Understanding “DNS Hijacking”….
Overview
A DNS server is a computer that contains a database of public IP addresses associated with the names of websites that provide an IP address to a user. DNS serves as the Internet’s phone book. DNS finds the right IP address when people type domain names like Fortinet.com or Yahoo.com into the address bar of web browsers. The IP address of the website leads the device to the correct place for accessing the website’s data.
A Domain Name System (DNS) is required for any companies that rely on the Internet to generate sales — it is important to the performance and legitimacy of a company’s web-based apps and cloud services.
A hole in your DNS can result in user loss, hacker access to user credentials, inaccessible content, and user irritation, among other things. A DNS hijacking or user redirection attack, which attacks the stability of a network’s domain server system, is the most common sort of DNS server breach.
What is DNS hijacking?
DNS hijacking, also known as DNS redirection, is a DNS attack that wrongly resolves DNS queries, causing users to be redirected to hostile sites. Criminals attack by installing malware on user PCs, taking control of routers, or intercepting or hacking DNS communications.
DNS hijacking can be used for phishing (displaying unwanted advertising to earn cash) or phishing (displaying phoney versions of sites that users access to steal data or passwords).
Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) also utilize DNS hijacking to accept a user’s DNS requests, collect statistics, and notify users when they visit an unknown domain. Some nations utilize DNS hijacking to censor visitors by redirecting them to government-approved websites.
Why Are DNSs Hijacked?
A DNS can be hacked for a variety of reasons. The hijacker can utilize it for phishing, which is displaying advertising to users to earn cash, or phishing, which drives people to a false version of your website for data theft or login information. Internet service providers (ISPs) are also known to utilize domain redirects to manage users’ DNS queries to acquire user data. Other organizations use domain hijacking or diverting people to alternate websites to censor users.
How does DNS Hijacking Work?
Cybercriminals utilize your website’s domain name system as a unique, trusted protocol that most businesses don’t mind monitoring for bad activities. As a result, they may be able to launch a series of attacks against the organization’s domain name system and get away with it.
DNS converts human-friendly URLs into machine-friendly Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. As a result, it enables Internet users to match search queries to relevant websites. Any device connected to the Internet has a number-based IP address. NDS is critical in syncing domain names with appropriate IP addresses, allowing website owners and users to select memorable domain names and devices to use machine-friendly IP addresses.
Assume you enter “www.bugzero.io” into your search engine and run a query. In this situation, your computer sends a request to the proper DNS resolver, which is a computer that searches for IP addresses connected with your search query. The DNS resolver is set up to communicate with top-level domain servers, locate matches, and return them to your device.
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Criminals employ DNS misresolving to direct their users to malicious websites to carry out an attack. They accomplish this via hijacking routers, compromising domain name server connections, or planting malware on the devices of website visitors. It transforms the approved IP address of the hijacker’s malicious DNS after successfully hijacking a company’s DNS and routing customers to a phoney website.
There are various types of DNS hijacking.
- Router DNS Hijack — A DNS router is a hardware device that domain service providers employ to match domain names to IP addresses. Most routers come with pre-configured passwords and firmware flaws. Cybercriminals can gain control of a router and alter DNS settings to their benefit by exploiting weak default passwords and vulnerabilities. They can easily reroute traffic to another website and prevent access to your company’s website if they successfully replace the DNS router.
- Local DNS hijack — A local DNS assault downloads malware on the PC of the website user. virus, which is typically a Trojan virus masquerading as genuine software, allows cyber thieves to get access to customers’ network systems, allowing them to steal data and change DNS settings to redirect users to harmful websites.
- DNS Spoofing — A request is diverted from a genuine website to a malicious domain in DNS spoofing attacks. An attacker can compromise a DNS server to redirect consumers to a malicious website that appears to be legal.
A Real-world Example of a DNS hijacking.
In late 2020, a state-sponsored hacking gang launched a sophisticated attack against the SolarWinds Orion platform’s software development process. The attackers were successful in inserting malicious malware into platform software upgrades, which were sent to SolarWinds customers via the company’s update system. The hackers were able to acquire access to SolarWinds’ DNS records and divert traffic to their servers as part of the attack, allowing them to carry out their harmful actions unnoticed. The SolarWinds hack is widely regarded as one of the most major cyber espionage operations in recent memory. It stressed the importance of improved DNS security measures, as well as heightened awareness and preparedness for cyber attacks of this magnitude and complexity. SolarWinds is expected to pay at least $18 million in remedial expenditures as a result of the assault, and the broader impact on affected businesses is still being determined.
How can secure against DNS Hijacking?
- Install Firewalls Around Your DNS Resolver — There are resolvers and valid resolvers in each DNS. To compromise DNS and interfere with real resolvers, attackers may install phoney resolvers. To avoid this, have the IT staff place legitimate resolvers behind a firewall and disable all superfluous DNS resolvers.
- Avoid Zone Transfers — DNS zone records are delicate files that contain sensitive information that is frequently targeted by attackers. Hackers may impersonate slave name servers and request a zone transfer, which entails duplicating server zone records. Avoid zone transfers to avoid this vulnerability.
- Ensure Secure Access — DNS access should be restricted to a few members of the IT team, and multi-factor authentication should be used when they access the domain name server registrar. This step will considerably reduce the likelihood of DNS hacking. The domain name registrant should only have access to a few whitelisted IP addresses if it is convenient for the IT staff.
- Prevent Cache Poisoning — Randomizing user identification, randomizing server source ports, and using both upper and lower case in your organization’s domain name are standard ways to prevent website cache poisoning.
Conclusion
In this article, I discussed “DNS Hijacking”. Actually, in short, it is s a type of DNS attack in which DNS queries are incorrectly resolved in order to unexpectedly redirect users to malicious sites. In this article, I have already discussed what is DNS, what is DNS hijacking, why DNS is hacked, how DNS hijacking works and how to prevent it if you are faced with it.
References
Bug Zero is a bug bounty, crowdsourcing platform for security testing. The platform is the intermediatory entity that enables client organizations to publish their service endpoints so that bug hunters (security researchers / ethical hackers) registered in the platform can start testing the endpoints without any upfront charge. Bug hunters can start testing as soon as a client organization publishes a new program. Bug Zero also offers private bug bounty programs for organizations with high-security requirements.
Bug Zero is available for both hackers and organizations.
For organizations and hackers, register with Bug Zero for free, and let’s make cyberspace safe.
