DNS Cache Poisoning Protection
When your company’s critical online presence, like website and email, depends on DNS, you must protect your online presence against DNS spoofing attacks. One solution: DNSSEC.Domain Name System (DNS) is our root of trust and is one of the most critical components of the internet. It is a mission-critical service because a business’s web presence goes down if it goes down.
DNS is a virtual database of names and numbers. It serves as the backbone for other services critical to organizations. This includes email, internet site access, voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP), and the management of files.
You hope that when you type a domain name, you are going where you are supposed to go. DNS vulnerabilities get more attention once an attack occurs and makes the news. For example, in April 2018, public DNS servers that managed the domain for Myetherwallet were hijacked, and customers were redirected to a phishing site. Many users reported losing funds out of their accounts, which brought public attention to DNS vulnerabilities.
The fact that DNS has been around for a long time contributes to its security problems. By design, it is an open service on the network that is not properly monitored and for which a traditional security solution cannot protect efficiently.
What is DNS cache poisoning?DNS servers have vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit to take them over. DNS cache poisoning attacks are one of hackers' most popular attack methods.
When the attacker has control of a DNS server, they can modify the cache information; this is DNS poisoning. The code for DNS cache poisoning is often found in URLs sent via spam or phishing emails. These emails attempt to alert users to an event requiring immediate attention, which requires clicking on the supplied URL and infecting their computer. Banner ads and images often redirect users to these infected sites.
The attacker could then control where you go when you try to access a financial site or any other site by redirecting you to a fake site. The attacker can send you to a page that launches a script that can download malware, key loggers, or worms to your device.
DNS servers access the caches of other DNS servers, which is how it spreads — and potentially on a large scale.
Risks of DNS cache poisoningThe primary risk with DNS poisoning is the theft of data. Hospitals, financial institution sites, and online retailers are popular targets and easily spoofed, meaning any password, credit card, or other personal information may be compromised. Also, the risk of having a key logger installed on your device could cause other sites that you visit to have their usernames and passwords exposed.
Another significant risk is that if an internet security provider’s site is spoofed, a user's computer may be exposed to additional threats, such as viruses or Trojans because legitimate security updates will not be performed.
According to experts like EfficientIP, the yearly average cost of DNS attacks is $2.236 million, and 23 percent of the attacks were from DNS cache poisoning.
Prevent DNS cache poisoning attacksThere are several measures organizations should take to prevent DNS cache poisoning attacks. One is that DNS servers should be configured to rely on trust relationships with other DNS servers as little as possible. Configuring it this way will make it much more difficult for attackers to use their DNS server to corrupt a targeted server.
Another measure that should be taken is that the DNS server should be set up so that only required services can run. Additional services that are not required to run on a DNS server increase the attack vector size.
Security staff should also ensure that the most current version of DNS is being used. A newer version of BIND has features such as cryptographically secure transaction IDs and port randomization, which can help prevent cache poisoning attacks.
End-user education is also very important in preventing these attacks. End users should receive training on identifying suspicious sites and not click the “ignore” button if they receive an SSL warning before connecting to a site. They should also be consistently educated on identifying phishing emails or phishing via social media accounts.
Other measures that should be taken to prevent cache poisoning attacks are storing only data related to the requested domain and restricting your responses to only providing information about the requested domain.
DNSSEC as a solutionCache poisoning tools are available to help organizations prevent these attacks. The most widely used cache poisoning prevention tool is DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extension). It was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force and provided secure DNS data authentication.
Computers can confirm if DNS responses are legitimate when deployed, whereas it currently has no way of determining real or fake ones. It also can verify that a domain name does not exist at all, which can help prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
DNSSEC will verify the root domain, sometimes called “signing the root.” When an end user attempts to access a site, a stub resolver on their computer requests the site's IP address from a recursive name server. After the server requests the record, it will also request the zones DNSEC key. The key will then be used to verify that the IP address record is the same as the record on the authoritative server.
Next, the recursive name server would verify that the address record came from the authoritative name server. It then verifies if it has been modified and resolves the correct domain source. If there has been a modification to the source, then the recursive name server will not allow the connection to occur to the site.
DNSSEC is becoming more prevalent. Many government institutions and financial organizations are making DNSSEC a requirement, as issuing unsigned zones ignores a DNS weakness and leaves your systems open to various spoofing attacks. Organizations need to consider deploying it to protect their data.
DNS is a virtual database of names and numbers. It serves as the backbone for other services critical to organizations. This includes email, internet site access, voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP), and the management of files.
You hope that when you type a domain name, you are going where you are supposed to go. DNS vulnerabilities get more attention once an attack occurs and makes the news. For example, in April 2018, public DNS servers that managed the domain for Myetherwallet were hijacked, and customers were redirected to a phishing site. Many users reported losing funds out of their accounts, which brought public attention to DNS vulnerabilities.
The fact that DNS has been around for a long time contributes to its security problems. By design, it is an open service on the network that is not properly monitored and for which a traditional security solution cannot protect efficiently.
What is DNS cache poisoning?DNS servers have vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit to take them over. DNS cache poisoning attacks are one of hackers' most popular attack methods.
When the attacker has control of a DNS server, they can modify the cache information; this is DNS poisoning. The code for DNS cache poisoning is often found in URLs sent via spam or phishing emails. These emails attempt to alert users to an event requiring immediate attention, which requires clicking on the supplied URL and infecting their computer. Banner ads and images often redirect users to these infected sites.
The attacker could then control where you go when you try to access a financial site or any other site by redirecting you to a fake site. The attacker can send you to a page that launches a script that can download malware, key loggers, or worms to your device.
DNS servers access the caches of other DNS servers, which is how it spreads — and potentially on a large scale.
Risks of DNS cache poisoningThe primary risk with DNS poisoning is the theft of data. Hospitals, financial institution sites, and online retailers are popular targets and easily spoofed, meaning any password, credit card, or other personal information may be compromised. Also, the risk of having a key logger installed on your device could cause other sites that you visit to have their usernames and passwords exposed.
Another significant risk is that if an internet security provider’s site is spoofed, a user's computer may be exposed to additional threats, such as viruses or Trojans because legitimate security updates will not be performed.
According to experts like EfficientIP, the yearly average cost of DNS attacks is $2.236 million, and 23 percent of the attacks were from DNS cache poisoning.
Prevent DNS cache poisoning attacksThere are several measures organizations should take to prevent DNS cache poisoning attacks. One is that DNS servers should be configured to rely on trust relationships with other DNS servers as little as possible. Configuring it this way will make it much more difficult for attackers to use their DNS server to corrupt a targeted server.
Another measure that should be taken is that the DNS server should be set up so that only required services can run. Additional services that are not required to run on a DNS server increase the attack vector size.
Security staff should also ensure that the most current version of DNS is being used. A newer version of BIND has features such as cryptographically secure transaction IDs and port randomization, which can help prevent cache poisoning attacks.
End-user education is also very important in preventing these attacks. End users should receive training on identifying suspicious sites and not click the “ignore” button if they receive an SSL warning before connecting to a site. They should also be consistently educated on identifying phishing emails or phishing via social media accounts.
Other measures that should be taken to prevent cache poisoning attacks are storing only data related to the requested domain and restricting your responses to only providing information about the requested domain.
DNSSEC as a solutionCache poisoning tools are available to help organizations prevent these attacks. The most widely used cache poisoning prevention tool is DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extension). It was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force and provided secure DNS data authentication.
Computers can confirm if DNS responses are legitimate when deployed, whereas it currently has no way of determining real or fake ones. It also can verify that a domain name does not exist at all, which can help prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
DNSSEC will verify the root domain, sometimes called “signing the root.” When an end user attempts to access a site, a stub resolver on their computer requests the site's IP address from a recursive name server. After the server requests the record, it will also request the zones DNSEC key. The key will then be used to verify that the IP address record is the same as the record on the authoritative server.
Next, the recursive name server would verify that the address record came from the authoritative name server. It then verifies if it has been modified and resolves the correct domain source. If there has been a modification to the source, then the recursive name server will not allow the connection to occur to the site.
DNSSEC is becoming more prevalent. Many government institutions and financial organizations are making DNSSEC a requirement, as issuing unsigned zones ignores a DNS weakness and leaves your systems open to various spoofing attacks. Organizations need to consider deploying it to protect their data.
If you are an organization or an individual with an online presence for your organization, now it's time to use a distributed network of DNS services that protect your online presence. Follow the “Learn More” button below to learn about our Private DNS services.
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