Botnet meaning bot network is a collection of infected computers under the command and control of a single individual known as a botmaster. Botnets are a current threat to the Internet community and have recently been a root cause of many Internet attacks. Various attacks that include spamming, distributed denial of service attacks, phishing, click fraud, hosting illegal material, key logging etc. are being carried out by hackers using botnets. Botnets are becoming more efficient and more

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... ate with time and their use is growing at an exponential rate. In this paper a detailed study of botnet, their topologies, rallying mechanisms and communication protocols used and detection mechanisms both at the network and host level are presented.