# stamparm/maltrail

Malicious traffic detection system

Repository: https://github.com/stamparm/maltrail
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/maltrail
Homepage: https://www.sekuripy.hr/labs/maltrail/
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: security, malware, intrusion-detection, sensor, python, network-monitoring, attack-detection, rust
Last push: 2026-08-26T19:45:49+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 98/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 97, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4290, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 22, "gap_med": 29.0, "n_releases_24m": 11}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 8587, forks 1263 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:23.671480+00:00)

## What it is
Maltrail is a malicious network traffic detection system that matches observed domains, URLs, IP addresses, and User-Agent values against over 1.5 million threat-intelligence indicators (trails), supplemented by heuristics for scanning, DGA-like DNS, and suspicious traffic. It consists of a high-performance Rust packet sensor using libpcap and a Python server providing event intake, an HTTP API, and a web reporting interface.

## Use cases
- detect malware command-and-control traffic on my network
- monitor DNS and HTTP traffic for connections to known malicious IPs and domains
- self-hosted network intrusion detection system
- alert when devices on my network contact botnet or malware infrastructure
- detect DGA domains and suspicious DNS behavior
- feed threat intelligence blacklists into network monitoring
- log and report suspicious network events with a web UI

## When to choose
- you need indicator-based network detection with a large, continuously updated trail feed
- you want a self-hosted NIDS with a lightweight, fast packet sensor (Rust, ~1M packets/s on a Pi 5)
- you need plain-text, version-controllable custom trails and whitelists
- you want integration with syslog/CEF, Logstash, or Prometheus metrics

## When to avoid
- you need an intrusion *prevention* system that blocks traffic - Maltrail only detects and reports
- you need endpoint detection and response (EDR) or host-based telemetry
- you need deep packet inspection or full protocol analysis beyond indicator matching and heuristics
- you require a Windows-native sensor deployment

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: monitoring, security, networking, logging, alerting
- domain: security, networking, monitoring, self-hosted
- platform: python, rust, self-hosted, cli
- tags: intrusion-detection, network-monitoring, malware-detection, threat-intelligence, ids, packet-capture, sensor, nids, linux, docker

## Member repositories
- stamparm/maltrail (main) score 98

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:23.671480+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:26:15.261979+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/stamparm/maltrail (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:23.671480+00:00, sha 99fcf73f3ff5)
  - homepage: https://www.sekuripy.hr/labs/maltrail/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:26:30.688525+00:00, sha 348bc9185fa7)
  - site_page: https://www.sekuripy.hr/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:26:30.691623+00:00, sha bb333cfb35a0)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.