Free passive scan

Free Security Headers Checker

Free tool

Checks CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy, and COEP/COOP/CORP against your live URL, with copy-paste fixes.

  • Content Security Policy
  • X-Frame-Options
  • X-Content-Type-Options
  • Permissions Policy
  • Referrer Policy
  • And more...
No credit card requiredRead-only, no exploitationNo setup or code required
Used by 5,000+ developers and engineering teams
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What you get for free

18 core security checks via this tool, passive scans, step-by-step remediation, security score on every result.

What Essential adds from €199/mo

Pentest credits every month, +17 advanced checks, weekly passive scans, email alerts and audit-ready PDFs for SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / PCI.

What is a Security Headers Test?

A security headers test checks the HTTP response headers your website sends to browsers. These headers tell browsers how to behave when loading your site. For example, whether to allow embedding in iframes, how to handle content types, and whether to enforce HTTPS. Missing or misconfigured security headers are a common cause of vulnerabilities that show up in security audits and penetration tests. Running a security headers test helps you find gaps before attackers or auditors do.

Why Security Headers Matter

Security assessors check how your site is configured. Headers like Content-Security-Policy (CSP), Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options reduce the risk of cross-site scripting (XSS), clickjacking, and protocol downgrade attacks. A security headers test gives you a clear report of what you send today and what you should add or change to meet best practices.

Common Security Header Mistakes

Many sites omit HSTS or set it with too short a max-age, leave X-Content-Type-Options unset (allowing MIME sniffing), or use overly permissive Content-Security-Policy directives such as unsafe-inline or unsafe-eval. Others send conflicting frame controls (e.g. both X-Frame-Options and CSP frame-ancestors) or forget Referrer-Policy and Permissions-Policy. A security headers checker highlights these issues and explains how they increase risk so you can fix them in the right order.

How Barrion Detects Header Issues

Barrion's security headers test tool requests your URL and inspects the response headers. It checks for presence and correct values of CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy, and cross-origin headers (COEP, COOP, CORP). The tool then compares what it finds against current best practices and produces a prioritized list of findings with remediation guidance. You can run it on any public URL without installing software or sharing code. Ideal for quick checks before an audit or as part of continuous monitoring.

Use the checker above to analyze your website's security headers. Enter your domain or full URL and click to run the test. Results typically return in under a minute and include specific recommendations for each header.

How to fix common issues

  • Set X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
  • Adopt a strict CSP with nonces/hashes
  • Enable HSTS with preload readiness

What are security headers?

HTTP security headers configure browser behavior to reduce risk from XSS, clickjacking, mixed content, and cross-origin leaks.

What this test checks

Content Security Policy (CSP):
  • CSP directive configuration and syntax validation
  • Detection of unsafe-inline and unsafe-eval usage
  • Nonce and hash implementation guidance
  • Frame-ancestors directive for clickjacking protection
Clickjacking Protection:
  • X-Frame-Options header presence and configuration
  • CSP frame-ancestors directive validation
  • Frame embedding restrictions and policy consistency
Content Type & MIME Security:
  • X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff implementation
  • MIME type sniffing protection validation
  • Content-Type header configuration
Privacy & Referrer Control:
  • Referrer-Policy header configuration
  • Cross-origin referrer information control
  • Privacy-preserving referrer policies
Feature Permissions:
  • Permissions-Policy header validation
  • Browser API access restrictions (camera, geolocation, etc.)
  • Feature policy best practices compliance
Cross-Origin Security:
  • Cross-Origin-Embedder-Policy (COEP) configuration
  • Cross-Origin-Opener-Policy (COOP) validation
  • Cross-Origin-Resource-Policy (CORP) settings
Information Disclosure:
  • Server header exposure and version disclosure
  • X-Powered-By header detection
  • Technology stack information leakage
Transport Security:
  • HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) configuration
  • HSTS includeSubDomains and preload token
  • HTTPS enforcement policies

Across 7,440 recent passive scans, 98.9% are missing a strict CSP, 57.2% have no HSTS preload, and 46.7% don't send X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff.

Implementation examples

Once you've identified the gap, applying the fix is straightforward. Here are the configurations developers reach for most often.

Nginx

server {
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload" always;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
    add_header X-Frame-Options "DENY" always;
    add_header Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin" always;
    add_header Permissions-Policy "camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()" always;
    add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; frame-ancestors 'none'; base-uri 'self'" always;
}

Apache

# Requires mod_headers
Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"
Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
Header always set X-Frame-Options "DENY"
Header always set Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin"
Header always set Permissions-Policy "camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()"
Header always set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; frame-ancestors 'none'; base-uri 'self'"

Node.js (Express + Helmet)

import express from "express"
import helmet from "helmet"

const app = express()

app.use(
  helmet({
    hsts: { maxAge: 31536000, includeSubDomains: true, preload: true },
    contentSecurityPolicy: {
      directives: {
        defaultSrc: ["'self'"],
        frameAncestors: ["'none'"],
        baseUri: ["'self'"],
      },
    },
    referrerPolicy: { policy: "strict-origin-when-cross-origin" },
    frameguard: { action: "deny" },
  }),
)

Next.js (next.config.mjs, works on Vercel)

const nextConfig = {
  async headers() {
    return [
      {
        source: "/(.*)",
        headers: [
          {
            key: "Strict-Transport-Security",
            value: "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload",
          },
          { key: "X-Content-Type-Options", value: "nosniff" },
          { key: "X-Frame-Options", value: "DENY" },
          { key: "Referrer-Policy", value: "strict-origin-when-cross-origin" },
          {
            key: "Permissions-Policy",
            value: "camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()",
          },
          {
            key: "Content-Security-Policy",
            value: "frame-ancestors 'none'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none'",
          },
        ],
      },
    ]
  },
}

export default nextConfig

On Netlify, the same headers go in a public/_headers file, and most other hosts have an equivalent headers setting. The CSP here sticks to directives that are safe to set statically. A full policy with default-src and script-src needs a per-request nonce set in middleware, or it blocks Next.js's own inline scripts.

Tool-specific questions

What's the difference between X-Frame-Options and CSP frame-ancestors?

CSP frame-ancestors is the modern standard and more flexible than X-Frame-Options. It allows granular control over which domains can embed your content. X-Frame-Options is legacy but still widely supported. Use CSP frame-ancestors for new implementations and ensure consistency across your site.

How do I implement a secure Content Security Policy without breaking my site?

Start with a report-only CSP to identify issues, then gradually implement directives. Use nonces for inline scripts, avoid unsafe-inline and unsafe-eval, and implement proper source whitelisting. Test thoroughly in staging before deploying to production.

Why is Permissions-Policy important for web security?

Permissions-Policy controls access to powerful browser APIs like camera, microphone, geolocation, and payment APIs. By restricting these features to trusted origins only, you prevent malicious scripts from accessing sensitive user data and reduce your attack surface significantly.

What are the benefits of implementing Cross-Origin policies (COEP/COOP/CORP)?

Cross-Origin policies enable cross-origin isolation, which provides stronger security guarantees and access to powerful APIs like SharedArrayBuffer. COEP controls resource embedding, COOP isolates browsing contexts, and CORP controls resource loading. Together they create a secure cross-origin environment.

How often should I review and update my security headers?

Review security headers after any major site changes, new feature deployments, or security updates. Use Barrion's continuous monitoring to track header changes over time. Security headers should be treated as part of your security baseline and reviewed quarterly at minimum.

What's the impact of missing X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff?

Without nosniff, browsers may perform MIME type sniffing, potentially interpreting files as different types than intended. This can lead to XSS attacks if malicious content is served with incorrect MIME types. Always set X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff to prevent this behavior.
Why Barrion

Built for the engineers who already have enough to fix.

Speed

Fast results

Instant analysis with a detailed report. You see findings as the scan runs, not after.
Coverage

Comprehensive checks

The full passive scan runs 18 checks on the free plan, covering TLS, headers and cookies. Paid plans run 35+ and add CORS, DNS, email auth and more.
Action

Step-by-step fixes

Every finding ships with the exact remediation step for your framework. Hand it to the engineer who owns the surface.
FAQ

Frequently asked.

What is Barrion?
Barrion runs continuous, agentic AI penetration tests of web applications and APIs. AI agents test your app the way an attacker would, safely, on a schedule or on demand. Findings are checked against the live app before they're reported, and tracked across runs as new, still open, resolved or regressed. From Standard level up, a security engineer reviews each report. Barrion AB is based in Gothenburg, Sweden. A free passive scan is the quickest way to start.
How safe is Barrion to use for security testing?
AI pentests send real test requests, so they're rate-limited and non-destructive, and you approve the exact scope before a single request goes out. You can point them at staging too. The free passive scan only reads your live app. It never submits forms, brute-forces endpoints or touches anything that changes state, so it's safe to run against production.
What types of security issues does Barrion identify?
AI pentests look for the issues an attacker could exploit, like SQL injection, cross-site scripting and broken access control. Findings are checked against your live app, and confirmed ones come with the request and response that prove them. Anything we couldn't confirm is clearly marked and capped in severity. The passive scan catches misconfigurations in TLS and HTTPS, security headers, cookie flags, CORS policy, DNS records, email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and network exposure.
What specific security checks does Barrion perform?
Barrion covers two surfaces. AI pentesting is the active part: specialist agents chain requests to find exploitable flaws such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting and broken access control. Findings are checked against your live app, and confirmed ones come with the request and response that prove them. The passive scan is read-only and safe to point at production. On paid plans it runs 35+ checks (18 on the free plan): transport security (HTTPS, HSTS, TLS version, cipher suites, certificate expiry, hostname and chain validity, OCSP stapling), HTTP response headers (Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, Content-Type, server information disclosure), CSP and framing (Content-Security-Policy, bypass detection, Trusted Types, X-Frame-Options), cross-origin policy (COOP, COEP, CORP and the full CORS header set), cookie flags and anti-CSRF tokens, mixed content, vulnerable JavaScript libraries, DNS records including DNSSEC and CAA, email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), open ports and subdomain takeover. Findings from both are ranked by severity and come with step-by-step remediation.
Will my auditor or enterprise customers accept the pentest report?
The report maps every finding to OWASP WSTG, a security engineer reviews it from Standard up and signs it off from Deep up, and a free retest shows what you fixed. Teams use it as evidence for SOC 2, ISO 27001 and NIS2 work. Whether it's accepted is up to your auditor.
How often does Barrion test my app?
Continuously or on demand. On the Business plan you save a pentest and it reruns daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, every six months, yearly or on your own rhythm. On any plan you can start a pentest or a passive scan on demand. A passive scan also runs on a schedule and alerts you when something new shows up.
Is Barrion suitable for security testing of all business sizes?
Yes. Solo developers often start with the free passive scan and a single pentest. Teams with several apps run pentests on a schedule, and it fits alongside the tools you already run.
How does Barrion handle data security and privacy during security testing?
Passive scans are read-only: they only look at what your app already exposes publicly. For AI pentests we keep the findings in your report, and confirmed findings include the request and response behind them, so you can review and reproduce them. Test credentials you add are encrypted. Barrion is hosted in Sweden, data is stored in the EU and AI processing runs in the EU. Our trust page lists every subprocessor. Pentests are rate-limited and only run inside the scope you approve.
What if I'm not satisfied with Barrion's security testing service?
You can cancel anytime in the dashboard, and paid plans carry a 14-day refund window from the first charge. If something isn't right, contact us and we'll make it work for your team.
How does Barrion help with SOC 2, ISO 27001, NIS2, and other compliance frameworks?
Barrion's pentest reports come as PDF, XLSX and JSON, mapped to all 97 OWASP WSTG test cases, with engineer review from Standard up, sign-off from Deep up and a free retest after fixes. Teams use them as evidence that supports SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS and NIS2 work. Whether a report is accepted is up to your auditor or customer.

Anything else? Email contact@barrion.io.

A scan shows the surface. A pentest tests what gets in.

Passive scan

  • Reads what your app already exposes
  • Never logs in or submits a form
  • Cannot confirm what is exploitable

Active AI pentest

  • Tests your app the way an attacker would
  • Chains requests to confirm real exploits
  • Replays findings against your live app
  • Runs on a schedule or on demand, retests free

Probes for

  • SQL injection
  • Broken access control
  • IDOR
  • SSRF
  • Business-logic abuse

How AI pentesting works

Paid in credits. Free retests of found issues, and expert review from Standard up.