censys
GoodBotCommunity-sourcedA security-focused scanning engine that maps the internet by identifying devices, services, and vulnerabilities across public IP addresses. Operated by Censys, Inc..
What is censys?
Censys operates a global scanning infrastructure that continuously probes the public internet to catalog services, certificates, and software versions. By maintaining a comprehensive index of internet-connected assets, the platform enables security professionals and researchers to track the attack surface of organizations and identify misconfigured or exposed systems. It is widely considered a standard tool for threat intelligence and proactive security posture management.
Identification
Why it crawls your site
Censys crawls the web to build a real-time, searchable database of the internet's topology and security state. The data collected is used to power their search engine, which helps security teams detect potential entry points for attackers before they are exploited. Operators can verify the bot by checking that the source IP addresses originate from the official Censys scanning network and by reviewing their published transparency policies regarding scanning behavior.
IP ranges
Requests from censys originate from these published ranges. For strict verification, match the source IP against this list in addition to checking the user-agent and reverse-DNS.
Block or allow censys
Add a Disallow rule for censys in your robots.txt file. You can also block at the server level using your web server configuration or CDN firewall rules to filter requests matching the user-agent string.
# Block censys from crawling your entire site User-agent: censys Disallow: / # Allow censys full access User-agent: censys Allow: /
Ensure your robots.txt allows censys. Verify requests by checking the user-agent string.
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From the community
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Data sources
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