Introduction to Virtual Hosts
Big Idea: Hosts are identified by IP address. Virtual hosts are identified by a name + IP address.

Hosts were traditionally identified in the Censys data set by IP address.
Starting now, our host data set includes both (unnamed) hosts and virtual hosts.
Collecting Virtual Host Data with Name-Based Scans
Virtual hosts contain services that have responded to a name-based Censys scan. The name of the virtual host is the name used to scan its services.
This name was included in the scan in one of two ways:
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In the server name indicator (SNI) field of a TLS handshake
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In the Host header field of an HTTP request
Services on Virtual Hosts
The service names on virtual hosts are limited compared to those seen on hosts because many protocols do not support name-based differentiation.
Values for services.service_name
that can appear on a virtual host.
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ANYCONNECT
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HTTP
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ELASTICSEARCH
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KUBERNETES
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PROMETHEUS
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UNKNOWN

The Overlap of Hosts & Virtual Hosts
Service data is not necessarily different between an (unnamed) host and a virtual host. A service seen on a particular port may provide the same content when a name is specified and when it is not.
Some services may only be seen when a name is specified, so a virtual host may have whole services that are not present on the underlying (unnamed) host.
The Effect of Virtual Hosts Affect on Search Results
The number of vhosts in the Censys dataset is nearly double the number of hosts. Including virtual hosts in your search results can dramatically increase the number of hits.
How to Search Virtual Hosts in the Web UI
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Click the Search settings icon (gear) in the search bar of the web UI.
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For the Virtual hosts setting, select "Include" to include virtual hosts in your search results. Select "Only" to restrict your search results to just virtual hosts.
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Write a query in the Censys Search Language that asks a question about virtual hosts.
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Click Search.
How to Search Virtual Hosts in the API
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Use the new
virtual_host
query parameter to include, exclude, or only search virtual hosts.If not provided, the results list defaults to (unnamed) hosts only.
Example Search for Host and Vhosts Running an HTTP Service:
GET https://search-staging.comm.corp.censys.io/api/v2/hosts/search?q=service.service_name%3A%20HTTP&per_page=1&virtual_hosts=include
How to Search Virtual Hosts in BigQuery
Upgrade to the Censys Premium tier for access to the industry’s only virtual host data set.
Questions? Reach out to support@censys.io.
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