How to Scan Your Website for Security Vulnerabilities -- Free

In 2026, launching a web service takes minutes, but securing it requires continuous vigilance. Automated threat actors scan newly registered domains and IP subnets within seconds of public DNS propagation. A single misconfiguration--such as an outdated TLS cipher suite or a missing Content-Security-Policy--can expose your users to credential theft, clickjacking, or data leaks.

In this guide, we will walk through how to audit your web applications using Pingbird's free vulnerability scanner and address the most common security findings.

What Pingbird's Security Scanner Audits

Our automated scanner examines your domain across six critical security vectors:

1. TLS/SSL Configuration

We check certificate validity dates, certificate authority trust chains, protocol support (flagging deprecated TLS 1.0/1.1), and cipher suite encryption strength to prevent downgrade and man-in-the-middle attacks.

2. HTTP Security Headers

Security headers tell modern browsers how to handle your site's content safely. We inspect:

• Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS): Enforces encrypted HTTPS connections and prevents SSL stripping.
• Content-Security-Policy (CSP): Prevents cross-site scripting (XSS) by restricting where scripts, styles, and images can load from.
• X-Frame-Options: Defends against clickjacking attacks by forbidding unauthorized iframe embedding.
• X-Content-Type-Options: Stops browsers from MIME-sniffing away from declared content types.
• Permissions-Policy: Disables unused hardware APIs like camera, microphone, and geolocation.

3. DNS and Email Authentication

Attackers frequently spoof legitimate domains to conduct phishing attacks. We verify SPF, DMARC, DKIM, and CAA (Certificate Authority Authorization) records to protect your brand identity.

4. Web Application Attack Surface

We test for loose Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) configurations (like wildcard Access-Control-Allow-Origin headers on authenticated endpoints) and open redirect vectors.

5. Supply Chain and Exposed Dependencies

We inspect public response headers and script bundles for exposed version signatures with known CVEs.

6. Reconnaissance and Sensitive Paths

We verify that administrative consoles, staging endpoints, and environment configurations (.git, .env) are not unintentionally exposed to the public internet.

Step-by-Step: Running Your First Free Scan

1. Navigate to the Pingbird Security Scanner.
2. Enter your website domain or full URL (e.g. https://example.com).
3. Click Start Security Scan. The scan takes approximately 20 to 30 seconds to run all checks.
4. Review your composite Security Score (0 to 100) and severity breakdown (Critical, High, Medium, Low).

Quick Remediation: Setting Critical Headers

If your scan flagged missing security headers, you can add them immediately. Here is a recommended configuration for Next.js in next.config.js:

// next.config.js
module.exports = {
  async headers() {
    return [
      {
        source: '/(.*)',
        headers: [
          { key: 'Strict-Transport-Security', value: 'max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload' },
          { key: 'X-Frame-Options', value: 'DENY' },
          { key: 'X-Content-Type-Options', value: 'nosniff' },
          { key: 'Referrer-Policy', value: 'strict-origin-when-cross-origin' },
        ],
      },
    ];
  },
};

Continuous Security with Pingbird

One-off scans are valuable, but security configurations drift over time as you deploy updates. Pingbird accounts include daily automated scans to alert you the moment a certificate approaches expiration or a deployment removes a security header.

Check your domain health now on the Security Scanner or view our plan limits to increase your automated daily scan capacity.