Combined Privacy Block Lists

Ad & malware-blocking hosts files, IP block lists, PAC filters, and ABP / uBO subscriptions, all merged, sorted and de-duped from multiple reputable sources, along with my own research. The generation of these lists is automated via my homemade scripts and utilities, many of which are now available in a subdirectory of this repository. Said utilities can be installed with a simple install script or one liner, for ease of use. Most content in this repo is approved by Richard Stallman himself (theoretically). Use as you see fit.

My lists block malicious and harmfully deceptive content, like advertising, tracking, telemetry, scam, and malware servers. The lists do not block porn, social media, or so-called "fake news" domains, except for the advertising, tracking, telemetry, scam, and malware servers associated with such sites. False positives are rigorously removed from all lists upon discovery, and the hosts files are processed by an IDN-to-Punycode conversion routine (meaning that they can be utilized on all operating systems). In short, these block lists are both comprehensive and universally compatible, while remaining reasonable in size + scope, and free of censorship.

Updates to the lists usually occur on a weekly basis, but often more frequently. If there is a wave of rapid updates in a single day, this means that there are significant improvements under way. Please consider donating to the project if you find it useful. It should also be noted that my lists are not just relevant to those living in English-speaking countries, as I make efforts to block a good amount of malicious "international" content as well. Additionally, I would like to point out that I manually go over all updates before making final commits, as I rely on this data myself. Some of my work is also included in the wonderful AdBlock Plus, ReThink DNS, and Blokada projects, all of which offer important utilities that enable users to block undesirable content across a wide variety of platforms.

Descriptions (mind the footnotes)

• newhosts-final.hosts: Is a comprehensive hosts file which blocks known ad, exploit, malware, and tracking servers. It is pulled from MVPS⁰¹, PGL Yoyo⁰², Malware Domain List⁰³, URL Haus⁰⁴ and EasyList⁰⁵, along with a variety of supplementary sources for increased protection against telemetry, additions for mobile platforms, and emerging threat prevention.⁰⁶ It is then merged, sorted and deduped. This list is compatible with all operating systems that make use of a hosts file (obviously this includes Windows, OS X, GNU/Linux and more). It works great with mobile VPN ad-blocking solutions too. Notably enhanced privacy and security awaits you. There is also an IPv6 version, and a version for both IPv4 and IPv6.

• cpbl-abp-list.txt: Is a simple filter subscription for AdBlock Plus, uBlock Origin, AdGuard and other similar products, derived from my main hosts file, with some mostly cosmetic filters to remove overlooked web annoyances. It is optimized to be smaller than my hosts files, while blocking the same amount of content, and more. It works great, and is an especially good choice for those who cannot modify their hosts file for whatever reason. I recommend using this list with AdGuard's Base + Tracking + Annoyances filters⁰⁷, or EasyList + EasyPrivacy + FanBoy's Annoyance filters⁰⁸, due to their additional element hiding and exception rule-sets. This list is now also available as a custom ad block filter for Bromite.

• pac-done.js: Is a Proxy AutoConfig file⁰⁹ meant to block advertising, tracking, malware servers and such. This file is generated from a slimmed down list of the same reputable sources which my main hosts file uses.

• combined-final-win.dat and combined-final.p2p: Are IP block lists suitable for use in torrent clients like Halite for Windows¹⁰, or qBitTorrent¹¹ and Transmission¹² under any OS. The lists are merged from BlueTack Web Attacks and Bad Peers, then deduped and sorted.¹³ These lists adhere to ipfilter.dat conventions, and will come in especially handy on public trackers.

• combined-final.cidr: Is a CIDR-format IP block list suitable for use with the IPSet utility, Linux-based routers, older P2P clients and so on. Basically, it works with anything which accepts CIDR lists. It is compiled from the ad-blocking IP list provided by PGL Yoyo¹⁴, a collection of smaller lists from BlockList.de¹⁵, the FeodoTracker abuse list¹⁶, high confidence Emerging Threats lists¹⁷, along with DShield's Top Twenty¹⁸, SpamHaus Drop + eDrop¹⁹, and a conservative list of IPv4 bogons²⁰. It also incorporates a small list of IPs I've observed malicious activity from, via running public Shoutcast and Icecast servers for extended periods of time. It is likewise deduped + sorted (with overlapping ranges resolved). This list is also available with deny from prepended to each line, here.

• optimized-win.hosts: Is a hosts file specifically tailored for Windows users, wherein the list is arranged to have seven hosts per line, thus saving space, and preventing the lag that some users experience when they have a large hosts file on that platform. It is culled from the same sources as my main hosts file. While the main hosts file I distribute is meant for all platforms, some Windows users experience a delay when attempting to connect to sites after starting up with a large hosts file in place. This optimized list will resolve that issue for said users. For those who wish to experiment with IPv6 additions, the IPv4+IPv6 version is here.

Please feel free to subscribe to or use these lists as is. I use them on all of my personal devices. The aforementioned lists also fall under a separate license, the WTFPL.

Finally, the user-friendly versions of the scripts and utilities that I use to generate these lists, can be set up in one shot by following the instructions here.

They include the following:

• Hosts File Updater - Fully automated and easy-to-configure bash script for updating your hosts file from multiple sources. Pre-configured to work with included templates. Runs properly out of the box. GNU/Linux and other Unix-like operating systems only. There is also a version that updates your hosts file with both IPv4 and IPv6 entries here, and one for IPv6-only here.

• BitTorrent IP Block Updater (DAT Format) - Bash script for automated generation of an IP block list from multiple sources for torrent clients like Halite. Pre-configured and runs out of the box. GNU/Linux and other Unix-like operating systems only.

• BitTorrent IP Block Updater (P2P Format) - Bash script for automated generation of an IP block list from multiple sources for torrent clients like qBitTorrent and Transmission. Pre-configured and runs out of the box. GNU/Linux and other Unix-like operating systems only.

• PAC Updater - A bash script that automatically generates, updates and optionally uploads an ad-blocking PAC file to your server of choice. GNU/Linux and other Unix-like operating systems only.

These tools are modified versions of the ones I run on my GNU/Linux box. I test them regularly. Some of them have dependencies, so make sure you inspect their respective readme files, and that your system has the relevant programs if you plan on using my tools. The GNU/Linux scripts should work on OS X or BSD, so long as dependencies are met. There are editions for Cygwin as well. All of my tools clean up after themselves, and leave no extraneous or intermediary files behind.

In addition, please see My CWP Utilities Repository: Which contains fully functional Windows versions of the utilities listed above, compatible with both 32 and 64-bit versions of Windows. These are friendlier versions of my GNU/Linux tools, bundled with the necessary dependencies, distributed with an integrated, easy-to-use, and coherent interface.

<sup>01. MVPS Hosts.
02. PGL Yoyo Hosts.
03. Updated Malware Domains Immortal List.
04. URL Haus Active Domains.
05. EasyList Hosts.
06. Additional | Supplementary | Sources.
07. AdGuard Filters.
08. EasyList Filters.
09. Proxy Auto-Configuration Files.
10. Halite.
11. qBitTorrent.
12. Transmission.
13. BlueTack on I-BlockList.
14. PGL Yoyo PeerBlock.
15. BlockList.de Lists.
16. FeodoTracker Abuse.
17. Emerging Threats.
18. DShield Lists.
19. SpamHaus Lists.
20. Cymru Bogon Reference.</sup>