Introducing the MDN HTTP Observatory

In its lifespan, Mozilla’s HTTP Observatory tool has scanned over 6.9 million websites, providing useful, actionable insights into how developers can improve web security and guard their sites against would-be attackers.,The HTTP Observatory tests website compliance with security best practices, mainly concerning the correct usage of HTTP headers. When a scan is complete, it provides a report to tell the user how well their site is doing, with an overall score and grade, and links to documentation explaining what they need to do to improve their security.,Today, we are delighted to announce that the HTTP Observatory’s new home is MDN! This blog post explains a little bit of the history behind the tool, how we got to where we are now, what the migration means for Observatory and MDN, and what Observatory tests.,Check out the
new HTTP Observatory now.,In 2016, then-Mozilla security engineer
April King
announced the original release of the HTTP Observatory tool. Originally conceived as an internal testing tool to help Mozilla developers apply security best practices to their own websites, the HTTP Observatory was packaged into a website that anyone could use after April looked in dismay around the web and saw how few sites were applying those best practices.,Since then, HTTP Observatory has exploded in popularity, with over 6.9 million websites being scanned a total of 47 million times! Mozilla’s Infrastructure Security Team has regularly maintained the tool to improve the service, adding new tests as security best practices and standards are updated, and removing tests related to older technologies as they become obsolete.,That isn’t the full story, however. The success of the HTTP Observatory hinges on two things.,The HTTP Observatory tests the following security features:,