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Is readthedocs.io a Scam? Security Check Results - Read the Docs, Inc

readthedocs.io Security Report Summary

readthedocs.io received a security score of 60 out of 100 in Guard's comprehensive security analysis, classified as "Moderate Risk". This report covers Read the Docs, Inc's website security posture. Read the Docs, Inc operates in the Technology industry in N/a.

Read the Docs, Inc operates a documentation building and hosting platform aimed primarily at developers. The platform offers versioned documentation, integrated search, and pull request previews, positioning itself as a key player in the developer tools market. The website content is professional and clearly targeted at a technical audience, emphasizing ease of documentation deployment. Technically, the site is built using the Pelican static site generator and utilizes Font Awesome icons, indicating a modern but straightforward infrastructure. The site appears to be moderately optimized for performance and mobile use, with good SEO practices evident in meta tags. Security posture is limited based on the provided data, with no detected security headers or explicit policies, and no visible analytics or tracking scripts, suggesting minimal user tracking. The lack of WHOIS data is consistent with the domain being a subdomain, and the branding aligns with the known Read the Docs platform, supporting legitimacy. Overall, the site is functional and professional but would benefit from enhanced security and privacy disclosures.

The security scan identified 32 findings across security headers, SSL/TLS, DNS health, email security, GDPR compliance, and NIS2 compliance analysis modules.

Technologies detected: Pelican, Font Awesome 7, HTML5, CSS3.

About this security scan

Guard performs automated security assessments of websites by analyzing SSL/TLS certificates, HTTP security headers, DNS configuration, email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), GDPR compliance indicators, NIS2 directive compliance, network exposure, and AI-powered business intelligence. Each report provides domain-specific findings, risk scores, and actionable recommendations.

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Is readthedocs.io Safe? Security Analysis for Read the Docs, Inc

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TechnologyN/amedium
PelicanFont Awesome 7HTML5CSS3
Analyzed 10/8/2025Completed 4:01:54 AM6mo ago
60
Security Score
MEDIUM RISK

Below Technology avg (72)

10,000+

Domains scanned

500+

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SEQ SIA

Lastadijas 12 k-3, Riga, Latvia, LV-1050

Reg. No. 40203410806 • VAT LV40203410806

Support: guard@offseq.com+371 2256 5353

AI Summary

Read the Docs, Inc operates a documentation building and hosting platform aimed primarily at developers. The platform offers versioned documentation, integrated search, and pull request previews, positioning itself as a key player in the developer tools market. The website content is professional and clearly targeted at a technical audience, emphasizing ease of documentation deployment. Technically, the site is built using the Pelican static site generator and utilizes Font Awesome icons, indicating a modern but straightforward infrastructure. The site appears to be moderately optimized for performance and mobile use, with good SEO practices evident in meta tags. Security posture is limited based on the provided data, with no detected security headers or explicit policies, and no visible analytics or tracking scripts, suggesting minimal user tracking. The lack of WHOIS data is consistent with the domain being a subdomain, and the branding aligns with the known Read the Docs platform, supporting legitimacy. Overall, the site is functional and professional but would benefit from enhanced security and privacy disclosures.

Detected Technologies

PelicanFont Awesome 7HTML5CSS3

10 urgent findings need attention

10 high

  • + 2 more findings in the full report below
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Guard tracks your live infrastructure daily: certificate expiry, DNS & mail authentication drift, uptime changes, subdomain inventory, and unexpected tracker or content shifts. A full timeline captures every diff so you can prove remediation and spot regressions instantly.

Security drift alerts

Risk score drops, new high-severity issues, and header hardening gaps

Compliance watch

GDPR / NIS2 posture changes with governance evidence snapshots

Infrastructure surface

Unexpected open services, SSL expiry, DNS & email authentication changes

Content & tracker intelligence

Marketing tech shifts, analytics drift, and AI recommendation updates

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Security Headers

7 findings

25/100

GDPR Compliance

4 findings

53/100

NIS2 Compliance

8 findings

17/100

Email Security

4 findings

75/100

🧠AI Business Intelligence

Technology stack, business insights, and market analysis powered by AI.

Business Intelligence

Market & Strategic Analysis

Read the Docs serves a niche market of developers needing documentation hosting and building services. Its business model revolves around platform-as-a-service offerings, likely monetized through premium features or enterprise plans. The company targets software developers and open source projects, leveraging its reputation as a trusted documentation platform. The absence of explicit contact information or privacy policies on the analyzed page suggests a focus on self-service and community-driven support. The platform's integration with version control and pull requests indicates a strong alignment with modern development workflows. Market positioning is solid within the developer tools sector, with potential growth through expanded enterprise adoption. Partnerships or subsidiaries were not identified in the provided data.

Security Posture Analysis

Comprehensive Security Assessment

The security posture of the website is currently basic. There is no evidence of security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or Strict-Transport-Security, which are recommended best practices. The site uses HTTPS as implied by the favicon and resource URLs but SSL configuration details are unknown. No forms or input fields were detected in the provided content, reducing immediate risk of injection attacks. The absence of privacy and cookie policies indicates potential compliance gaps with GDPR and other privacy regulations. No incident response or vulnerability disclosure information was found, which could hinder timely security issue management. Overall, the site would benefit from implementing standard security headers, publishing privacy and security policies, and establishing clear incident response channels.

Strategic Recommendations

Priority Actions for Security Improvement

1

Implement and publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with clear consent mechanisms.

Observations

AI-powered comprehensive website and business analysis.

AI-Enhanced Website Analysis

Business Insights

Company:

Read the Docs, Inc

Description:

Read the Docs is a documentation building and hosting platform aimed at helping developers creating documentation from code with versioned documentation, integrated search, pull request previews and more.

Key Services:
documentation buildingdocumentation hostingversioned documentationintegrated searchpull request previews
Content Quality:

good

Branding:

consistent

Technical Stack

Technologies:
PelicanFont Awesome 7HTML5CSS3
Frameworks:
Pelican
Performance:

moderate

Mobile:

good

Accessibility:

basic

SEO:

good

Security Assessment

0

Analytics & Tracking

Tracking Level:minimal
Privacy Compliance:poor

Advertising & Marketing

Transparency Level:poor

Website Quality Assessment

Design Quality:good
User Experience:good
Content Relevance:good
Navigation Clarity:good
Professionalism:good
Trustworthiness:moderate

Key Observations

1

The website is accessible and not blocked by WAF or security mechanisms.

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🛡️Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis and recommendations.

Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis

25/100
Score

Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

HIGH

Forces HTTPS connections

Missing X-Frame-Options header

HIGH

Prevents clickjacking attacks

Missing Content-Security-Policy header

HIGH

Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

Missing X-XSS-Protection header

MEDIUM

Legacy XSS protection (deprecated but still recommended)

Weak Referrer-Policy configuration

LOW

Current value: "no-referrer-when-downgrade"

Missing Permissions-Policy header

MEDIUM

Controls browser features and APIs

Sensitive data may be cached

LOW

Cache-Control header should include "no-store" for sensitive pages

👤GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment under GDPR regulations.

GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment

53/100
Score

No Cookie Policy found

HIGH

GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

No Cookie Consent Banner found

HIGH

GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

No Data Protection Officer mentioned

LOW

Large organizations may need to designate a DPO under GDPR

Privacy policy may not be GDPR compliant

MEDIUM

Privacy policy lacks explicit GDPR compliance elements

GDPR Compliance Analysis

Privacy Policy85% confidence
Cookie Policy0% confidence
Contact Information Found90% confidence
phone

🛡️NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive compliance assessment.

NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive

17/100
Score

No information security framework found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented cybersecurity and information security measures

No vulnerability disclosure policy

MEDIUM

NIS2 encourages coordinated vulnerability disclosure

No security policy documentation found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented cybersecurity governance and risk management

No incident response procedures found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented incident response and business continuity plans

No business continuity planning found

MEDIUM

NIS2 emphasizes operational resilience and business continuity

No security contact information

HIGH

NIS2 requires clear incident reporting channels

No vulnerability reporting mechanism

MEDIUM

Clear vulnerability reporting supports coordinated disclosure

No NIS2 reference found

LOW

Consider explicitly mentioning NIS2 compliance efforts

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📧Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation and email security assessment.

Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation

75/100
Score

DMARC not enforcing

MEDIUM

DMARC policy is set to "none"

No BIMI Record

LOW

BIMI displays brand logos in email clients

No MTA-STS Policy

MEDIUM

MTA-STS enforces TLS for email delivery

No TLS-RPT Record

LOW

TLS-RPT provides reporting for email TLS issues

SPF
Sender Policy Framework
DKIM
DomainKeys Identified Mail
DMARC
Domain-based Message Authentication
MX Records
Mail Exchange Records
BIMI
Brand Indicators
MTA-STS
Mail Transfer Agent Security
TLS-RPT
TLS Reporting
DNSSEC
DNS Security
SPF Details
Record:
v=spf1 include:_spf.mlsend.com include:_spf.google.com ~all
DNS Lookups:2/10
Policy:~all
DKIM Selectors Found
Selector:google(1416-bit rsa)
Selector:s1(1440-bit rsa)
DMARC Details
Policy:none
Aggregate Reports:14f4e1a7ced447a7a7bcf51f88c2303e@dmarc-reports.cloudflare.net

🏆SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis.

SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis

65/100
Score

SSL Certificate Expires Within 90 Days

MEDIUM

SSL certificate expires in 64 days

Weak SSL Key Length

HIGH

SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak

Mixed Content Detected

MEDIUM

2 resources loaded over insecure HTTP

Partial SSL/TLS Assessment

LOW

Completed 2 of 4 security checks due to time constraints

Certificate Details

Subject:about.readthedocs.com
Issuer:WE1
Valid Until:12/11/2025 (64 days)
SANs:about.readthedocs.com

OCSP Status

OCSP Stapling Disabled

📊DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment.

DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment

75/100
Score

DNSSEC Not Enabled

MEDIUM

DNSSEC is not configured for this domain

CAA Records Not Configured

LOW

Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records not found

Domain Delete Lock Not Enabled

LOW

Domain can be deleted without additional verification

DMARC Policy Set to None

LOW

DMARC is configured but not enforcing any policy

Domain Registration Details

Domain Age
15 years(mature)
Expiry Risk
none(1199 days)
Protection Level
basicDNSSEC OFF

DNS Records

A Records:104.26.14.223, 104.26.15.223, 172.67.72.166
AAAA Records:2606:4700:20::ac43:48a6, 2606:4700:20::681a:fdf, 2606:4700:20::681a:edf
Name Servers:
ivan.ns.cloudflare.com
tegan.ns.cloudflare.com
MX Records:
10: aspmx2.googlemail.com
5: alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
1: aspmx.l.google.com
SOA:Serial: 2383446538, TTL: 1800s

DNSSEC Status

DNSSEC Not Enabled

DNS Performance

Resolution Time:67ms

SPF Analysis

SPF Record:
v=spf1 include:_spf.mlsend.com include:_spf.google.com ~all

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis.

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis

100/100
Score

Good Network Security Posture

LOW

No unnecessary services detected on common risky ports

How does readthedocs.io compare?

See how readthedocs.io stacks up against similar websites in the same industry.

🔧Technical Analysis

Detailed technical findings and analysis from AI assessment.

Technical Analysis

Comprehensive security assessment findings

Additional Findings

The website uses Pelican, a static site generator, indicating a static content delivery approach which generally improves security and performance. Font Awesome 7 is used for iconography, loaded from external CDN sources. The site includes well-structured meta tags for SEO and social media sharing (Open Graph and Twitter cards). No CMS or dynamic backend was detected in the provided content. Performance is likely moderate given static generation but no explicit performance metrics were available. Mobile optimization appears good based on viewport meta tags and responsive CSS usage. Accessibility features are basic but present. No analytics or tracking scripts were found, indicating minimal technical tracking footprint. Hosting provider details were not available.
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39.90 €one-time • Incl. 21% VAT

Marketing Intelligence

Contact emails, phone numbers & warm leads

49.90 €one-time • Incl. 21% VAT

Plan Comparison

FeaturePDF ReportMarketing+
Full security analysis
Professional PDF export
Email delivery
Lifetime access + unlock code
Contact emails & phones
Marketing outreach data

Already purchased?

Order summary

Domainreadthedocs.io
Access tierFull report or marketing add-on

Digital reports are delivered immediately after payment. By continuing you acknowledge the withdrawal waiver described in our Returns & Refunds policy.

VisaMastercardApple PayGoogle Pay

Secure payments processed via EveryPay. Prices in EUR; Incl. 21% VAT.

SEQ SIA

Lastadijas 12 k-3, Riga, Latvia, LV-1050

Reg. No. 40203410806 • VAT LV40203410806

Support: guard@offseq.com+371 2256 5353

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