---
title: What is a Stale domain?
slug: asm/what-is-a-stale-domain
docTags: 
createdAt: 2023-06-22T10:54:08.000Z
---

**Question**

There are some domains marked as Stale on the domains page - what does this mean?

**Answer**

Hexiosec ASM may mark some domains as `stale` in the results of a scan. Domains will be marked as stale if they have been identified, but do not have a DNS entry, i.e. they are not 'live' and have no associated IP address.

::Image[]{src="https://api.archbee.com/api/optimize/ADIhj5CoSURbyJI1tP0pN/N3sroO3gD2VNlrVv7qjR3_image.png" size="80" width="865" height="660" position="center" caption="Example of stale domains" alt="Domains list showing the stale label against some domains" darkWidth="865" darkHeight="660" showCaption="true"}

Stale domains will not typically have risks associated with them, as they are not live. They can still provide details of information found by Hexiosec ASM.

The following scenarios can result in `stale` domains:

- **Historic domains**: For which there is historic data, but no references in current scan data:
  - **Public:** Found in public open source data, such as certificate registration logs
  - **Not public**: Previously found in a scan, but have since been removed
- **Referenced**: Referenced in live scan data, e.g. domains listed as alternate name in a certificate
- **Chained sub-domains**: Found as part of a live sub-domain, e.g:
  - The sub-domain `b.c.com` would be `stale` if it is not live, but `a.b.c.com` is live.