Networking / Beginners

Dotted Names

Hostnames may contain letters, numbers, or a few symbols. The dot character is normally used to separate hostname segments (hostname, domain, subdomain, etc.). For example, the hostname www.google.com contains the segments www, google, and com. If the hostname cannot be resolved, then the local domain is appended and the lookup is retried.

Anyone wanting to obscure a hostname can specify a name with a dot. For example, the domain test.lan may have the hostname www.google.com. A lookup of the hostname without the domain reveals the information for the host www in the google.com domain. However, a lookup with the domain, www.google.com.test. lan, resolves to a different system.

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In this tutorial:

  1. Domain Name System (DNS)
  2. DNS Common Uses
  3. Hostname-to-Address Mapping
  4. Common Lookup Tools
  5. Naming Confusion Attack Vectors
  6. Dotted Names
  7. Name Formatting
  8. Exploited Anonymity
  9. Mail Servers
  10. Sender Policy Framework Overloading
  11. Domain Keys Overloading
  12. DNS Protocol
  13. Packet Information
  14. Simple DNS Server
  15. Distributed Architecture
  16. Top Level Domain Servers
  17. Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD)
  18. Secondary Level Domain (SLD)
  19. Primary and Secondary Servers
  20. Caching Servers
  21. DNS Management
  22. DNS Direct Risks
  23. DNS Performance versus Security
  24. DNS Cache Poisoning
  25. Corrupt DNS Packets
  26. DNS Domain Hijacking
  27. DNS Server Hijacking
  28. Dynamic DNS
  29. Similar Hostnames
  30. Domain Renewals
  31. Hostnames
  32. Zone Transfers
  33. Host Listing
  34. DNS Fields
  35. Mitgation Option
  36. Technical Threat Mitigation
  37. Social Threat Mitigation
  38. Defining Trusted Replies