Verdict
kde.org appears legitimate.
Our checks found nothing pointing to fraud. Ordinary care still applies when you pay or sign in.
| What this site appears to be | Official KDE community homepage providing information about KDE projects (Plasma, Applications, Frameworks), downloads, events, donation options, and community resources. |
|---|
Evidence status and limitations
Evidence completeness: UNKNOWN
- The real-world operator identity was not independently verified.
- Module-level completeness metadata is unavailable for this legacy report.
At a glance
The checks that decide most of this verdict.
| Malware engines | None flagged itVirusTotal | Clear |
|---|---|---|
| Google Safe Browsing | Not listedGoogle | Clear |
| Abuse reports on the host | 0 reportsAbuseIPDB; shared hosting inflates this count | Noted |
| Domain age | 30 years oldRegistered history | Clear |
| Web archive | Archived since 20051 snapshot | Clear |
| Certificate | Encrypted connectionIssued by Sectigo Public Server Authentication CA DV R36 | Noted |
The page as captured
No screenshot is retained for this report.
Key findings
- Automated classification: Not Scam.
- Domain age: more than 10 years (registration continuity).
- Public web-archive history exists since 2005.
- No flags from the reputation services TrustSniffer consulted at assessment time.
Full analysis
Overview
KDE.org is the public community portal for KDE, presenting free and open-source software, including the Plasma desktop, applications, frameworks, downloads, events, documentation, community participation, donations, and related merchandise.
Scam/Impersonation Risk
No contradictions were observed. The homepage presents a coherent open-source software and community purpose rather than a deceptive financial or credential-collection model; it provides public information, software downloads, events, community resources, and donation options. The page analysis found no impersonation, phishing, malicious-content, or sensitive-login indicators, and external reputation checks were clean. The domain’s long registration continuity and established public presence further support provenance consistent with an established site, although the real-world operator identity is not independently verified.
- The homepage identifies KDE as an international community developing free and open-source software, with named projects including Plasma, KDE Applications, and KDE Frameworks.
- The homepage has no login form, hidden form, password-submission destination, wallet interaction, or other sensitive transaction mechanism.
- The domain was created on 1996-12-14 and is 29.68 years old; one web-archive snapshot was recorded on 2005-07-16.
- The domain is ranked 2496 in the observed global traffic ranking, within the top 1 million domains.
Regulatory Verification Notes
The available content describes a volunteer-driven open-source community supported by donations, sponsorships, and merchandise rather than a regulated financial service. No financial licensing claim or regulatory registration is indicated in the supplied site content; in this context, that is a disclosure consideration rather than evidence of deception. The KDE identity is apparent from the site’s consistent project and community presentation, but independent attribution of the real-world operating entity remains incomplete. The registered domain uses NAMECHEAP INC, while registrant details are provided through a privacy service.
- The homepage describes KDE’s purpose as developing free and open-source software and provides community, development, documentation, and event resources.
- WHOIS records list NAMECHEAP INC as registrar, with creation date 1996-12-14T05:00:00Z and expiration date 2026-12-13T05:00:00Z.
- The site is served from AS24940, HETZNER-AS - Hetzner Online GmbH, DE.
- The transport certificate is issued by Sectigo Public Server Authentication CA DV R36, uses DV validation, and is valid through 2026-11-01T23:59:59+00:00.
What to Verify Next
Before credential or payment interactions, an organization should independently confirm the intended KDE entity and the official destination for any donation or merchandise transaction. Standard checks should include reviewing the applicable payment-protection terms, return conditions for merchandise, and the contact details published through an independently established KDE channel rather than relying solely on an unfamiliar message or redirected page.
- The homepage exposes separate public pathways for software use, community participation, donations, and merchandise, creating distinct destinations that should be checked against the intended transaction.
- The site’s stated model is donation-, sponsorship-, and merchandise-supported, so payment-protection and merchant-return terms are the relevant transaction controls.
- The available identity-verification signals do not independently connect the website to a confirmed real-world legal operator.
Summary Verdict
Available evidence is consistent with an established, apparently legitimate, low-risk website serving an open-source software community. No scam, phishing, impersonation, blacklist, or identity-conflict indicators were observed, while the site’s content quality, public footprint, technical operation, and reputation signals converge on a high-trust posture. Operator identity should nevertheless be treated as not independently verified.
Infrastructure Integrity
The site benefits from observed CDN/WAF protection, which is a mitigating control against direct exposure and common abusive traffic patterns; observed edge infrastructure includes AS24940 addresses and a potential origin candidate. This protection supports resilience and reduces exposure risk but is not, by itself, proof of organizational legitimacy.
Closing Assessment
Normal informational use is proportionate to the observed posture; account or payment activity should proceed only after the ordinary independent identity, transaction-protection, and destination checks described above.
Written analysis generated 2026-08-11 by the TrustSniffer Analysis Engine from the evidence in this report.
What the analysis found
No rule findings contributed to this verdict.
Identity verification
| Status | UNVERIFIED |
|---|---|
| Identity score | 30/100 |
| Identity verification confidence | 25% |
- No on-site identity signals detected
Identity verification measures whether the site can be independently connected to a real-world brand or person. It is separate from the classification confidence.
What TrustSniffer observed
First-party facts recorded during the assessment of kde.org.
- The request stayed on kde.org. It was not redirected to another domain. Clear
- Registration is published under NAMECHEAP INC. Clear
- DNS for this domain is served by cloudns.net, across 4 name servers. Noted
- The registration is paid up to 2026-12-13. Noted
- The earliest public archive of this site is from 2005-07-16. Clear
- It is hosted on HETZNER-AS, from a server in DE. Noted
Domain intelligence
| Registrar | NAMECHEAP INC |
|---|---|
| Hosting | HETZNER-AS - Hetzner Online GmbH, DE |
| Country | DE |
| Server IP | 2a01:4f8:a0:600e::5 |
| Name servers | dns31.cloudns.net, dns32.cloudns.net, dns33.cloudns.net, dns34.cloudns.net |
| SSL issuer | Sectigo Public Server Authentication CA DV R36 |
| SSL expiry | 2026-11-01 |
| Domain age | 29.68 years (continuous registration) |
| Domain expiry | 2026-12-13 |
| Archive first seen | 2005-07-16 |
| Archive snapshots | 1 |
| Reputation | VirusTotal: 0 flagged | AbuseIPDB: 0 reports | Google Safe Browsing: 0 matches |
About this assessment
A trust score summarises the evidence TrustSniffer could collect about kde.org at assessment time. It is a starting point for your own judgement, not a guarantee: a high score means the signals were consistent with a legitimately operated site, a low or critical score means several risk patterns were present.
TrustSniffer assesses a website from the evidence it can collect at a point in time: domain registration and age, hosting and certificate, the content the site served, and third-party reputation feeds. A score is a summary of that evidence, not a guarantee and not a legal finding. There is no human rating and no user review in it. A site can change after it is assessed.