What is Software Security Research?
Software Security Research is an academic research crawler operated by the Chair for Software Security at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. This bot performs HTTP and HTTPS probes to identify website origins behind Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and reverse proxies as part of research evaluating the global security and privacy characteristics of the Internet. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when Software Security Research visits your website.
Category
| Example User Agent | Software Security Research/1.0 (+https://winston.softsec.ruhr-uni-bochum.de) |
| Operated By | Ruhr University Bochum |
| Source | Official Website |
| Triggered By | Scheduled or requested scan |
| Used for AI Model Training | Not expected |
| Affects AI Chat & Search Visibility | Not directly |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | Yes |
Why Is Software Security Research Visiting My Website?
Software Security Research is scanning your site for vulnerabilities, either as part of an internet-wide sweep or because someone requested an assessment of your domain. Recurring visits often indicate that a monitoring service has added your site to its checks.
Should I Block Software Security Research?
Usually not, unless you already run your own security scans and want cleaner logs. Software Security Research checks for exposed vulnerabilities, and some services report their findings to site owners at no cost. For context, 7% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for Software Security Research.
How Do I Block Software Security Research Using Robots.txt?
Add this rule to your robots.txt file to block Software Security Research from accessing your website, or use Automatic Robots.txt to block all security scanners at once. You can customize which pages are blocked by swapping out / for a different path.
User-agent: Software Security Research # https://knownagents.com/agents/software-security-research
Disallow: /Insights for Software Security Research
As of November 4, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.
Robots.txt Compliance
Country of Origin
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
Software Security Research Traffic
0.0077% of all website traffic is coming from Software Security Research.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Traffic Patterns Should I Expect From Software Security Research?
Software Security Research's cadence depends on how the scan is configured. Continuous monitoring may run daily or hourly, while a one-time or internet-wide scan may sweep once and disappear.
Does Software Security Research Follow Robots.txt Rules?
Software Security Research is expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule is the appropriate first step if you want to block it. Automatic Robots.txt can add and maintain that rule, while Agent Analytics lets you verify whether Software Security Research respects it.
Is Software Security Research Used for AI Model Training?
Not ordinarily. Software Security Research is not categorized as an AI training scraper or data provider, so AI model training is not its expected purpose.
Does Blocking Software Security Research Affect AI Search or Citations?
Not directly. Software Security Research's expected purpose is not to supply an AI search index or retrieve pages for AI-generated answers.
Does Software Security Research Access Private Content?
It deliberately looks for exposed private content. Software Security Research tests login pages, admin panels, and API endpoints for vulnerabilities. Probing does not mean it gained access, but you should expect requests to sensitive paths in your logs.
How Can I Verify a Request From Software Security Research?
Agent Analytics tracks Software Security Research visits in real time. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "Software Security Research". Look for bursts of requests to uncommon paths that ordinary visitors rarely access. Because Software Security Research does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.