Digging up the dirt

DNS records provide human-relatable aliases for IP addresses associated with the various functions of a domain. I would encourage a good review of DNS operations and the associated record types at periodic intervals to ensure you are always up to speed on any new trends in DNS use and to jog your memory. It is not uncommon to find new applications and protocols borrowing DNS record space for their own use. Keeping DNS knowledge fresh ensures you are well prepared to leverage those new applications.

The utility dig has been a stalwart of the pen testing community for DNS enumeration; chances are you've used it and have some favorite switches you like to employ. When it comes to web pen testing, we'll be concentrating on the answer field, and with the various switches that dig offers, we can use it to map out other related record types as well.