Check if your IP is used in a malicious botnet registry

Quick answer

If your connection feels off, services keep blocking you, or you’ve had a malware scare, a fair question is: has my IP been flagged as part of a botnet? Here’s how to check and what it means.

What “in a botnet” means for an IP

A botnet is a network of compromised devices controlled by an attacker. If a device on your network is infected, your IP can show up in threat registries and blocklists as a source of malicious traffic — spam, attacks, scanning — even though you didn’t do it knowingly. The listing follows your IP and affects everything you do from it.

Step 1: Check the blocklists

The practical first check is our Blacklist Check tool, which queries the major DNSBLs that track abusive and compromised IPs (several of these specifically list botnet/malware sources). A listing on these is a strong signal that something on your network is generating malicious traffic — or that you inherited a dynamic IP with a bad history.

Step 2: Look at the wider signals

Run your IP through the Bulk IP Audit tool to see reputation alongside the network details. Combined with reCAPTCHA challenges everywhere, services blocking you, or unexplained slowdowns, a blocklist hit points toward a compromised device on your network rather than a coincidence.

Step 3: Find and clean the source

If signals point to infection, the cause is usually a specific device — a PC, phone, or insecure IoT gadget — quietly running malicious software. Scan your computers with reputable anti-malware, update and reboot routers and IoT devices (many botnets target unpatched cameras and routers), and change passwords on anything that may be compromised. Removing the infection is what actually clears the cause.

Step 4: Clear the listing

Once the source is clean, request delisting from any blocklists you’re on (see how to check and fix a blacklisting). If you’re on a dynamic IP and the listing was inherited, it often expires on its own once clean traffic resumes. On CGNAT or a shared IP, you may need your ISP’s help, since the address isn’t solely yours.

If it’s a false alarm

Sometimes a clean network inherits a previously-abused dynamic IP — the listing isn’t about you. A scan that finds nothing plus a listing that ages out confirms that. Either way, checking is quick and worthwhile when the symptoms appear.