Back to home

How to Remove a VirusTotal False Positive

A step-by-step guide to clearing your domain from VirusTotal detections

Timeline: 2-14 days depending on vendor response times
Difficulty: Moderate — requires contacting multiple vendors individually

VirusTotal aggregates results from over 70 antivirus engines and URL scanners. When one or more of these engines incorrectly flags your website, it can trigger warnings across browsers, email filters, and firewalls. Here's how to resolve it.

1

Verify the detection is a false positive

Scan your website thoroughly for malware, injected scripts, or suspicious redirects. Use your own security tools and check your server logs. If your site is genuinely clean, the detection is a false positive.

Check your site's source code for any injected iframes, suspicious JavaScript, or hidden links pointing to known malicious domains.

2

Identify which engines flagged you

Go to VirusTotal.com and scan your URL. Note which specific antivirus engines are detecting your site. Each engine has its own false positive reporting process.

3

Report the false positive to each vendor

Visit each vendor's false positive submission page. You'll typically need to provide your URL, explain why it's a false positive, and sometimes submit evidence that your site is clean.

Some vendors respond within hours, others take weeks. Prioritize vendors that matter most to your users (Google, Microsoft, Kaspersky, Bitdefender).

4

Request a rescan on VirusTotal

After vendors clear your domain, go back to VirusTotal and click the "Reanalyse" button. This triggers a fresh scan with updated vendor databases and should reflect the cleared status.

5

Monitor for recurrence

False positives can return, especially after vendor database updates. Set up regular monitoring to catch new flags early before they impact your users or email deliverability.

Need help with this?

Don't waste hours navigating vendor submission forms. Our team handles the entire delisting process for you — across all 87 security vendors simultaneously.

No cure, no pay87 vendors covered24h average resolution