DNS Categories
Cloudflare Gateway’s DNS filtering capabilities allow you to block known and potential security risks on the public Internet, as well as specific categories of content. To give you more granular control over how to secure your network, Gateway also provides you with categorized security risks and content categories.
You can block security risks and content categories by creating DNS policies. Once you have configured your policies, you will be able to inspect network activity and the associated categories in your Gateway logs.
Security categories
| Category | Definition |
|---|---|
| Anonymizer | Sites that allow users to surf the Internet anonymously. |
| Brand Embedding | Sites that imitate a verified brand, for example facobook.com. |
| Command and Control & Botnet | Sites that are queried by compromised devices to exfiltrate information or potentially infect other devices in a network. |
| Cryptomining | Sites that mine cryptocurrency by taking over the user’s computing resources. |
| DGA Domains | Domains detected as generated by algorithms seen in malware. |
| DNS Tunneling | Domains with detected DNS tunneling activity. |
| Malware | Sites hosting malicious content and other compromised websites. |
| Phishing | Domains that are known for stealing personal information. |
| Private IP Address | Domains that resolve to private IP Addresses. |
| Spam | Sites that are known for targeting users with unwanted sweepstakes, surveys, and advertisements. |
| Spyware | Sites that are known to distribute or contain code that displays unwanted advertisements or that gathers user information without the user’s knowledge. |
Content categories
| Category | Definition |
|---|---|
| Adult Themes | Sites that are hosting content related to pornography, nudity, sexuality, and other adult themes. |
| Business & Economy | Sites that are related to business, economy, finance, education, science and technology. |
| Child Abuse | Sites hosting child abuse content. |
| Deceptive Ads | Sites that spoof clicks, impressions, conversions for ads. |
| Drugs | Sites related to the use and promotion of illegal drugs or illegal use of prescribed drugs. |
| Education | Sites hosting educational content that are not included in other categories like Science, Technology or Educational institutions. |
| Entertainment | Sites that are hosting entertaining content that are not included in other categories like Comic books, Audio streaming, Video streaming etc. |
| Gambling | Sites that are providing online gambling or are related to gambling. |
| Government & Politics | Sites related to government and politics. |
| Health | Sites containing information about health and fitness. |
| Information Technology | Sites related to information technology. |
| Internet Communication | Sites hosting applications that are used for communication like chat, mail etc. |
| Job Search & Careers | Sites that facilitate searching for jobs and careers. |
| Miscellaneous | Sites that are not included in the listed security and content categories. |
| Questionable Content | Sites hosting content that are related to hacking, piracy, profanity and other questionable activities. |
| Real Estate | Sites related to real estate. |
| Religion | Sites hosting content about religion, alternative religion, religious teachings, religious groups and spirituality. |
| Safe for Kids | Sites that are safe for kids to visit. |
| Security Risk | Sites that contain high risk content. Refer to the table of security risk subcategories. |
| Shopping & Auctions | Sites that are hosting content related to ecommerce, coupons, shopping, auctions and marketplaces. |
| Social & Family | Sites related to society and lifestyle. |
| Society & Lifestyle | Sites hosting information about lifestyle that are not included in other categories like fashion, food & drink etc. |
| Sports | Sites related to sports & recreation. |
| Technology | Sites hosting information about technology that are not included in the science category. |
| Travel | Sites that contain information about listings, reservations, services for travel. |
| Vehicles | Sites related vehicles, automobiles, including news, reviews, and other hobbyist information. |
| Violence | Sites hosting and/or promoting violent content. |
| Weather | Sites related to weather. |
Security risk subcategories
| Category | Definition |
|---|---|
| Login Screens | Sites hosting login screens that are not included in other categories. |
| New Domains | Domains registered within the past 30 days. |
| Newly Seen Domains | Domains that were resolved for the first time within the past 30 days. |
| No Content | Sites that have no content. |
| Parked & For Sale Domains | Domains that are not connected to a hosting service. |
| Unreachable | Domains that resolve to unreachable IP addresses. |
Category and subcategory IDs
| Category ID | Category Name | Subcategory ID | Subcategory Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ads | 66 | Advertisements |
| 2 | Adult Themes | 67 | Adult Themes |
| 2 | Adult Themes | 125 | Nudity |
| 2 | Adult Themes | 133 | Pornography |
| 3 | Business & Economy | 75 | Business |
| 3 | Business & Economy | 89 | Economy & Finance |
| 6 | Education | 90 | Education |
| 6 | Education | 91 | Educational Institutions |
| 6 | Education | 144 | Science |
| 6 | Education | 150 | Space & Astronomy |
| 7 | Entertainment | 70 | Arts |
| 7 | Entertainment | 74 | Audio Streaming |
| 7 | Entertainment | 76 | Cartoons & Anime |
| 7 | Entertainment | 79 | Comic Books |
| 7 | Entertainment | 92 | Entertainment |
| 7 | Entertainment | 96 | Fine Art |
| 7 | Entertainment | 100 | Gaming |
| 7 | Entertainment | 106 | Home Video/DVD |
| 7 | Entertainment | 107 | Humor |
| 7 | Entertainment | 116 | Magazines |
| 7 | Entertainment | 120 | Movies |
| 7 | Entertainment | 121 | Music |
| 7 | Entertainment | 122 | News & Media |
| 7 | Entertainment | 127 | Paranormal |
| 7 | Entertainment | 139 | Radio |
| 7 | Entertainment | 156 | Television |
| 7 | Entertainment | 164 | Video Streaming |
| 8 | Gambling | 99 | Gambling |
| 9 | Government & Politics | 101 | Government |
| 9 | Government & Politics | 137 | Politics, Advocacy, and Government-Related |
| 10 | Health | 103 | Health & Fitness |
| 10 | Health | 146 | Sex Education |
| 12 | Internet Communication | 77 | Chat |
| 12 | Internet Communication | 98 | Forums |
| 12 | Internet Communication | 108 | Information Security |
| 12 | Internet Communication | 110 | Instant Messengers |
| 12 | Internet Communication | 111 | Internet Phone & VOIP |
| 12 | Internet Communication | 118 | Messaging |
| 12 | Internet Communication | 126 | P2P |
| 12 | Internet Communication | 129 | Personal Blogs |
| 12 | Internet Communication | 168 | Webmail |
| 12 | Internet Communication | 172 | Photo Sharing |
| 13 | Job Search & Careers | 113 | Job Search & Careers |
| 15 | Miscellaneous | 119 | Miscellaneous |
| 15 | Miscellaneous | 141 | Redirect |
| 17 | Questionable Content | 85 | Deceptive Ads |
| 17 | Questionable Content | 87 | Drugs |
| 17 | Questionable Content | 102 | Hacking |
| 17 | Questionable Content | 135 | Profanity |
| 17 | Questionable Content | 138 | Questionable Activities |
| 17 | Questionable Content | 157 | Militancy, Hate & Extremism |
| 17 | Questionable Content | 162 | Unreliable Information |
| 18 | Real Estate | 140 | Real Estate |
| 19 | Religion | 142 | Religion |
| 20 | Safe for Kids | 143 | Safe for Kids |
| 21 | Security threats | 68 | Anonymizer |
| 21 | Security threats | 80 | Command and Control & Botnet |
| 21 | Security threats | 83 | Cryptomining |
| 21 | Security threats | 117 | Malware |
| 21 | Security threats | 131 | Phishing |
| 21 | Security threats | 134 | Private IP Address |
| 21 | Security threats | 151 | Spam |
| 21 | Security threats | 153 | Spyware |
| 21 | Security threats | 175 | DNS Tunneling |
| 21 | Security threats | 176 | Domain Generation Algorithm |
| 21 | Security threats | 178 | Typosquatting & Impersonation |
| 22 | Shopping & Auctions | 73 | Auctions & Marketplaces |
| 22 | Shopping & Auctions | 82 | Coupons |
| 22 | Shopping & Auctions | 88 | Ecommerce |
| 22 | Shopping & Auctions | 148 | Shopping |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 65 | Abortion |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 71 | Arts & Crafts |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 72 | Astrology |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 78 | Clothing |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 84 | Dating & Relationships |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 86 | Digital Postcards |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 93 | Parenting |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 94 | Fashion |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 97 | Food & Drink |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 104 | Hobbies & Interests |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 105 | Home & Garden |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 112 | Jewelry |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 114 | Lifestyle |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 130 | Pets |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 132 | Photography |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 136 | Professional Networking |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 147 | Sexuality |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 149 | Social Networks |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 154 | Swimsuits |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 158 | Tobacco |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 171 | LGBTQ |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 173 | Body Art |
| 24 | Society & Lifestyle | 174 | Lingerie & Bikini |
| 25 | Sports | 152 | Sports |
| 26 | Technology | 155 | Technology |
| 26 | Technology | 95 | File Sharing |
| 26 | Technology | 69 | APIs |
| 26 | Technology | 81 | Content Servers |
| 26 | Technology | 109 | Information Technology |
| 26 | Technology | 123 | News, Portal & Search |
| 26 | Technology | 145 | Search Engines |
| 26 | Technology | 159 | Translator |
| 27 | Travel | 160 | Travel |
| 28 | Vehicles | 163 | Vehicles |
| 29 | Violence | 165 | Violence |
| 29 | Violence | 166 | Weapons |
| 30 | Weather | 167 | Weather |
| 31 | Blocked | 170 | Child Abuse |
| 32 | Security Risks | 128 | Parked & For Sale Domains |
| 32 | Security Risks | 169 | New Domains |
| 32 | Security Risks | 177 | Newly Seen Domains |
| 32 | Security Risks | 115 | Login Screens |
| 32 | Security Risks | 124 | No Content |
| 32 | Security Risks | 161 | Unreachable |