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Domain Due Diligence

Report for Debian.org

Report Date
October 9, 2025
Recommendation
Proceed
Overall Summary
Safe
  Why we think so? 

✅ debian.org is the official website for the Debian GNU/Linux project. The domain is long‑standing (registered in 1999), receives roughly 2 million visits per month, lists official contact emails (e.g., security@debian.org), and appears in major news outlets for software releases. Automated checks show no Google Safe Browsing threats and no crypto‑scam listings. Overall this looks like an authentic, community‑run open source project site; proceed with normal caution when downloading software (verify signatures).

Confidence Score
90%

Risk Insights

🛡️

Established project, active releases

  • Domain registered in 1999 and managed via a reputable registrar.
  • Multiple recent release announcements in tech press (Debian 13/Trixie).
  • High organic traffic confirms genuine user interest.
✅

No blacklist or phishing flags

  • Google Safe Browsing found no matched threats.
  • Crypto scam scanner returned negative for debian.org.
  • Official security contact (security@debian.org) is published.

Contradictory Signals

Debian is a distributed volunteer project with a global community, so lack of a physical business listing is expected and not a strong negative.

Signal A: High traffic and many backlinks (signals of legitimacy)

Signal B: No Google Places / physical listing (reduces consumer trust signals)

Category Scores

Red Flags & Warnings

  • Moderate bounce rate (~58%) and mixed pageviews per visit — typical for documentation sites but worth noting.

🔎 Detailed Checks & Analysis

Domain WHOIS & age

Score: 95/100
Passed

"WHOIS shows a 1999 creation date and Gandi SAS as registrar; no recent suspicious transfer activity recorded."

Reason: Long-registered (1999) domain with a reputable registrar (Gandi) — consistent with a stable, established project.

Traffic volume & engagement

Score: 92/100
Passed

"SimilarWeb and SimilarTech report ~1.8–2.2M monthly visits, search ~50–55% and direct ~33% traffic — typical for a widely used OS project site."

Reason: Consistently high traffic (~2M monthly) and strong organic search share indicate real user base.

Technical infrastructure

Score: 90/100
Passed

"Technologies include Apache, Fastly; DNS A/AAAA records and valid cert present — no obvious hosting anomalies."

Reason: Standard, well-known infrastructure (Apache, Fastly CDN, IPv4+IPv6) and valid SSL certificate.

Contact transparency

Score: 90/100
Passed

"Scraper found security@debian.org, webmaster@debian.org and project mailing lists — useful for incident reporting and verification."

Reason: Official contact emails and project mailing lists are published on the site for reporting and verification.

Blacklist & phishing checks

Score: 95/100
Passed

"Safe Browsing returned no matched threats; crypto scam sniffer flagged domain as not blacklisted."

Reason: No hits on Google Safe Browsing and crypto‑scam lists — low immediate phishing/malware signal.

Trademark / impersonation risk

Score: 85/100
Passed

"USPTO search returned no results for the exact query; still advise caution with similarly named commercial domains."

Reason: No USPTO trademark matches for the query and active, public project branding reduces impersonation risk.

News & third‑party coverage

Score: 90/100
Passed

"Phoronix and other outlets report on Debian releases and security updates, which matches expected behavior for the project."

Reason: Frequent coverage from reputable tech outlets about releases and security updates supports legitimacy.

Legal / policy signals

Score: 80/100
Passed

"Debian publishes legal pages and a code of conduct; historical trademark dispute with Mozilla is resolved and documented."

Reason: Project maintains public legal and policy documents; no major litigation flagged in quick search.

Maps / physical presence

Score: 30/100
Failed

"No physical location listed via the places check; this is common for distributed volunteer projects and not a fraud indicator by itself."

Reason: No Google Places entry or physical business listing — expected for a volunteer open‑source project but reduces consumer‑style trust signals.

Your Next Steps

  • 1

    When downloading installers or packages, verify the PGP/OpenPGP signatures provided on the site before installation.

  • 2

    Subscribe or check the official security announcement list (debian-security) for vulnerability notices before applying updates.

  • 3

    Avoid similarly named domains (e.g., debian.com / debian.net) and confirm the URL is debian.org before entering sensitive info.

  • 4

    If you need to contact the project, use the listed official emails (e.g., security@debian.org) or documented contact pages.

  • 5

    For high‑risk deployments, mirror packages from Debian’s documented repositories or official mirrors and validate checksums.

Evidence & Citations

🕵🏻 Keep investigating

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