DNS is one of the most important internet services since its introduction. Domain Name System, or DNS, is used to translate domain names into IP addresses, which are used by computers to interact with one another. DNS could be interesting to an attacker for malicious activities such as network spying, malware downloads, contact with command and control servers, or data transfers out of a network. As a result, monitoring DNS traffic for threat protection is crucial.
DNS attacks can be carried out in a variety of methods. DNS is vulnerable to a variety of attacks, including DNS reflection attacks, DoS, DDoS, and DNS poisoning. Furthermore, being aware of data breach stats as well as where and how attacks are most likely to occur ensures that you are taking proactive measures to protect your systems. In this article, we will let you know about DNS attacks and how you can respond to them.
A DNS attack occurs when attackers take advantage of weaknesses in the Domain Name System (DNS).
DoS and DDoS attacks
A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt a targeted network’s or server’s regular traffic by flooding the network or its surrounding infrastructure with internet traffic. Although a DDoS attack isn’t always a DNS attack, the DNS system is a common target.
DDoS attacks are effective because they use numerous compromised computer systems as attack traffic sources. Typically, attackers use bots to flood a target with traffic. A Denial Of Service (DoS) attack is when only one bot is utilized and the effect is primarily localized or limited. DDoS, on the other hand, has a broader scope and will need more resources.
Computers and other networked resources, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, are examples of exploited machinery. Imagine a freeway that has been purposely packed with automobiles, blocking regular passage and generating a traffic jam. This is how a DDoS assault works.
There are numerous sorts of DDoS attacks focused on DNS, and we’ll go over a few of them below.
TheDyn DNS attack was one of the most significant DDoS attacks. The Dyn assault took place on October 21, 2016. It impacted a significant chunk of the internet in the United States and Europe.
Phantom domain attack
A phantom domain attack is a sort of DoS attack that targets an authoritative nameserver. It’s accomplished by putting up a slew of DNS servers that either doesn’t answer to DNS requests or respond very slowly, causing communications to be disrupted.
When a DNS server doesn’t know an IP address, it uses recursive DNS to search it up on other DNS servers connected to it data breach stats. Phantom domain attacks are a way of intercepting that lookup. This wastes server resources on ineffective or non-functional lookups.
When resources are depleted, the DNS recursive server may disregard legitimate queries in favor of non-responsive servers, resulting in significant performance degradation.
DNS poisoning and cache poisoning
DNS poisoning, also known as DNS cache poisoning or DNS spoofing, is a misleading cyber attack in which hackers divert online traffic to phishing websites or fraudulent web servers.
Conclusion
Attackers will try to target your public company services at all times, looking for vulnerabilities in your Domain Name System. The majority of attacks can be mitigated by having a robust DNS hardening policy. This makes it important for you to keep yourself updated with new techniques that attackers are using and start auditing your DNS zones today to safeguard your DNS servers.
