Networking / Beginners

Exploited Anonymity

Inconsistencies based on numerical naming, dotted names, and variable formats cause problems for hostname lookup systems. A defender, wanting to keep systems hidden, may consider using hostnames that cannot be resolved by common network analysis tools. Only tools that can handle these naming conflicts can resolve the defender's hostnames and perform lookups.

Missing Lookups

Not all hostnames contain network address mappings. Similarly, not all hostnames with network addresses contain reverse lookup information. For example, a domain name may be associated with mail exchange (MX) and text (TXT) records but not be associated with a network address. A Web server that hosts many domains may only have a reverse lookup for the primary name and not for all of its aliases.

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