ipapi.gr

Bot signals — Internet scanner

NCSC UK Scanning scanner IP addresses

NCSC UK Scanning is an internet scanning project in the IPAPI.GR scanner catalogue. Addresses it publishes or verifiably identifies as its own set risk.is_scanner.

risk.is_scanner FeedRangesrDNS Reviewed
Official documentation (opens in a new tab) All internet scanners

Check an IP

Is this IP really NCSC UK Scanning?

Checks the address against what NCSC UK Scanning publishes, the same evidence behind risk.is_scanner.

01 — Verification

How IPAPI.GR verifies NCSC UK Scanning.

Only from what NCSC UK Scanning publishes about itself. No third-party blocklists, no behavioural guesses. Live address counts change with every publication, so check the official file for the current list.

NCSC UK Scanning

risk.is_scanner
Method
Feed Operator IP feed
Method
Ranges Published IP ranges
Method
rDNS Forward-confirmed reverse DNS
Official file
Format
Operator IP feed
Reverse DNS
Exact hostnames: scanner.scanning.service.ncsc.gov.uk. The hostname must then resolve forward to the same address.
Networks
Ranges the project publishes or has registered for scanning, reviewed into the scanner catalogue.
Refresh
Every hour. If a refresh fails, entries expire after 24 hours instead of being trusted forever.

02 — In the response

What a match looks like.

A lookup of a NCSC UK Scanning address sets risk.is_scanner. The flags come with geolocation and network data in the same response, for Pro API keys.

The response says which kind of bot an address belongs to, not which operator. Pair it with the user agent: a request that claims to be NCSC UK Scanning but doesn't match is unverified.

GET /api/lookup/{ip}?key=PRO_KEY
{
  // … location and network fields …
  "risk": {
    "is_ai": false,
    "is_crawler": false,
    "is_scanner": true
  }
}

03 — Questions

About NCSC UK Scanning.

Does NCSC UK Scanning publish its scanner IP addresses?

Yes. NCSC UK Scanning publishes a list at https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/ncsc-scanning-information, which IPAPI.GR imports directly.

How do I verify NCSC UK Scanning with reverse DNS?

Look up the PTR record for the IP address. The hostname must be one of scanner.scanning.service.ncsc.gov.uk, and a forward lookup of that hostname must return the same IP address. A PTR record alone can be set by anyone who controls the address, so the forward confirmation is the part that matters.

How often is the NCSC UK Scanning list refreshed?

IPAPI.GR re-fetches it every hour. If a refresh fails, the previous entries expire after at most 24 hours instead of being trusted forever.

Which risk flag does NCSC UK Scanning set?

A matching address sets risk.is_scanner in the lookup response. The risk flags are returned for Pro API keys.

From the blog

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