Is man7.org legit or a scam?
The official portal for the Linux man-pages project and Michael Kerrisk's professional training, featuring a 20-year history of clean scans and high technical reputation.
Analysis Summary
No threats detected
All checks passed. This site appears legitimate — but always stay alert for phishing even on trusted domains.
Website Preview
Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site. See full visual analysis →
Visual Screenshot Analysis
We capture a fresh screenshot of the live page and ask a vision model to look for scam visual patterns — fake trust badges, countdown timers, overlay pop-ups, and visual clones of legitimate brands.
No scam visual patterns detected
The page appears to be a legitimate personal and professional portal for Michael Kerrisk, focusing on Linux documentation and training with no visual indicators of scam activity.
What our vision model saw
4 signalsClean, minimalist layout consistent with technical documentation and personal professional sites
No deceptive urgency tactics, fake trust badges, or intrusive pop-ups visible
Content focuses on technical education, Linux man-pages, and a published book
Professional headshot and book cover align with the stated domain and author identity
MT Intelligence
The domain has been active for over 7,500 days and is widely recognized as the canonical source for Linux manual pages. Our analysis shows zero detections across 92 antivirus engines and no history of malicious activity. The site is operated by a known technical authority with a verifiable business registration in Munich, Germany. Visual analysis confirms a professional, minimalist layout focused on education and documentation. While one independent trust aggregator shows a low score, this is likely a technical error or a result of low consumer-style traffic, as all other evidence points to a high-integrity site.
Web Research Findings
Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for man7.org, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.
- man7.org is the official website of Michael Kerrisk, a well-known technical author, trainer, and former maintainer (since 2004) of the Linux man-pages project.
- The site provides extensive Linux/UNIX system programming training courses, the full text of his acclaimed book "The Linux Programming Interface", conference presentations, articles, and hosts up-to-date Linux manual pages (considered a can
- Michael Kerrisk lives in Munich, Germany; the site includes a full German Impressum with physical address (Klarastrasse 17, 80636 Munich), phone, email (mtk@man7.org), and VAT ID DE 286549638.
- Wikipedia, StackExchange, Reddit, and Hacker News frequently reference man7.org positively as a primary source for accurate and current Linux man pages.
- Public feedback on training courses is highly positive, praising the instructor's deep expertise, clarity, engagement, and practical value (quotes from 2025–2026 attendees).
- No scam reports, fraud complaints, or negative reviews found across web searches, Reddit, or review sites. Low ScamAdviser score (7/100) appears inconsistent with the site's established reputation since ~2005 (7502 days old).
- Some minor technical discussions on Reddit and GitHub note occasional outdated pages or minor inaccuracies in man pages, but these are standard for documentation sites.
- man7.org/training/feedback.htmlopen
"a fantastic learning experience. What stood out most was how he combined deep technical concepts with the historical and design context behind the UNIX interfaces. - Saurav Uppoor, April 2026"
- man7.org/training/feedback.htmlopen
"Michael really has that rare ability to communicate deep technical knowledge with simplicity and clarity, while keeping the sessions engaging throughout. - Deepak S., April 2026"
- man7.org/training/feedback.htmlopen
"No fluff, just deep technical insights from a true expert. - Jordi Perera Miró, March 2026"
Operates as Michael Kerrisk, man7.org Training and Consulting. Address: Klarastrasse 17, 80636 Munich. VAT Number (USt-ID-Nr): DE 286549638. Responsible for site content: Michael Kerrisk. (Impressum on contact page)
Antivirus Engines
Security Scans
Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.
Contact Verification
We fetched the page and looked for real-world contact details. Legitimate businesses almost always publish an email on their own domain, a phone number, and a postal address. Scam shops usually don't.
- No contact email found anywhere on the page.
- No phone number listed on the page.
- No postal address visible on the page.
Domain & Encryption
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://man7.org/
- 2200https://man7.org/
Server Reputation
Still, stay alert
No major threat indicators — but a clean scan does not guarantee every page is safe, and phishing emails routinely spoof real domains.
- Double-check the exact URL in your address bar
Confirm you are actually on man7.org and not a lookalike like m-an7.org.com or an IDN homoglyph.
- Use a password manager
Password managers only auto-fill on the exact domain they were saved for — they refuse to fill lookalike domains, which is the single best phishing defence.
- OpenDiscuss this site on the forum
If you have first-hand experience with this site — good or bad — share it with the MalwareTips community.
Reputation Sources
How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.
Referenced Domains
Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.
Safety FAQ
Common questions about this site, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers always reflect the latest verdict on this page.
- Our automated security review found no threat indicators on man7.org. The site appears legitimate based on the signals we checked, but always stay alert for phishing emails that spoof real domains.
- man7.org passed our automated security checks with a trust score of 86/100. No antivirus engines or major blacklists flagged the site at the time of the last scan.
- Yes. man7.org presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Let's Encrypt · YR1, expiring in 80 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
- man7.org is 20.6 years old, registered on 12/15/2005 through Gandi SAS. Scam domains are often freshly registered — a site under 6 months old warrants extra caution.
- No. All 92 antivirus engines in our malware network report man7.org as clean.
- No. man7.org is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.
- man7.org resolves to an IP operated by jambit GmbH in DE (usage type: Fixed Line ISP). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad, but unusual geography for a brand's claimed country is one of many signals we weigh.
- Independent trust-rating sites currently show the following for man7.org: ScamAdviser: 7/100. Those scores come from user reviews and their own heuristics, so they are worth comparing against our verdict.
User reviews & comments(0)
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