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Is simplemachines.org a Scam? Security Check Results - Simple Machines

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Is simplemachines.org Safe? Security Analysis for Simple Machines

https://simplemachines.org

Check if simplemachines.org is a scam or legitimate. Free security scan and reviews.

TechnologyUnited Statessmall
PHPMySQLjQueryGoogle AnalyticsGoogle Adsense+1 more
Analyzed 9/5/2025Completed 3:38:17 PM
61
Security Score
MEDIUM RISK
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Domainsimplemachines.org
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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

Simple Machines is an established open-source software project providing the Simple Machines Forum (SMF), a free and customizable forum software solution. Founded in 2003 and based in the US, it targets online community… Unlock the full Guard report to read the complete analysis.

Detected Technologies

PHPMySQLjQueryGoogle AnalyticsGoogle AdsenseCloudflare DNS
Continuous monitoring

Keep simplemachines.org under constant watch

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

8 findings

15/100

GDPR Compliance

4 findings

35/100

NIS2 Compliance

9 findings

2/100

Email Security

No critical findings yet

100/100

🧠AI Business Intelligence

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

Snapshot shown below. Unlock the full AI report for complete market insights, audience profiling, and step-by-step recommendations.

Business Intelligence

Market & Strategic Analysis

Simple Machines operates as a volunteer-driven open-source project with a clear focus on community forum software. Its competitive advantage lies in its long history, active community, and extensive customization capabilities via modifications and themes. Revenue streams likely include donations, advertising, and possibly support services. The target customers are forum administrators and developers seeking free, flexible forum solutions. The project maintains a GitHub presence for development transparency and community contributions. Partnerships appear limited to related Simple Machines domains for downloads, support, and customization. Growth indicators include recent software releases and active community forums. Strategic observations suggest opportunities in enhancing privacy compliance and security transparency to strengthen trust.

Security Posture Analysis

Comprehensive Security Assessment

The website demonstrates a moderate security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and domain transfer lock enabled. However, the absence of DNSSEC and lack of visible security headers such as Content-Security-Policy or X-Frame-Options represent gaps. No public incident response or security policies were found, which could hinder rapid response to security incidents. The use of third-party analytics and advertising scripts introduces moderate tracking risks. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the analyzed content. Compliance with GDPR and other privacy regulations is partial, lacking cookie consent mechanisms. Overall, the security posture is adequate for an open-source project website but could be improved with enhanced security headers, DNSSEC, and transparent security policies.

Strategic Recommendations

Priority Actions for Security Improvement

1

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Observations

AI-powered comprehensive website and business analysis.

A preview of your strategic observations is visible. Upgrade to unlock the full competitive positioning, trust signals, and branding checklist.

AI-Enhanced Website Analysis

Business Insights

Company:

Simple Machines

Description:

Simple Machines Forum (SMF) is open-source free community forum software delivering professional grade features allowing users to set up online communities quickly. It is written in PHP and uses MySQL database.

Key Services:
Forum software downloadCommunity supportCustomization via modifications and themesDocumentation and online manual
Content Quality:

good

Branding:

consistent

Technical Stack

Technologies:
PHPMySQLjQueryGoogle AnalyticsGoogle AdsenseCloudflare DNS
Performance:

fast

Mobile:

good

Accessibility:

basic

SEO:

good

Security Assessment

Security Score:
70/100
Best Practices:
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain status clientTransferProhibited
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics & Tracking

Services:
Google AnalyticsGoogle Tag ManagerCloudflare Insights
Tracking Level:moderate
Privacy Compliance:basic

Advertising & Marketing

Ad Networks:
Google AdsenseRevive Adserver
Tracking Pixels:
Cloudflare Insights
Transparency Level:basic

Website Quality Assessment

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

Key Observations

1

Website is a well-established open-source forum software project.

🛡️Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis and recommendations.

Some header findings are shown. Unlock to see the full checklist, impacted endpoints, and remediation guidance.

Security Headers

HTTP security headers analysis

15/100
Score

Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

HIGH

Forces HTTPS connections Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Missing X-Frame-Options header

HIGH

Prevents clickjacking attacks Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Missing X-Content-Type-Options header

MEDIUM

Prevents MIME type sniffing Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Missing Content-Security-Policy header

HIGH

Controls resources the browser is allowed to load Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Missing X-XSS-Protection header

MEDIUM

Legacy XSS protection (deprecated but still recommended) Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Missing Referrer-Policy header

LOW

Controls referrer information sent with requests Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Missing Permissions-Policy header

MEDIUM

Controls browser features and APIs Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Sensitive data may be cached

LOW

Cache-Control header should include "no-store" for sensitive pages Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

👤GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment under GDPR regulations.

Preview of GDPR checkpoints is visible. Unlock to reveal full evidence, policy excerpts, and DPIA guidance.

GDPR Compliance

Privacy and data protection assessment

35/100
Score

No Privacy Policy found

HIGH

GDPR requires a clear and accessible privacy policy Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

No Cookie Policy found

HIGH

GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

No Cookie Consent Banner found

HIGH

GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Third-party services without privacy policy

HIGH

Detected services: Google Analytics, Google APIs Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

GDPR Compliance Analysis

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

🛡️NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive compliance assessment.

You can see headline NIS2 checks. Upgrade to access the full control mapping, severity breakdown, and remediation plan.

NIS2 Compliance

Network & Information Security Directive

2/100
Score

No information security framework found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented cybersecurity and information security measures Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

No vulnerability disclosure policy

MEDIUM

NIS2 encourages coordinated vulnerability disclosure Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

No security policy documentation found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented cybersecurity governance and risk management Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

No incident response procedures found

HIGH

NIS2 requires documented incident response and business continuity plans Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

No business continuity planning found

MEDIUM

NIS2 emphasizes operational resilience and business continuity Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

No security contact information

HIGH

NIS2 requires clear incident reporting channels Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

No vulnerability reporting mechanism

MEDIUM

Clear vulnerability reporting supports coordinated disclosure Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

No NIS2 reference found

LOW

Consider explicitly mentioning NIS2 compliance efforts Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Critical sector without clear security compliance

HIGH

Detected sectors: energy, transport, digital Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

📧Email Security

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

Quick view of email authentication checks is provided. Unlock to uncover full DNS evidence, record diffs, and fix scripts.

Email Security

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC validation

100/100
Score
No issues found
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 mx ip4:149.56.159.119 +ip4:192.99.63.21 +ip4:66.71.247.133 +ip4:66.71.247.155 +ip4:66.71.247.138 ~all
DNS Lookups:1/10
Policy:~all
DKIM Selectors Found
Selector:default(1416-bit rsa)
DMARC Details
Policy:quarantine
Subdomain Policy:quarantine
Aggregate Reports:7092c07d5bdf42c79eb198a101b7f18c@dmarc-reports.cloudflare.net
Forensic Reports:dmarc@simplemachines.org
MTA-STS Details

🏆SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis.

This is a teaser of the TLS audit. Unlock to view certificate chains, cipher support tables, and remediation steps.

SSL/TLS Security

Certificate validity and encryption analysis

75/100
Score

SSL Certificate Expires Within 90 Days

MEDIUM

SSL certificate expires in 77 days Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Weak SSL Key Length

HIGH

SSL certificate uses 256-bit key, which is considered weak Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Partial SSL/TLS Assessment

LOW

Completed 2 of 4 security checks due to time constraints Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Certificate Details

Subject:simplemachines.org
Issuer:WE1
Valid Until:11/22/2025 (77 days)
SANs:simplemachines.org, *.simplemachines.org

OCSP Status

OCSP Stapling Disabled

📊DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment.

Unlock the full DNS posture audit to reveal misconfigurations, zone records, and actionable fixes.

DNS Health

DNS configuration and security assessment

80/100
Score

DNSSEC Not Enabled

MEDIUM

DNSSEC is not configured for this domain Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

CAA Records Not Configured

LOW

Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA) records not found Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Domain Delete Lock Not Enabled

LOW

Domain can be deleted without additional verification Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

Domain Registration Details

Domain Age
22 years(mature)
Expiry Risk
none(1220 days)
Protection Level
basicDNSSEC OFF

DNS Records

A Records:104.26.1.72, 172.67.70.118, 104.26.0.72
AAAA Records:2606:4700:20::681a:48, 2606:4700:20::681a:148, 2606:4700:20::ac43:4676
Name Servers:
hugh.ns.cloudflare.com
lia.ns.cloudflare.com
MX Records:
1: mail.simplemachines.org
SOA:Serial: 2381514935, TTL: 1800s

DNSSEC Status

DNSSEC Not Enabled

DNS Performance

Resolution Time:87ms

SPF Analysis

SPF Record:
v=spf1 mx ip4:149.56.159.119 +ip4:192.99.63.21 +ip4:66.71.247.133 +ip4:66.71.247.155 +ip4:66.71.247.138 ~all

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis.

See a glimpse of exposed services. Unlock to access full port inventories, CVE lookups, and mitigation priorities.

Network Security

Port scanning and network exposure analysis

100/100
Score

Good Network Security Posture

LOW

No unnecessary services detected on common risky ports Unlock the full report to read the complete fix.

🔧Technical Analysis

Detailed technical findings and analysis from AI assessment.

Unlock to view the complete technical breakdown, stack fingerprinting, and hardening checklist.

Technical Analysis

Comprehensive security assessment findings

Additional Findings

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⭐ Verified Community Reviews

What others say about simplemachines.org

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