No threats detected
All checks passed. This site appears legitimate — but always stay alert for phishing even on trusted domains.
Is nlnetlabs.nl legit or a scam?
This looks safe to use.
Official 26-year-old site of NLnet Labs, a Dutch nonprofit building critical open-source DNS and routing tools.
Analysis Summary
Website Preview
Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site.
Visual 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 screenshot displays the legitimate website of NLnet Labs, a known organization providing open-source internet infrastructure software.
What our vision model saw
4 signalsProfessional website design for a known technical organization (NLnet Labs)
Consistent branding and clear navigation menu
Content describes legitimate open-source software projects (NSD, Unbound, etc.)
No indicators of urgency, fake security seals, or suspicious input forms
Intelligence
The domain nlnetlabs.nl was registered in January 2000 and has remained under the same nonprofit operator for over two decades. Our antivirus network returned zero detections across 92 engines and the hosting IP shows no abuse history. The page content matches the organization's known mission of maintaining Unbound, NSD, and RPKI tools used by major internet operators. Business registration records confirm Stichting NLnet Labs as an active Dutch Public Benefit Organisation with KVK number 34126276. No login forms, payment requests, or urgency tactics appear on the site. The combination of long domain history, clean technical signals, and matching public records leaves no indicators of malicious activity.
Web Research Findings
Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for nlnetlabs.nl, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.
- NLnet Labs is a well-established, non-profit foundation founded in 1999, focused on open-source software and standards for Internet infrastructure.
- The organization is widely recognized for developing critical Internet software, including the Unbound DNS resolver, NSD (Name Server Daemon), and RPKI tools like Krill and Routinator.
- It operates as an independent Public Benefit Organisation (ANBI) in the Netherlands, with funding from industry partners, donations, and professional support contracts.
- The domain nlnetlabs.nl is the official website for the foundation, which provides documentation, software releases, and organizational transparency reports.
- The organization maintains a transparent operational model, including public disclosure of its mission, bylaws, and remuneration policies.
Registered as Stichting NLnet Labs (KVK: 34126276), a non-profit Public Benefit Organisation (ANBI).
We searched scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, and general web sources for nlnetlabs.nl and didn't find scam reports or complaints. Business registration records confirm the site belongs to an active Dutch nonprofit foundation with transparent operations and long-standing public presence.
Domain Timeline
- Jan 18, 2000Domain registered
First appeared in WHOIS records — 26 years old today.
- Jul 15, 2026Latest security review — Reviewed as safe
This scan re-ran every check and found no active threat signals.
nlnetlabs.nl has operated for years with no threat signals in this review — a long, stable track record, though it is never a guarantee on its own.
Threat Detection
Antivirus Engines
Security Scans
Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.
Reputation Sources
How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.
Technical Details
domain · encryption · redirects · server reputation · referencedThe plumbing behind the site — who registered it, how it’s encrypted, where it’s hosted, and where it links out. A valid certificate or a calm server doesn’t mean the business is honest — scam sites pass these checks too. Use this to corroborate the verdict, not to overturn it.
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 phone number listed on the page.
- No postal address visible on the page.
- Contact email on the site's own domain (nlnetlabs@social.nlnetlabs.nl).
- Links to 3 social profiles.
Domain & Encryption
Redirect Chain
- 1301http://nlnetlabs.nl/
- 2200https://nlnetlabs.nl/
Server Reputation
Referenced Domains
Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.
What to do
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 nlnetlabs.nl and not a lookalike like n-lnetlabs.nl.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.
Final Verdict
This is the official website of NLnet Labs, a Dutch nonprofit that develops open-source DNS and routing software. The domain is 26.5 years old with clean scans and verified business registration. No payment or login forms are present.
Safety FAQ
Common questions, 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 nlnetlabs.nl, so it appears legitimate. All 92 antivirus engines we queried report it clean, it ranks among the world's most-visited sites, and the domain is 26.5 years old, registered on January 18, 2000 — established domains are far less likely to be scams. Even so, always double-check the exact address in your browser, because phishing emails routinely spoof real, trusted domains like this one.
- nlnetlabs.nl passed our automated checks with a trust score of 95/100. No antivirus engines or major blacklists flagged it at the time of the last scan, and its signals line up with an established, legitimate site. Treat any unexpected login prompt or payment request on it with the same caution you would anywhere.
- Yes — and this is worth understanding. Even trustworthy domains get spoofed in phishing emails (a fake message that only looks like it's from nlnetlabs.nl), and legitimate sites are occasionally compromised on specific pages. A clean verdict means the site itself checks out today; it does not mean every email or link claiming to be from nlnetlabs.nl is genuine. Always reach the site by typing the address yourself rather than clicking links in unexpected messages.
- No — all 92 antivirus and blocklist engines in our malware network currently report nlnetlabs.nl as clean. That's a good sign, though antivirus coverage is only one of the many signals we weigh, and brand-new scam sites can appear clean before vendors catch up.
- No — nlnetlabs.nl is not currently on the major browser blocklist feeds that Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge rely on. Note that blocklists can lag behind brand-new scam domains, so "not listed" is reassuring but not a guarantee on its own.
- nlnetlabs.nl is 26.5 years old, registered on January 18, 2000 through Prolocation B.V.. A multi-year registration history is one of the stronger signals against a scam, though it's never a guarantee on its own — established domains can still be misused.
- Yes — nlnetlabs.nl presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Let's Encrypt · E7, valid for another 35 days. Important caveat: SSL only encrypts the connection between you and the site — it does not verify who runs it. Almost all scam sites now have valid SSL too, so a padlock alone never means "safe".
- nlnetlabs.nl resolves to an IP operated by Hetzner Online GmbH in DE (Data Center/Web Hosting/Transit). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad — but hosting that doesn't match a brand's claimed country, or that sits on networks known for abuse, is one of the many signals we weigh alongside the verdict above.
- Yes — nlnetlabs.nl ranks in the global top 100,000 most-visited sites, which means it has substantial real-world traffic. Genuine popularity doesn't automatically make a site safe, but throwaway scam domains almost never reach this level of traffic, so it's a meaningful point in the site's favour.
- This report is a record of the scan run on July 15, 2026, and the verdict reflects that point in time. Scam sites change fast — they can go live, get flagged, or vanish within days — so if you believe something about nlnetlabs.nl has changed, MalwareTips staff can run a fresh scan that re-checks every signal from scratch and republishes an updated verdict.
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