About the Magnetar website scanner

If you have found this page, you have probably seen MagnetarWebsiteHealthCheck in your website’s server logs. This page explains what it is.

What it is

Magnetar IT runs an automated website health check for our clients. It looks at publicly available information about a website — the same information any visitor’s browser or any search engine receives — and produces a report covering security, performance, accessibility, privacy and search visibility.

What it does

• Requests pages and reads the responses, exactly as a browser or search engine does
• Checks public DNS records, including email authentication records
• Inspects the site’s security certificate
• Reads robots.txt and sitemap.xml
• Runs an automated accessibility check on the page as it renders

What it does not do

• It does not attempt to log in, guess passwords, or use any credentials
• It does not attempt to exploit anything, or test whether a weakness can be used
• It does not submit forms, change anything, or upload anything
• It does not scan for vulnerabilities by brute force, and it does not fuzz or guess addresses
• It does not collect personal data about your visitors

The scanner is rate limited to a small number of requests per second, honours robots.txt, and stops entirely if a server signals that it is unwelcome. It identifies itself in every request rather than pretending to be an ordinary browser.

Asking us to stop

If you would prefer we did not scan your website, email info@magnetarit.co.uk with the domain name and we will exclude it. You can also block the user agent MagnetarWebsiteHealthCheck in your robots.txt or firewall, and it will stop.

Contact

Magnetar IT · 01926 942 150 · magnetarit.co.uk

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