Security . Jul 2024
Domain Name Server (DNS) Spoofing
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What is DNS Spoofing
- Domain Name Server (DNS) Spoofing is a type of attack in which the DNS records are altered to redirect the online traffic to a spoofed website that resembles the original destination.
- On landing the spoofed websites, adversaries can steal sensitive information such as credentials or credit card details depending upon the type of attack.
- Additionally, viruses, worms, and malwares can also be injected into the victim’s machine.
- Without understanding how the internet connects you to websites you might be deceived to think that a website is compromised.
- In DNS spoofing, an attacker intercepts and modifies DNS responses to redirect users to malicious or fraudulent websites. The attacker exploits vulnerabilities in DNS servers or routers to inject false DNS records into the DNS cache.
- When a user tries to access a legitimate website, their device consults the DNS cache to find the corresponding IP address. If the cache has been poisoned, it will provide the user with the attacker's manipulated IP address, leading them to a malicious site instead.
How Does DNS Spoofing Work
- A DNS resolver will save responses to IP address queries.
- As a result, the resolver can respond to future queries significantly faster without communicating with the several servers involved in traditional DNS resolution.
- DNS resolvers save responses in their cache until the IP addresses set time to live (TTL) in seconds for the expiration of cached records ranges between 60 to 86400.
- DNS spoofing attack imitates the server destinations to redirect a domain’s traffic. The purpose of a DNS spoofing attack is to redirect the victim to malicious websites.
- Whereas DNS cache poisoning is the user-end method of DNS spoofing, in which the attackers inject a malicious DNS in the local DNS cache.
- When DNS finds the malicious path in the cache, it redirects users to that link. The DNS will recollect the fraudulent website if the problem gets resolved or ever occurs on the server-end side.
Three Methods of DNS Spoofing
There are several types of DNS spoofing, but three of the most common ones are:
Man-in-the-middle duping
- The attacker gets between your browser and DNS server to infect both using a tool to synchronously poison your local device and DNS server.
- This results in a redirect to a malicious site hosted on the attacker’s local server.
DNS cache poisoning by spam
- URLs included in spam emails and banner ads on untrustworthy websites are compromised with a virus.
- When the user clicks on the URL, their computers are then infected with the virus located in the malicious URL. Once infected, the user's device will route to fake websites that look like the real thing.
DNS server hijack
- The cyber attacker reconfigures the server to direct any traffic to the spoofed domain.
Risks of DNS Spoofing
The significant risks of DNS spoofing and poisoning are as follows:
Prevention Form DNS Spoofing
To prevent DNS spoofing and poisoning, one should implement strict protocols and protective tools. Some of the prevention tips are discussed below:
- DNS spoofing detection tools: Several detection spoofing programs, ARP spoofing, can detect and certify legitimate data.
- DNSSEC: Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC) helps maintain authentic and spoof-free DNS.
- End-to-end encryption: If data provided for DNS requests and responses are encrypted, attackers would be unable to reproduce the unique security certificate for the legitimate website.
- Beware of unrecognized URLs: Think before clicking on a link received through email, text message, or social media.
- Use of VPN: Virtual Private Network (VPN) helps provide an encrypted tunnel for web traffic, encrypted requests, and private DNS servers.
- Regular flushing of DNS cache: Cleaning out the infected data to keep your system away from DNS cache poisoning.
- Regular scan for malware: Spoofed websites could deliver all types of malicious programs, so the routine scan for malware helps remove secondary infections.
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