How to fix hsts max age too short on BigCommerce

Steps for BigCommerce

1. BigCommerce manages HTTPS and core security headers at the platform level for standard storefronts — direct server-header editing is not available in the admin UI.
2. If the scanner reports a short max-age on a BigCommerce storefront, check whether a third-party script injection or a custom header app is overriding the header.
3. For BigCommerce headless storefronts (e.g. Next.js + BigCommerce GraphQL API), set the header in your Next.js next.config.js headers() function or at your CDN/hosting layer (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare).
4. Raise a support ticket with BigCommerce if you believe the platform itself is serving max-age=86400 — they control the CDN configuration for managed storefronts.
5. Contact your BigCommerce account manager (for Enterprise) to request a compliant HSTS header be applied at the edge.

What is hsts max age too short?

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) is a security header your web server sends to browsers that says: "Only ever connect to this site over HTTPS — never plain HTTP." The `max-age` value inside that header tells the browser how many seconds to remember and enforce that rule. A value of 86400 means just one day — after 24 hours the browser forgets the instruction and could allow an unencrypted HTTP connection again. The industry standard is 31536000 (one full year), meaning the browser stays protected for 365 days after each visit.

A short max-age creates a real window of vulnerability every single day. If a visitor's browser cache expires and they visit your store over an insecure network (coffee shop Wi-Fi, hotel hotspot), an attacker can intercept that initial unencrypted HTTP request and steal login credentials, session cookies, or payment data — a classic SSL-stripping attack. Beyond security, Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014 and continues to favor sites that implement it properly; a misconfigured HSTS header signals to security-aware crawlers and auditors that your HTTPS setup is incomplete. Short max-age values are also explicitly flagged by OWASP and browser preload-list requirements, and many enterprise buyers and compliance frameworks (PCI-DSS, SOC 2) require HSTS to be set correctly before approving a vendor.

See the complete Hsts max age too short guide for every platform and the full background.