Does Qualys SSL Scanner respect robots.txt rules?

According to official documentation, Qualys SSL Scanner does not respect robots.txt rules.

How can I verify Qualys SSL Scanner traffic with live traffic data?

You can verify Qualys SSL Scanner requests by checking your server access logs for the documented user-agent strings. For accurate verification, correlate user-agent patterns with IP ranges or verification methods provided by Qualys.

What is Qualys SSL Scanner?

Direct Answer: Qualys SSL Scanner is a monitoring bot operated by Qualys, used to test and monitor SSL ratings.

Operator: Qualys Type: Monitoring Bot Purpose: SSL rating monitoring and testing

The Qualys SSL Scanner is a bot used for monitoring SSL ratings on websites. It is operated by Qualys and is known to use the user-agent 'SSL Labs'. The bot does not follow robots.txt instructions from the database.

User-Agent Identification

The following user-agent strings identify Qualys SSL Scanner in your live traffic data:

SSL Labs

robots.txt Rules for Qualys SSL Scanner

Respects robots.txt: No

This bot does not commit to following robots.txt

Qualys SSL Scanner does not officially follow robots.txt directives. The only reliable way to control access is through server-side blocking (IP filtering, user-agent rules in your web server config) combined with log monitoring to verify effectiveness.

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Crawl Behavior

Frequency:Not Documented

Request Pattern:Not Documented

Crawl Activity Index

Relative crawl activity for Qualys SSL Scanner over the past 28 days. Higher values indicate increased crawling intensity compared to the period baseline.

View recent activity data (last 7 days)

Date	Activity Index
Mar 28, 2026	35.8
Mar 29, 2026	35.3
Mar 30, 2026	35.4
Mar 31, 2026	27.6
Apr 1, 2026	31.9
Apr 2, 2026	34.5
Apr 3, 2026	30.5

Source: Cloudflare Radar

Why track Qualys SSL Scanner traffic?

Distinguish monitoring traffic from real crawler activity. Qualys SSL Scanner checks your site availability at regular intervals. Without proper identification, these requests can inflate your bot traffic metrics and distort crawl analysis.

Validate monitoring coverage. Track which pages Qualys SSL Scanner checks and how frequently, so your monitoring setup matches your infrastructure requirements.

Log Verification

To verify Qualys SSL Scanner traffic in your live traffic data:

Search access logs for the user-agent strings listed above
Check if the IP addresses match documented ranges (if provided by Qualys)
Verify the crawl pattern matches documented behavior
Use reverse DNS lookup for additional verification if available

Note: Observed behavior in production environments may differ from official documentation. Live traffic monitoring provides the only reliable verification of actual bot behavior.

Undocumented Information

The following information is not officially documented for Qualys SSL Scanner:

crawl frequency
request pattern
IP verification method
JavaScript rendering

Official Documentation

View Official Qualys SSL Scanner Documentation →

Information sourced from official documentation. Content generated with AI assistance.