paypal.com

An authorized sender list is defined; mail from other servers is flagged as suspicious.

~all (softfail) — acceptable when combined with enforced DMARC. 7 of 10 DNS lookups.

v=spf1 include:pp._spf.paypal.com include:3ph1._spf.paypal.com include:3ph2._spf.paypal.com include:3ph3._spf.paypal.com include:3ph4._spf.paypal.com include:sendgrid.net include:aspmx.pardot.com ~all

$ dig +short TXT paypal.com

Forged email in the company's name is blocked by mail servers.

Policy p=reject.

v=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:d@rua.agari.com,mailto:dmarc_agg@vali.email; ruf=mailto:d@ruf.agari.com,mailto:MTc4Mzcw@ruf.vali.email

$ dig +short TXT _dmarc.paypal.com

A DKIM public key is published. On its own this doesn't prove outgoing mail is signed or aligned with your From domain.

DKIM public key found for selector: s1, s2. Confirm signing with dkim=pass in a sent message's Authentication-Results.

s1._domainkey: k=rsa; t=s; p=MIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAxbgrZ8NI+r1z/S4RHUWdMmwmN+JGEY9B…
s2._domainkey: k=rsa; t=s; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDMTLst9tYk0BVG2VmtfH+pSW9SYaffk4Z3wx36…

$ dig +short TXT s1._domainkey.paypal.com

Mail exchangers are published for the domain.

2 MX record(s). This shows where inbound mail is routed, not whether mail is sent from the domain.

10 mx1.paypalcorp.com
10 mx2.paypalcorp.com

$ dig +short MX paypal.com

The site loads over an encrypted connection.

https://paypal.com/ returned HTTP 403 (final URL: https://www.paypal.com/gb/home). Client-side certificate validation passed.

HTTP 403
Final URL: https://www.paypal.com/gb/home

$ curl -sIL https://paypal.com/

Visitors arriving at an unencrypted address are automatically sent to the secure version.

HTTP 301 → https://www.paypal.com/

HTTP 301
Location: https://www.paypal.com/

$ curl -sI http://paypal.com/ | grep -iE "^(HTTP|location)"

The certificate was accepted by a validating TLS client at scan time.

Live TLS handshake succeeded. Latest issuance in CT logs: DigiCert, expiring 2027-04-10 (146 days). CT shows issued certificates, not necessarily the one served — confirm dates with the verify command.

Live TLS handshake: certificate accepted
CT logs (context only, not scored):
Issuer: DigiCert
Valid from: 2026-09-24
Valid until: 2027-04-10
Names: braintreepayments.com, buyindiaonline.com, cash2india.com, curv.cc, curv.co, fastlane.paypal.com
Based on Certificate Transparency logs; may not reflect the certificate currently served.

$ echo | openssl s_client -connect paypal.com:443 -servername paypal.com 2>/dev/null | openssl x509 -noout -issuer -dates

Browsers are told to always use an encrypted connection to the site.

max-age=31536000 (365 days), includeSubDomains, preload. ≥ 180 days recommended.

Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload

$ curl -sIL https://paypal.com/ | grep -i "Strict-Transport-Security"

Missing Content-Security-Policy header: this removes one layer of protection against script injection.

No Content-Security-Policy header found.

Content-Security-Policy: (missing)

$ curl -sIL https://paypal.com/ | grep -i "Content-Security-Policy"

/*
  Content-Security-Policy-Report-Only: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; object-src 'none'; base-uri 'self'; frame-ancestors 'self'

Missing X-Frame-Options / frame-ancestors: this removes one layer of protection against clickjacking.

No valid X-Frame-Options and no frame-ancestors in the CSP.

X-Frame-Options: (missing)

$ curl -sIL https://paypal.com/ | grep -i "X-Frame-Options"

/*
  X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN

The browser may interpret files as code unintentionally.

Missing X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff header (MIME sniffing).

X-Content-Type-Options: (missing)

$ curl -sIL https://paypal.com/ | grep -i "X-Content-Type-Options"

/*
  X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff

Internal URLs (including parameters) may leak to external sites.

Referrer-Policy is missing; the browser will use its default.

Referrer-Policy: (missing)

$ curl -sIL https://paypal.com/ | grep -i "Referrer-Policy"

/*
  Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin

Access to sensitive features like the camera and location isn't restricted.

Missing Permissions-Policy header.

Permissions-Policy: (missing)

$ curl -sIL https://paypal.com/ | grep -i "Permissions-Policy"

/*
  Permissions-Policy: camera=(), microphone=(), geolocation=()

The server doesn't disclose software versions.

No version numbers found in the Server / X-Powered-By headers.

server: cloudflare
x-powered-by: (missing)

$ curl -sIL https://paypal.com/ | grep -iE "^(server|x-powered-by)"

The domain's records are digitally signed and hard to forge.

An AD (Authenticated Data) flag was returned by a validating resolver.

AD = true

$ dig +dnssec paypal.com | grep -E "flags:.* ad"

Only authorized certificate authorities can issue certificates for the domain.

CAA records: 0 issue "digicert.com" | 0 issue "quovadisglobal.com" | 0 issue "visa.com"

0 issue "digicert.com"
0 issue "quovadisglobal.com"
0 issue "visa.com"

$ dig +short CAA paypal.com

The domain is served by several DNS servers, so one server failing won't take it down.

4 NS servers.

pdns100.ultradns.com
pdns100.ultradns.net
ns1-pchnet.paypal.com
ns2-pchnet.paypal.com

$ dig +short NS paypal.com