Re: Should a nameserver know about itself?

[Mans Nilsson <mansaxel@sunet.se>]

Subject: Re: Should a nameserver know about itself? Date: Thu, May 10, 2001 at 09:26:07PM -0700 Quoting Sam Trenholme (namedroppers@local.reachin.com):
> 
> 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.

Unbeknownst to you, those folks at Nominum (and their predecessor) have
put the same feature into BIND. Unless explicitly configured not to,
BIND till answer with its version as a TXT record whwen queried like so:

dig @localhost version.bind CHAOS TXT

and the answer comes through:

;; ANSWER SECTION:
version.bind.           0       CH      TXT     "9.1.1rc4"

Class 3 is CHAOS, for MIT Chaosnet.

(Guess I better upgrade...;-) 

-- 
Måns Nilsson		Systems Specialist
+46 70 681 7204		KTHNOC
			MN1334-RIPE

I wonder if I should put myself in ESCROW!!