A Government Portal with Zero Security Headers

A national regulatory authority needed NIS2 compliance evidence. Discovero's assessment revealed 31 vulnerabilities including exposed admin panels and missing security controls.

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The Challenge

What We Were Up Against

A national regulatory authority responsible for overseeing a critical sector of the economy needed to demonstrate NIS2 compliance. As a government entity handling sensitive regulatory data and citizen submissions, they required documented evidence of regular security testing.

Their infrastructure spanned multiple legacy systems, a public-facing citizen portal, and several internal applications that had become inadvertently internet-accessible over time.

What Discovero Found

Assessment Results

Subdomains discovered

caseStudies.regulatory.metrics.

Key Findings

Exposed Administrative Interface (CVSS 8.2)

An administrative panel for the citizen submission system was accessible from the internet. While behind a login page, it used basic authentication over HTTP (not HTTPS) and was vulnerable to brute-force attacks with no rate limiting or account lockout.

Zero Security Headers on All Web Properties

None of the authority's 8 web-facing applications implemented Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security, or other security headers. This left all properties vulnerable to clickjacking, MIME sniffing attacks, and made XSS exploitation easier.

Outdated CMS with Known Vulnerabilities (CVSS 7.5)

The public information portal ran WordPress 5.x with 12 outdated plugins, including 3 with known remote code execution vulnerabilities. The WordPress xmlrpc.php endpoint was enabled, allowing brute-force amplification attacks.

Internal Applications Exposed to Internet (CVSS 7.0)

Three internal applications intended for staff-only use were accessible from the public internet due to misconfigured network segmentation. These included a document management system and an internal communication tool containing sensitive regulatory deliberations.

The Impact

What Could Have Happened

Scenario	Estimated Impact
Citizen data breach + mandatory disclosure	Severe reputational damage
Regulatory process manipulation	National security implications
NIS2 non-compliance penalties	Administrative sanctions
Discovero assessment	EUR 5,900

For a government authority, the reputational and national security implications far exceed any financial cost estimate.

The Outcome

What Was Done

Administrative panels were immediately moved behind VPN access.
Security headers were implemented across all 8 web properties within one week.
WordPress was updated and unnecessary plugins removed. xmlrpc.php was disabled.
Network segmentation was corrected, removing public access to internal applications.
The Discovero report served as NIS2 Art. 21 compliance evidence for the authority's security audit.
A quarterly assessment schedule was established for ongoing compliance.

Key Takeaway

Government entities face unique risks: citizen data, regulatory processes, and public trust. Regular external assessment isn't optional under NIS2 — it's mandatory. And the external perspective reveals what internal teams can't see.

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