got: 1ms via 1.1.1.1:53
Info::
Google: 1ms
Got: 1ms via 8.8.8.8:53
Info::
Quad9: 1ms
Got: 1ms via 9.9.9.9:53
A+
Redirect Chain
No redirects — direct access
PASS
No redirects — direct access
Info::
No redirects — direct access
Got: https://duckduckgo.com

https://duckduckgo.com

9 ms · HTTP/1.1 FINAL

#URLStatusTimeProtocolServer
1https://duckduckgo.com2009 msHTTP/1.1nginx
A+
Crawlability
robots.txt present, sitemap with 26 URLs
PASS
robots.txt present, sitemap with 26 URLs
Info::
robots.txt is present
Got: 382 bytes
Info::
sitemap.xml is present
Info::
sitemap.xml is valid XML
Info::
sitemap.xml contains 26 entries
Info::
robots.txt references sitemap
robots.txt 200 OK
Size 382 B Sitemaps referenced 1 User-agents *, ia_archiver Blocking No — crawling allowed
User-agent: *
Disallow: /lite
Disallow: /html

# No search result pages
Disallow: /*?

# chrome new tab page
Disallow: /chrome_newtab

# Email Protection
Disallow: /email/
Allow: /email/$
Allow: /email/privacy-guarantees
Allow: /email/privacy-terms

# Old Privacy page
Disallow: /2012-privacy-policy

User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /

Sitemap: https://duckduckgo.com/sitemap.xml

A+
Domain Intelligence
duckduckgo.com — via NameCheap, Inc., 18 years, 9 months old, hosted on Microsoft Azure
PASS
duckduckgo.com — via NameCheap, Inc., 18 years, 9 months old, hosted on Microsoft Azure
Info::
Domain registered until Jun 23, 2027 (1 years, 1 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: NameCheap, 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.
Info::
Hosting: Microsoft Azure
Got: AS8075
Domain expiry

392 days

June 23, 2027

SSL certificate

178 days

Issued by DigiCert Inc

Domain age

18 years, 9 months

Registered November 11, 2007

DNSSEC

Not enabled

Protects against DNS spoofing

Hosting

Microsoft Azure

ASN AS8075

20.43.161.105

Registrar

NameCheap, Inc.

Unlocked 8 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 NameCheap, Inc.
Created November 11, 2007 (18 years, 9 months ago)
Expires June 23, 2027 (1 years, 1 months)
Last Updated May 24, 2026
Name Servers dns1.p05.nsone.net, dns2.p05.nsone.net, dns3.p05.nsone.net, dns4.p05.nsone.net, ns01.quack-dns.com, ns02.quack-dns.com, ns03.quack-dns.com, ns04.quack-dns.com
DNSSEC Not enabled
Hosting
IP Address 20.43.161.105
ASN AS8075 (MICROSOFT-CORP-MSN-AS-BLOCK - Microsoft Corporation, US)
Provider Microsoft Azure
Data source: rdap (1.2s)

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 13 ms — DNS, TCP, TLS, TTFB, content transfer breakdown
PASS
DNS Lookup DNS Lookup — time to resolve the domain name to an IP address.
3 ms
TCP Connect TCP Connect — time to establish a TCP connection to the server.
2 ms
TLS Handshake TLS Handshake — time to complete the HTTPS encryption handshake.
4 ms
Time to First Byte Time to First Byte — how long the server takes to respond with the first byte of data.
11 ms
Total Time Total request time from DNS lookup through full response.
14 ms

Connection waterfall

DNS Lookup 3 ms TCP Connect 2 ms TLS Handshake 4 ms Server Processing 3 ms Content Transfer 3 ms
A+
Health Check Endpoint
Health endpoint at https://duckduckgo.com/health (HTTP 200)
PASS
Health endpoint at https://duckduckgo.com/health (HTTP 200)
Info::
Public health endpoint at https://duckduckgo.com/health
Got: https://duckduckgo.com/health
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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