DNS Attacks
DNS Process

Server Type

Server Type
Description
DNS Root Server
The root servers of the DNS are responsible for the top-level domains (TLD
). As the last instance, they are only requested if the name server does not respond. Thus, a root server is a central interface between users and content on the Internet, as it links domain and IP address. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN
) coordinates the work of the root name servers. There are 13
such root servers around the globe.
Authoritative Nameserver
Authoritative name servers hold authority for a particular zone. They only answer queries from their area of responsibility, and their information is binding. If an authoritative name server cannot answer a client's query, the root name server takes over at that point.
Non-authoritative Nameserver
Non-authoritative name servers are not responsible for a particular DNS zone. Instead, they collect information on specific DNS zones themselves, which is done using recursive or iterative DNS querying.
Caching DNS Server
Caching DNS servers cache information from other name servers for a specified period. The authoritative name server determines the duration of this storage.
Forwarding Server
Forwarding servers perform only one function: they forward DNS queries to another DNS server.
Resolver
Resolvers are not authoritative DNS servers but perform name resolution locally in the computer or router.
DNS Record
Description
A
Returns an IPv4 address of the requested domain as a result.
AAAA
Returns an IPv6 address of the requested domain.
MX
Returns the responsible mail servers as a result.
NS
Returns the DNS servers (nameservers) of the domain.
TXT
This record can contain various information. The all-rounder can be used, e.g., to validate the Google Search Console or validate SSL certificates. In addition, SPF and DMARC entries are set to validate mail traffic and protect it from spam.
CNAME
This record serves as an alias. If the domain www.hackthebox.eu should point to the same IP, and we create an A record for one and a CNAME record for the other.
PTR
The PTR record works the other way around (reverse lookup). It converts IP addresses into valid domain names.
SOA
Provides information about the corresponding DNS zone and email address of the administrative contact.
The
SOA
record is located in a domain's zone file and specifies who is responsible for the operation of the domain and how DNS information for the domain is managed.
dig soa www.inlanefreight.com
; <<>> DiG 9.16.27-Debian <<>> soa www.inlanefreight.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 15876
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.inlanefreight.com. IN SOA
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
inlanefreight.com. 900 IN SOA ns-161.awsdns-20.com. awsdns-hostmaster.amazon.com. 1 7200 900 1209600 86400
;; Query time: 16 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Thu Jan 05 12:56:10 GMT 2023
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 128
Default Configuration
Local DNS Configuration
cat /etc/bind/named.conf.local
//
// Do any local configuration here
//
// Consider adding the 1918 zones here, if they are not used in your
// organization
//include "/etc/bind/zones.rfc1918";
zone "domain.com" {
type master;
file "/etc/bind/db.domain.com";
allow-update { key rndc-key; };
};
All DNS servers work with three different types of configuration files:
local DNS configuration files
zone files
reverse name resolution files
The DNS server Bind9 is very often used on Linux-based distributions.
Its local configuration file (
named.conf
) is roughly divided into two sections,firstly the options section for general settings
secondly the zone entries for the individual domains.
The local configuration files are usually:
named.conf.local
named.conf.options
named.conf.log
The configuration file
named.conf
is divided into several options that control the behavior of the name server.A distinction is made between
global options
andzone options
Global options
are general and affect all zones
A zone option
only affects the zone to which it is assigned
Options not listed in named.conf have default values.
If an option is both global and zone-specific,
then the zone option takes precedence
DNS ZONE EXAMPLE

Zone Files
cat /etc/bind/db.domain.com
;
; BIND reverse data file for local loopback interface
;
$ORIGIN domain.com
$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA dns1.domain.com. hostmaster.domain.com. (
2001062501 ; serial
21600 ; refresh after 6 hours
3600 ; retry after 1 hour
604800 ; expire after 1 week
86400 ) ; minimum TTL of 1 day
IN NS ns1.domain.com.
IN NS ns2.domain.com.
IN MX 10 mx.domain.com.
IN MX 20 mx2.domain.com.
IN A 10.129.14.5
server1 IN A 10.129.14.5
server2 IN A 10.129.14.7
ns1 IN A 10.129.14.2
ns2 IN A 10.129.14.3
ftp IN CNAME server1
mx IN CNAME server1
mx2 IN CNAME server2
www IN CNAME server2
Reverse Name Resolution Zone Files
cat /etc/bind/db.10.129.14
;
; BIND reverse data file for local loopback interface
;
$ORIGIN 14.129.10.in-addr.arpa
$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA dns1.domain.com. hostmaster.domain.com. (
2001062501 ; serial
21600 ; refresh after 6 hours
3600 ; retry after 1 hour
604800 ; expire after 1 week
86400 ) ; minimum TTL of 1 day
IN NS ns1.domain.com.
IN NS ns2.domain.com.
5 IN PTR server1.domain.com.
7 IN MX mx.domain.com.
...SNIP...
Dangerous Settings
DNS server can be attacked
bind9 has vulnerabilities
Option
Description
allow-query
Defines which hosts are allowed to send requests to the DNS server.
allow-recursion
Defines which hosts are allowed to send recursive requests to the DNS server.
allow-transfer
Defines which hosts are allowed to receive zone transfers from the DNS server.
zone-statistics
Collects statistical data of zones.
Types of DNS attacks
Domain hijacking
DNS flood attack
Distributed Reflection Denial of Service (DRDoS)
Cache poisoning
DNS tunnelling
DNS hijack attack
Random subdomain attack
NXDOMAIN attack
Phantom domain attack
Commands
DIG Commands
dig domain.com
Performs a default A record lookup for the domain.
dig domain.com A
Retrieves the IPv4 address (A record) associated with the domain.
dig domain.com AAAA
Retrieves the IPv6 address (AAAA record) associated with the domain.
dig domain.com MX
Finds the mail servers (MX records) responsible for the domain.
dig domain.com NS
Identifies the authoritative name servers for the domain.
dig domain.com TXT
Retrieves any TXT records associated with the domain.
dig domain.com CNAME
Retrieves the canonical name (CNAME) record for the domain.
dig domain.com SOA
Retrieves the start of authority (SOA) record for the domain.
dig @1.1.1.1 domain.com
Specifies a specific name server to query; in this case 1.1.1.1
dig +trace domain.com
Shows the full path of DNS resolution.
dig -x 192.168.1.1
Performs a reverse lookup on the IP address 192.168.1.1 to find the associated host name. You may need to specify a name server.
dig +short domain.com
Provides a short, concise answer to the query.
dig +noall +answer domain.com
Displays only the answer section of the query output.
dig domain.com ANY
Retrieves all available DNS records for the domain (Note: Many DNS servers ignore ANY
queries to reduce load and prevent abuse, as per RFC 8482).
DIG - NS Query
dig ns inlanefreight.htb @10.129.14.128
; <<>> DiG 9.16.1-Ubuntu <<>> ns inlanefreight.htb @10.129.14.128
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 45010
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2
;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
; COOKIE: ce4d8681b32abaea0100000061475f73842c401c391690c7 (good)
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;inlanefreight.htb. IN NS
;; ANSWER SECTION:
inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN NS ns.inlanefreight.htb.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns.inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN A 10.129.34.136
;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 10.129.14.128#53(10.129.14.128)
;; WHEN: So Sep 19 18:04:03 CEST 2021
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 107
DIG - Version Query
dig CH TXT version.bind 10.129.120.85
; <<>> DiG 9.10.6 <<>> CH TXT version.bind
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 47786
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; ANSWER SECTION:
version.bind. 0 CH TXT "9.10.6-P1"
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
version.bind. 0 CH TXT "9.10.6-P1-Debian"
;; Query time: 2 msec
;; SERVER: 10.129.120.85#53(10.129.120.85)
;; WHEN: Wed Jan 05 20:23:14 UTC 2023
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 101
DIG - ANY Query
dig any inlanefreight.htb @10.129.14.128
; <<>> DiG 9.16.1-Ubuntu <<>> any inlanefreight.htb @10.129.14.128
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 7649
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2
;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
; COOKIE: 064b7e1f091b95120100000061476865a6026d01f87d10ca (good)
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;inlanefreight.htb. IN ANY
;; ANSWER SECTION:
inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN TXT "v=spf1 include:mailgun.org include:_spf.google.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:_spf.atlassian.net ip4:10.129.124.8 ip4:10.129.127.2 ip4:10.129.42.106 ~all"
inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN TXT "atlassian-domain-verification=t1rKCy68JFszSdCKVpw64A1QksWdXuYFUeSXKU"
inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN TXT "MS=ms97310371"
inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN SOA inlanefreight.htb. root.inlanefreight.htb. 2 604800 86400 2419200 604800
inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN NS ns.inlanefreight.htb.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns.inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN A 10.129.34.136
;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 10.129.14.128#53(10.129.14.128)
;; WHEN: So Sep 19 18:42:13 CEST 2021
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 437
Zone Transfer
DNS subdomain bruteforce
for sub in $(cat /opt/useful/SecLists/Discovery/DNS/subdomains-top1million-110000.txt);do dig $sub.inlanefreight.htb @10.129.14.128 | grep -v ';\|SOA' | sed -r '/^\s*$/d' | grep $sub | tee -a subdomains.txt;done
dnsenum
dnsenum megacorpone.com
dnsenum --dnsserver 10.129.14.128 --enum -p 0 -s 0 -o subdomains.txt -f /opt/useful/SecLists/Discovery/DNS/subdomains-top1million-110000.txt inlanefreight.htb
Result
dnsenum VERSION:1.2.6
----- inlanefreight.htb -----
Host's addresses:
__________________
Name Servers:
______________
ns.inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN A 10.129.34.136
Mail (MX) Servers:
___________________
Trying Zone Transfers and getting Bind Versions:
_________________________________________________
unresolvable name: ns.inlanefreight.htb at /usr/bin/dnsenum line 900 thread 1.
Trying Zone Transfer for inlanefreight.htb on ns.inlanefreight.htb ...
AXFR record query failed: no nameservers
Brute forcing with /home/cry0l1t3/Pentesting/SecLists/Discovery/DNS/subdomains-top1million-110000.txt:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
ns.inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN A 10.129.34.136
mail1.inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN A 10.129.18.201
app.inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN A 10.129.18.15
ns.inlanefreight.htb. 604800 IN A 10.129.34.136
...SNIP...
done.
gobuster
gobuster dns -d inlanefreight.com -w /usr/share/SecLists/Discovery/DNS/namelist.txt
Dns Recon
dnsrecon -d megacorpone.com -t std
Whois
whois wehost.co.in
Host
host wehost.co.in
can be used to query data from dns server
host -t txt megacorpone.com
Nslookup
nslookup mail.megacorptwo.com
dns-nsid
Retrieves information from a DNS nameserver by requesting its nameserver ID (nsid) and asking for its id.server and version.bind values
nmap -sSU -p 53 --script dns-nsid <target>
Reference
https://www.cloudflare.com/en-gb/learning/dns/glossary/dns-zone/
https://securitytrails.com/blog/most-popular-types-dns-attacks
Last updated