MassDNS
A high-performance DNS stub resolver
MassDNS is a simple high-performance DNS stub resolver targeting those who seek to resolve a massive amount of domain names in the order of millions or even billions. Without special configuration, MassDNS is capable of resolving over 350,000 names per second using publicly available resolvers.
Contributors
Compilation
Clone the git repository and cd into the project root folder. Then run make to build from source. If you are not on Linux, run make nolinux. On Windows, the Cygwin packages gcc-core, git and make are required.
Usage
Usage: ./bin/massdns [options] [domainlist]
-b --bindto Bind to IP address and port. (Default: 0.0.0.0:0)
--busy-poll Use busy-wait polling instead of epoll.
-c --resolve-count Number of resolves for a name before giving up. (Default: 50)
--drop-group Group to drop privileges to when running as root. (Default: nogroup)
--drop-user User to drop privileges to when running as root. (Default: nobody)
--extended-input Input names are followed by a space-separated list of resolvers.
These are used before falling back to the resolvers file.
--filter Only output packets with the specified response code.
--flush Flush the output file whenever a response was received.
-h --help Show this help.
--ignore Do not output packets with the specified response code.
-i --interval Interval in milliseconds to wait between multiple resolves of the same
domain. (Default: 500)
-l --error-log Error log file path. (Default: /dev/stderr)
--norecurse Use non-recursive queries. Useful for DNS cache snooping.
-o --output Flags for output formatting.
--predictable Use resolvers incrementally. Useful for resolver tests.
--processes Number of processes to be used for resolving. (Default: 1)
-q --quiet Quiet mode.
--rand-src-ipv6 Use a random IPv6 address from the specified subnet for each query.
--rcvbuf Size of the receive buffer in bytes.
--retry Unacceptable DNS response codes.
(Default: All codes but NOERROR or NXDOMAIN)
-r --resolvers Text file containing DNS resolvers.
--root Do not drop privileges when running as root. Not recommended.
-s --hashmap-size Number of concurrent lookups. (Default: 10000)
--sndbuf Size of the send buffer in bytes.
--status-format Format for real-time status updates, json or ansi (Default: ansi)
--sticky Do not switch the resolver when retrying.
--socket-count Socket count per process. (Default: 1)
-t --type Record type to be resolved. (Default: A)
--verify-ip Verify IP addresses of incoming replies.
-w --outfile Write to the specified output file instead of standard output.
Output flags:
L - domain list output
S - simple text output
F - full text output
B - binary output
J - ndjson output
Advanced flags for the domain list output mode:
0 - Include NOERROR replies without answers.
Advanced flags for the simple output mode:
d - Include records from the additional section.
i - Indent any reply record.
l - Separate replies using a line feed.
m - Only output reply records that match the question name.
n - Include records from the answer section.
q - Print the question.
r - Print the question with resolver IP address, Unix timestamp and return code prepended.
s - Separate packet sections using a line feed.
t - Include TTL and record class within the output.
u - Include records from the authority section.
Advanced flags for the ndjson output mode:
e - Write a record for each terminal query failure.
For a detailed description of the command line interface, please consult the man page using man ./doc/massdns.1.
Example
Resolve all AAAA records from domains within domains.txt using the resolvers within resolvers.txt in lists and store the results within results.txt:
$ ./bin/massdns -r lists/resolvers.txt -t AAAA domains.txt > results.txt
This is equivalent to:
$ ./bin/massdns -r lists/resolvers.txt -t AAAA -w results.txt domains.txt
Example output
By default, MassDNS will output response packets in text format which looks similar to the following:
;; Server: 77.41.229.2:53
;; Size: 93
;; Unix time: 1513458347
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 51298
;; flags: qr rd ra ; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
example.com. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com. 45929 IN A 93.184.216.34
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.com. 24852 IN NS b.iana-servers.net.
example.com. 24852 IN NS a.iana-servers.net.
The resolver IP address is included in order to make it easier for you to filter the output in case you detect that some resolvers produce bad results.
Resolving
The repository includes the file resolvers.txt consisting of a filtered subset of the resolvers provided by the subbrute project. Please note that the usage of MassDNS may cause a significant load on the used resolvers and result in abuse complaints being sent to your ISP. Also note that the provided resolvers are not guaranteed to be trustworthy. The resolver list is currently outdated with a large share of resolvers being dysfunctional.
MassDNS's DNS implementation is currently very sporadic and only supports the most common records. You are welcome to help changing this by collaborating.
PTR records
MassDNS includes a Python script allowing you to resolve all IPv4 PTR records by printing their respective queries to the standard output.
$ ./scripts/ptr.py | ./bin/massdns -r lists/resolvers.txt -t PTR -w ptr.txt
Please note that the labels within in-addr.arpa are reversed. In order to resolve the domain name of 1.2.3.4, MassDNS expects 4.3.2.1.in-addr.arpa as input query name. As a consequence, the Python script does not resolve the records in an ascending order which is an advantage because sudden heavy spikes at the name servers of IPv4 subnets are avoided.
Reconnaissance by brute-forcing subdomains
Perform reconnaissance scans responsibly and adjust the -s parameter to not overwhelm authoritative name servers.
Similar to subbrute, MassDNS allows you to brute force subdomains using the included subbrute.py script:
$ ./scripts/subbrute.py lists/names.txt example.com | ./bin/massdns -r lists/resolvers.txt -t A -o S -w results.txt
As an additional method of reconnaissance, the ct.py script extracts subdomains from certificate transparency logs by scraping the data from crt.sh:
$ ./scripts/ct.py example.com | ./bin/massdns -r lists/resolvers.txt -t A -o S -w results.txt
The files names.txt and names_small.txt, which have been copied from the subbrute project, contain names of commonly used subdomains. Also consider using Jason Haddix' subdomain compilation with over 1,000,000 names.
Screenshots
Security
MassDNS does not require root privileges and will therefore drop privileges to the user called "nobody" by default when being run as root. If the user "nobody" does not exist, MassDNS will refuse execution. In this case, it is recommended to run MassDNS as another non-privileged user. The privilege drop can be circumvented using the --root argument which is not recommended. Also note that other branches than master should not be used in production at all.
Practical considerations
Performance tuning
MassDNS is a simple single-threaded application designed for scenarios in which the network is the bottleneck. It is designed to be run on servers with high upload and download bandwidths. Internally, MassDNS makes use of a hash map which controls the concurrency of lookups. Setting the size parameter -s hence allows you to control the lookup rate. If you are experiencing performance issues, try adjusting the -s parameter in order to obtain a better success rate.
Rate limiting evasion
In case rate limiting by IPv6 resolvers is a problem, have a look at the freebind project including packetrand, which will cause each packet to be sent from a different IPv6 address from a routed prefix.
Result authenticity
If the authenticity of results is highly essential, you should not rely on the included resolver list. Instead, set up a local unbound resolver and supply MassDNS with its IP address. In case you are using MassDNS as a reconnaissance tool, you may wish to run it with the default resolver list first and re-run it on the found names with a list of trusted resolvers in order to eliminate false positives.
In case you are enumerating subdomains for a single name, e.g. for example.com, you may want to simply leave out third-party resolvers. In this case, you can directly probe the authoritative nameservers like so:
$ ./bin/massdns -r <(./scripts/auth-addrs.sh example.com) --norecurse -o Je example-com-subdomains.txt > results.txt
Todo
- Prevent flooding resolvers which are employing rate limits or refusing resolves after some time
- Implement bandwidth limits
- Employ cross-resolver checks to detect DNS poisoning and DNS spam (e.g. Level 3 DNS hijacking)
- Add wildcard detection for reconnaissance
- Improve reconnaissance reliability by adding a mode which re-resolves found domains through a list of trusted (local) resolvers in order to eliminate false positives
- Detect optimal concurrency automatically
- Parse the command line properly and allow the usage/combination of short options without spaces
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