Take Note!
- With the exception of issues and PRs regarding changes to
hosts/data/StevenBlack/hosts
, all other issues regarding the content of the produced hosts files should be made with the appropriate data source that contributed the content in question. The contact information for all of the data sources can be found in thehosts/data/
directory.
Unified hosts file with base extensions
This repository consolidates several reputable hosts
files, and merges them
into a unified hosts file with duplicates removed. A variety of tailored hosts files are provided.
- Last updated: September 06 2021.
- Here's the raw hosts file with base extensions containing 90,660 entries.
- Logo by @Tobaloidee.
List of all hosts file variants
This repository offers 15 different host file variants, in addition to the base variant.
The Non GitHub mirror is the link to use for some hosts file managers like Hostsman for Windows that don't work with GitHub download links.
Host file recipe | Readme | Raw hosts | Unique domains | Non GitHub mirror |
---|---|---|---|---|
Unified hosts = (adware + malware) | Readme | link | 90,660 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews | Readme | link | 92,855 | link |
Unified hosts + gambling | Readme | link | 93,117 | link |
Unified hosts + porn | Readme | link | 117,384 | link |
Unified hosts + social | Readme | link | 93,473 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + gambling | Readme | link | 95,312 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + porn | Readme | link | 119,578 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + social | Readme | link | 95,668 | link |
Unified hosts + gambling + porn | Readme | link | 119,841 | link |
Unified hosts + gambling + social | Readme | link | 95,930 | link |
Unified hosts + porn + social | Readme | link | 120,196 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + gambling + porn | Readme | link | 122,036 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + gambling + social | Readme | link | 98,125 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + porn + social | Readme | link | 122,390 | link |
Unified hosts + gambling + porn + social | Readme | link | 122,653 | link |
Unified hosts + fakenews + gambling + porn + social | Readme | link | 124,848 | link |
Expectation: These unified hosts files should serve all devices, regardless of OS.
Sources of hosts data unified in this variant
Updated hosts
files from the following locations are always unified and
included:
Host file source | Description | Home page | Raw hosts | Update frequency | License | Issues |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Steven Black's ad-hoc list | Additional sketch domains as I come across them. | link | raw | occasionally | MIT | issues |
AdAway | AdAway is an open source ad blocker for Android using the hosts file. | link | raw | frequently | CC BY 3.0 | issues |
add.2o7Net | 2o7Net tracking sites based on hostsfile.org content. | link | raw | occasionally | MIT | issues |
add.Dead | Dead sites based on hostsfile.org content. | link | raw | occasionally | MIT | issues |
add.Risk | Risk content sites based on hostsfile.org content. | link | raw | occasionally | MIT | issues |
add.Spam | Spam sites based on hostsfile.org content. | link | raw | occasionally | MIT | issues |
AdguardTeam cname trackers | CNAME-cloaked tracking abuses. | link | raw | occasionally | MIT | issues |
Mitchell Krog's - Badd Boyz Hosts | Sketchy domains and Bad Referrers from my Nginx and Apache Bad Bot and Spam Referrer Blockers | link | raw | weekly | MIT | issues |
hostsVN | Hosts block ads of Vietnamese | link | raw | occasionally | MIT | issues |
KADhosts | Fraud/adware/scam websites. | link | raw | frequently | CC BY-SA 4.0 | issues |
MetaMask eth-phishing-detect | Phishing domains targeting Ethereum users. | link | raw | frequent | DON'T BE A DICK PUBLIC LICENSE | issues |
minecraft-hosts | Minecraft related tracker hosts | link | raw | occasionally | CC0-1.0 | issues |
MVPS hosts file | The purpose of this site is to provide the user with a high quality custom HOSTS file. | link | raw | monthly | CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | issues |
orca.pet | This is a domain list for blocking phishing and malware sites . | link | raw | frequent | ISC | issues |
osint.digitalside.it | DigitalSide Threat-Intel malware domains list. | link | raw | daily | MIT | issues |
shady-hosts | Analytics, ad, and activity monitoring hosts | link | raw | occasionally | CC0-1.0 | issues |
Dan Pollock – someonewhocares | How to make the internet not suck (as much). | link | raw | frequently | non-commercial with attribution | issues |
Tiuxo hostlist - ads | Categorized hosts files for DNS based content blocking | link | raw | occasional | CC BY 4.0 | issues |
UncheckyAds | Windows installers ads sources sites based on https://unchecky.com/ content. | link | raw | occasionally | MIT | issues |
URLHaus | A project from abuse.ch with the goal of sharing malicious URLs. | link | raw | weekly | CC0 | issues |
yoyo.org | Blocking with ad server and tracking server hostnames. | link | raw | frequently | issues |
Extensions
The unified hosts file is optionally extensible. Extensions are used to include domains by category. Currently, we offer the following categories: fakenews
, social
, gambling
, and porn
.
Extensions are optional, and can be combined in various ways with the base hosts file. The combined products are stored in the alternates
folder.
Data for extensions are stored in the extensions
folder. You manage extensions by curating this
folder tree, where you will find the data for fakenews
, social
, gambling
, and porn
extension data that we maintain and provide for you.
Generate your own unified hosts file
You have two options to generate your own hosts file. You can do it in your own environment, or within a Docker container. We'll cover Docker first because it's a short section.
Option 1: Generate in a Docker container
We provide a Dockerfile that you can use to create a Docker container with everything you need. The container will contain Python 3 and all its dependency requirements, and a copy of the latest version of this repository.
Build the Docker container like this:
docker build ./
Access the terminal like this:
docker run -it (containerid) bash
Option 2: Generate it in your own environment
To generate your own amalgamated hosts files you will need Python 3.5 or later.
First, install the dependencies with:
pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt
Note we recommend the --user
flag which installs the required dependencies at the user level. More information about it can be found on pip documentation.
Common steps regardless of your development environment
To run unit tests, in the top-level directory, run:
python3 testUpdateHostsFile.py
The updateHostsFile.py
script will generate a unified hosts file based on the sources in the
local data/
subfolder. The script will prompt you whether it should fetch updated versions
(from locations defined by the update.json
text file in each source's folder). Otherwise, it
will use the hosts
file that's already there.
python3 updateHostsFile.py [--auto] [--replace] [--ip nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn] [--extensions ext1 ext2 ext3]
Command line options
--help
, or -h
: display help.
--auto
, or -a
: run the script without prompting. When --auto
is invoked,
- Hosts data sources, including extensions, are updated.
- No extensions are included by default. Use the
--extensions
or-e
flag to include any you want. - Your active hosts file is not replaced unless you include the
--replace
flag.
--backup
, or -b
: Make a backup of existing hosts file(s) as you generate
over them.
--extensions <ext1> <ext2> <ext3>
, or -e <ext1> <ext2> <ext3>
: the names
of subfolders below the extensions
folder containing additional
category-specific hosts files to include in the amalgamation. Example:
--extensions porn
or -e social porn
.
--flush-dns-cache
, or -f
: skip the prompt for flushing the DNS cache.
Only active when --replace
is also active.
--ip nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn
, or -i nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn
: the IP address to use as the
target. Default is 0.0.0.0
.
--keepdomaincomments
, or -k
: true
(default) or false
, keep the comments
that appear on the same line as domains. The default is true
.
--noupdate
, or -n
: skip fetching updates from hosts data sources.
--output <subfolder>
, or -o <subfolder>
: place the generated source file
in a subfolder. If the subfolder does not exist, it will be created.
--replace
, or -r
: trigger replacing your active hosts
--skipstatichosts
, or -s
: false
(default) or true
, omit the standard
section at the top, containing lines like 127.0.0.1 localhost
. This is
useful for configuring proximate DNS services on the local network.
--nogendata
, or -g
: false
(default) or true
, skip the generation of the
readmeData.json file used for generating readme.md files. This is useful if you are
generating host files with additional whitelists or blacklists and want to keep your
local checkout of this repo unmodified.
--compress
, or -c
: false
(default) or true
, Compress the hosts file
ignoring non-necessary lines (empty lines and comments) and putting multiple
domains in each line. Reducing the number of lines of the hosts file improves
the performances under Windows (with DNS Client service enabled).
--minimise
, or -m
: false
(default) or true
, like --compress
, but puts
each domain on a separate line. This is necessary because many implementations
of URL blockers that rely on hosts
files do not conform to the standard which
allows multiple hosts on a single line.
--blacklist <blacklistfile>
, or -x <blacklistfile>
: Append the given blacklist file
in hosts format to the generated hosts file.
--whitelist <whitelistfile>
, or -w <whitelistfile>
: Use the given whitelist file
to remove hosts from the generated hosts file.
Using NixOS
To install hosts file on your machine add the following into your configuration.nix
:
{
networking.extraHosts = let
hostsPath = https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts;
hostsFile = builtins.fetchurl hostsPath;
in builtins.readFile "${hostsFile}";
}
- NOTE: Change
hostsPath
if you need other versions of hosts file. - NOTE: The call to
fetchurl
is impure. UsefetchFromGitHub
with the exact commit if you want to always get the same result.
How do I control which sources are unified?
Add one or more additional sources, each in a subfolder of the data/
folder, and specify the url
key in its update.json
file.
Add one or more optional extensions, which originate from subfolders of the
extensions/
folder. Again the url in update.json
controls where this
extension finds its updates.
Create an optional blacklist
file. The contents of this file (containing a
listing of additional domains in hosts
file format) are appended to the
unified hosts file during the update process. A sample blacklist
is
included, and may be modified as you need.
- NOTE: The
blacklist
is not tracked by git, so any changes you make won't be overridden when yougit pull
this repo fromorigin
in the future.
How do I include my own custom domain mappings?
If you have custom hosts records, place them in file myhosts
. The contents
of this file are prepended to the unified hosts file during the update
process.
The myhosts
file is not tracked by git, so any changes you make won't be
overridden when you git pull
this repo from origin
in the future.
How do I prevent domains from being included?
The domains you list in the whitelist
file are excluded from the final hosts
file.
The whitelist
uses partial matching. Therefore if you whitelist
google-analytics.com
, that domain and all its subdomains won't be merged
into the final hosts file.
The whitelist
is not tracked by git, so any changes you make won't be
overridden when you git pull
this repo from origin
in the future.
How can I contribute hosts records?
If you discover sketchy domains you feel should be included here, here are some ways to contribute them.
Option 1: contact one of our hosts sources
The best way to get new domains included is to submit an issue to any of the data providers whose home pages are listed here. This is best because once you submit new domains, they will be curated and updated by the dedicated folks who maintain these sources.
Option 2: Fork this repository, add your domains to Steven Black's personal data file, and submit a pull request
Fork this hosts this repo and add your links to https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/blob/master/data/StevenBlack/hosts.
Then, submit a pull request.
WARNING: this is less desirable than Option 1 because the ongoing curation falls on us. So this creates more work for us.
Option 3: create your own hosts list as a repo on GitHub
If you're able to curate your own collection of sketchy domains, then curate your own hosts list. Then signal the existence of your repo as a new issue and we may include your new repo into the collection of sources we pull whenever we create new versions.
What is a hosts file?
A hosts file, named hosts
(with no file extension), is a plain-text file
used by all operating systems to map hostnames to IP addresses.
In most operating systems, the hosts
file is preferential to DNS
.
Therefore if a domain name is resolved by the hosts
file, the request never
leaves your computer.
Having a smart hosts
file goes a long way towards blocking malware, adware,
and other irritants.
For example, to nullify requests to some doubleclick.net servers, adding these lines to your hosts file will do it:
# block doubleClick's servers
0.0.0.0 ad.ae.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 ad.ar.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 ad.at.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 ad.au.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 ad.be.doubleclick.net
# etc...
0.0.0.0
instead of 127.0.0.1
We recommend using Traditionally most host files use 127.0.0.1
, the loopback address, to establish an IP connection to the local machine.
We prefer to use 0.0.0.0
, which is defined as a non-routable meta-address used to designate an invalid, unknown, or non-applicable target.
Using 0.0.0.0
is empirically faster, possibly because there's no wait for a timeout resolution. It also does not
interfere with a web server that may be running on the local PC.
0
instead of 0.0.0.0
?
Why not use We tried that. Using 0
doesn't work universally.
Location of your hosts file
To modify your current hosts
file, look for it in the following places and modify it with a text
editor.
macOS (until 10.14.x macOS Mojave), iOS, Android, Linux: /etc/hosts
file.
macOS Catalina: /private/etc/hosts
file.
Windows: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
file.
Gentoo
Gentoo users may find sb-hosts
in ::pf4public Gentoo overlay
Updating hosts file on Windows
(NOTE: See also some third-party Hosts managers, listed below.)
On Linux and macOS, run the Python script. On Windows more work is required due to compatibility issues so it's preferable to run the batch file as follows:
updateHostsWindows.bat
This file MUST be run in command prompt with administrator privileges in the repository directory. In addition to updating the hosts file, it can also replace the existing hosts file, and reload the DNS cache. It goes without saying that for this to work, you must be connected to the internet.
To open a command prompt as administrator in the repository's directory, do the following:
Windows XP: Start → Run → cmd
Windows Vista, 7: Start Button → type cmd
→ right-click Command Prompt →
"Run as Administrator"
Windows 8: Start → Swipe Up → All Apps → Windows System → right-click Command Prompt → "Run as Administrator"
Windows 10: Start Button → type cmd
→ right-click Command Prompt →
"Run as Administrator"
You can also refer to the "Third-Party Hosts Managers" section for further recommended solutions from third parties.
hosts
file in Windows may require disabling DNS Cache service
Warning: Using this Windows has issues with larger hosts files. Recent changes in security within Windows 10 denies
access to changing services via other tools except registry hacks. Use the disable-dnscache-service-win.cmd
file to make proper changes to the Windows registry. You will need to reboot your device once that's done.
See the the comments within the cmd
file
for more details.
Reloading hosts file
Your operating system will cache DNS lookups. You can either reboot or run the following commands to manually flush your DNS cache once the new hosts file is in place.
| The Google Chrome browser may require manually cleaning up its DNS Cache on chrome://net-internals/#dns
page to thereafter see the changes in your hosts file. See: https://superuser.com/questions/723703
Windows
Open a command prompt with administrator privileges and run this command:
ipconfig /flushdns
Linux
Open a Terminal and run with root privileges:
Debian/Ubuntu sudo service network-manager restart
Linux Mint sudo /etc/init.d/dns-clean start
Linux with systemd: sudo systemctl restart network.service
Fedora Linux: sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service
Arch Linux/Manjaro with Network Manager: sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service
Arch Linux/Manjaro with Wicd: sudo systemctl restart wicd.service
RHEL/Centos: sudo /etc/init.d/network restart
FreeBSD: sudo service nscd restart
To enable the nscd
daemon initially, it is recommended that you run the following commands:
sudo sysrc nscd_enable="YES"
sudo service nscd start
Then modify the hosts
line in your /etc/nsswitch.conf
file to the following:
hosts: cache files dns
Others: Consult this Wikipedia article.
macOS
Open a Terminal and run:
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
Release management
This repository uses release-it, an excellent CLI release tool for GitHub repos and npm packages, to automate creating releases. This is why the package.json and .release-it.json files are bundled.
Goals of this unified hosts file
The goals of this repo are to:
-
automatically combine high-quality lists of hosts,
-
provide situation-appropriate extensions,
-
de-dupe the resultant combined list,
-
and keep the resultant file reasonably sized.
A high-quality source is defined here as one that is actively curated. A hosts source should be frequently updated by its maintainers with both additions and removals. The larger the hosts file, the higher the level of curation is expected.
It is expected that this unified hosts file will serve both desktop and mobile devices under a variety of operating systems.
Third-Party Hosts Managers
-
Unified Hosts AutoUpdate (for Windows): The Unified Hosts AutoUpdate package is purpose-built for this unified hosts project as well as in active development by community members. You can install and uninstall any blacklist and keep it automatically up to date, and can be placed in a shared network location and deployed across an organization via group policies. And since it is in active development by community members, your bug reports, feature requests, and other feedback are most welcome.
-
ViHoMa is a Visual Hosts file Manager, written in Java, by Christian Martínez. Check it out!
Interesting Applications
-
Hosts-BL is a simple tool to handle hosts file black lists. It can remove comments, remove duplicates, compress to 9 domains per line, add IPv6 entries. In addition, it can also convert black lists to multiple other black list formats compatible with other software, such as dnsmasq, DualServer, RPZ, Privoxy, and Unbound, to name a few.
-
Host Minder is a simple GUI that allows you to easily update your /etc/hosts file to one of four consolidated hosts files from StevenBlack/hosts. It is provided as a deb package and comes pre-installed on UbuntuCE.
-
Maza ad blocking is a bash script that automatically updates host file. You can also update a fresh copy. And each time it generates a dnsmasq-compatible configuration file. Fast installation, compatible with MacOS, Linux and BSD.
-
Hostile is a nifty command line utility to easily add or remove domains from your hosts file. If our hosts files are too aggressive for you, you can use
hostile
to remove domains, or you can usehostile
in a bash script to automate a post process each time you download fresh versions of hosts. -
macOS Scripting for Configuration, Backup and Restore helps customizing, re-installing and using macOS. It also provides a script to install and update the hosts file using this project on macOS. In combination with a launchd it updates the hosts file every x days (default is 4). To install both download the GitHub repo and run the install script from the directory one level up.
-
Pi-hole is a network-wide DHCP server and ad blocker that runs on Raspberry Pi. Pi-hole uses this repository as one of its sources.
-
Block ads and malware via local BIND9 DNS server (for Debian, Raspbian & Ubuntu): Set up a local DNS server with a
/etc/bind/named.conf.blocked
file, sourced from here. -
Block ads, malware, and deploy parental controls via local DualServer DNS/DHCP server (for BSD, Windows & Linux): Set up a blacklist for everyone on your network using the power of the unified hosts reformatted for DualServer. And if you're on Windows, this project also maintains an update script to make updating DualServer's blacklist even easier.
-
Blocking ads and malwares with unbound – Unbound is a validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver.
-
dnsmasq conversion script This GitHub gist has a short shell script (bash, will work on any 'nix) and uses
wget
&awk
present in most distros, to fetch a specified hosts file and convert it the format required by dnsmasq. Supports IPv4 and IPv6. Designed to be used as either a shell script, or can be dropped into /etc/cron.weekly (or wherever suits). The script is short and easily edited, also has a short document attached with notes on dnsmasq setup. -
BlackHosts - Command Line Installer/Updater This is a cross-platform command line utility to help install/update hosts files found at this repository.
Contribute
Please read our Contributing Guide. Among other things, this explains how we organize files and folders in this repository.
We are always interested in discovering well-curated sources of hosts. If you find one, please open an issue to draw our attention.
Before you create or respond to any issue, please read our code of conduct.