Re: Should a nameserver know about itself?

Sam Trenholme <namedroppers@local.reachin.com> Fri, 11 May 2001 04:46 UTC

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Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 21:26:07 -0700
From: Sam Trenholme <namedroppers@local.reachin.com>
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To: Bruce Campbell <bruce.campbell@apnic.net>
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Subject: Re: Should a nameserver know about itself?
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> Unfortunately, we don't have any tests to reliably produce:
>
> '*ERROR* Nameserver boggle.example.com appears to be running version bar
>          of software foo.  This is broken as it does not correctly
>          implement feeping-creaturism #34693.  Try again with better
>          software.'

My particular DNS server has this feature, which is enabled by default.
When you send a MaraDNS name server this query:

erre-con-erre-cigarro.maradns.org. query txt class 1 (internet)

It sends back the version number of the server in question.  (The
answer that the maradns.org. name servers return is "MaraDNS version
number not available")

I know that some nameservers send me queries in this form:

version.bind. query txt class 3 (what class is class 3 anyway?)

Which may be script kiddies looking for older namservers to exploit, or
could be dns admins seeing what I run.

- Sam