Is debian.org legit?
This website appears to be trustworthy, demonstrating strong technical infrastructure and a long-standing online presence. While it could improve its legal transparency and social media engagement, these are minor concerns given its overall robust profile.
Software & Downloads average: 78/100 · based on 75 sites
Checked: April 21, 2026 at 4:09 AM UTC
Is debian.org a scam? Here's what we found.
The site boasts a strong security posture with modern TLS 1.3 encryption, HSTS enforcement, and effective clickjacking protection. Google Web Risk also confirms no immediate threats, although the Certificate Transparency check was inconclusive.
With a domain age of over 27 years, debian.org has an incredibly well-established and trusted identity. The Registrar and domain expiry dates are also regular, reflecting a stable and maintained online presence.
The site ranks extremely high in Tranco, indicating significant global trust and traffic. It's free from DNS blacklists. The inability to check Web Archive reduces a point, but does not detract from its established reputation.
While contact information is present, the absence of social media links on the homepage and basic branding suggests a slightly less transparent or interactive approach for new users, though for a project like Debian, this might be intentional.
The partial legal pages, specifically the absence of either a privacy policy or terms of service, is a notable gap that users and regulators would expect to be addressed.
The site benefits from robust infrastructure, including multiple IP addresses for DNS resolution, defined MX records for email, and DNSSEC. The use of Let's Encrypt for its certificate and Apache as its server are standard and reliable.
Signals Detected
This is one of the most visited websites globally
No structured data markup found
This business has no Trustpilot presence — not unusual for smaller or newer companies
crt.sh returned status 429
Valid certificate, expires in 44 days
Certificate issued by Let's Encrypt
Connection uses TLS 1.3
Resolves to: 2a04:4e42::644, 2a04:4e42:200::644, 2a04:4e42:600::644, 2a04:4e42:400::644, 151.101.130.132, 151.101.194.132, 151.101.66.132, 151.101.2.132
Mail servers: mailly.debian.org., mitropoulos.debian.org., muffat.debian.org.
DNS providers: nsp.dnsnode.net., dns4.easydns.info., sec1.rcode0.net., sec2.rcode0.net.
Site has a favicon but no social sharing metadata
No robots.txt file — common for small sites
Site enforces HTTPS via HSTS
X-Frame-Options: sameorigin
Web server: Apache
No threats detected by Google Web Risk
No sitemap found — common for smaller sites
Website is live and responding
Website appears to have contact information
Website is missing either privacy policy or terms of service
No social media links found on homepage
Domain created 1999-03-10T05:00:00Z (27 years, 6 months ago)
Registered through Gandi SAS
Expires in 323 days
DNSSEC status from WHOIS
Not found on any DNS blacklists
Could not query Wayback Machine
Fast page load
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