Monero ban list

Difficulty: Easy Tested v0.18.5.3

Some actors run large numbers of spy nodes: peers that try to link transactions to the IP addresses that first broadcast them. The Monero Research Lab ban list collects known spy-node IP ranges, so your node can refuse to connect to them.

Info

Since 2.2, your own transactions already leave through Tor. The ban list adds protection for the rest of your node's traffic, and stops spy nodes from wasting your peer slots.

Install

Download the list and read it. It's just a plain list of IPs and ranges:

sudo -u monero wget -O /data/monero/ban_list.txt \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Boog900/monero-ban-list/main/ban_list.txt
head /data/monero/ban_list.txt
wc -l /data/monero/ban_list.txt

Point monerod at it:

sudo nano /data/monero/monerod.conf

Add under ## P2P network:

ban-list=/data/monero/ban_list.txt

sudo systemctl restart monerod

Check it

monerod bans | head

You should see the banned ranges listed.

Keep it updated

The list changes from time to time. Check the repository now and then, and download it again when it changes, then restart monerod. The Update notifications bonus guide can tell you at login when it has changed.