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The Domain Name System translates human-readable website addresses into the numerical IP addresses that computers use to communicate. Every email sent, every website visited, and every cloud application accessed depends on DNS functioning correctly. Despite this critical role, many organisations treat DNS infrastructure as a background utility that rarely needs attention. Attackers know better.
DNS hijacking redirects traffic intended for legitimate services to attacker-controlled servers. By compromising DNS records at the registrar level or within the organisation’s own DNS infrastructure, attackers can intercept email, serve phishing pages that appear under the correct domain, or redirect application traffic through malicious proxies. Victims see the correct URL in their browser while interacting with hostile systems.
Distributed denial-of-service attacks targeting DNS infrastructure can take entire organisations offline without touching a single application server. When DNS queries cannot resolve, every service that depends on name resolution fails simultaneously. Customers cannot reach websites, employees cannot access cloud platforms, and email delivery stops. The business impact of a sustained DNS outage rivals that of a physical disaster.
DNS tunnelling provides attackers with a covert data exfiltration channel that most security tools overlook. By encoding stolen data within DNS queries and responses, attackers extract information from compromised networks through a protocol that firewalls almost universally allow. Detecting DNS tunnelling requires dedicated monitoring that examines query patterns, payload sizes, and query frequencies.
Cache poisoning attacks inject false DNS records into resolver caches, redirecting subsequent queries for legitimate domains to attacker-controlled addresses. A successful cache poisoning attack can affect every user who relies on the compromised resolver, potentially redirecting thousands of connections before anyone notices the manipulation.
Expert Commentary
William Fieldhouse | Director of Aardwolf Security Ltd
“DNS is one of those foundational services that nobody thinks about until it stops working. When attackers compromise or disrupt DNS, the effects cascade across the entire business. Email stops flowing, websites become unreachable, and cloud services disconnect. Protecting DNS infrastructure deserves the same priority as protecting any other critical system.”
Comprehensive external network penetration testing examines your DNS configuration from the outside, identifying zone transfer vulnerabilities, misconfigured records, and weaknesses in your registrar account security. These assessments reveal exposure that automated scanning tools frequently miss because they do not examine DNS infrastructure with sufficient depth.
DNSSEC adds cryptographic signatures to DNS records, allowing resolvers to verify that responses have not been tampered with during transit. While DNSSEC adoption has grown, many organisations have not yet implemented it, leaving their DNS traffic vulnerable to modification attacks. Deploying DNSSEC eliminates an entire category of DNS-based threats.
Redundancy in DNS infrastructure protects against denial-of-service attacks and single points of failure. Organisations should use multiple DNS providers, distribute authoritative servers across different networks and geographies, and maintain secondary DNS configurations that activate automatically when primary services fail.
Internal DNS security often receives less attention than external DNS, but internal network penetration testing regularly uncovers internal DNS misconfigurations that attackers exploit for lateral movement. Rogue DNS servers, overly permissive zone transfers, and unmonitored internal resolution patterns all create opportunities for attackers who have gained initial network access.
Monitoring DNS traffic reveals both attacks and compromised systems. Unusual query volumes, requests to known malicious domains, and abnormal response patterns all indicate potential security issues. Integrating DNS logs into your security monitoring platform transforms a blind spot into valuable threat intelligence.