DNS hack

2011-05-01

Martijn Grooten

Virus Bulletin, UK

Editor: Helen Martin

Abstract

Hackers gain access to server providing DNS for legitimate domains.

Security firm Cloudmark has reported the hacking of a server that provides DNS for various legitimate domains. The hackers did not touch the DNS record for the www-subdomain (e.g. www.example.com) – making the hack less likely to be discovered – but instead used DNS wildcards to make any other subdomain (e.g. ww.example.com or jhjkh.example.com) resolve to their own servers. These subdomains were then used in spam campaigns.

Because most URL and domain blacklists only consider the least significant part of the domain name (in this case example.com), it is less likely that these domains would be blocked by spam filters. Cloudmark contacted both the hosting company and the company that provides DNS for the domains in question to alert them to the situation.

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