A missing or overly permissive Content Security Policy (CSP) can expose a website to security vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting (XSS) and data injection attacks. By implementing a restrictive CSP, you can define which sources are trusted for loading content, helping to protect your site from malicious activity and improving overall security.
HSTS is a security feature that ensures a website is only accessible over HTTPS. It helps to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, such as protocol downgrade attacks, by enforcing that browsers always communicate with the server over a secure connection. Without HSTS, an attacker could intercept traffic on a non-secure connection and compromise user data.
A security.txt file is a standard for websites to provide contact information and guidelines for reporting security vulnerabilities. It helps security researchers and good actors to report potential issues with the site to the responsible parties. Without a security.txt file, it may be harder for researchers to reach out to the website's administrators, potentially delaying the response to security threats.
The X-Content-Type-Options header helps prevent browsers from interpreting files as a different MIME type than what is specified. This is a security measure that prevents certain types of attacks, such as MIME sniffing. Without this header, there is a risk that malicious content might be executed if a browser misinterprets the type of content being served.