Lab Summary: Perform DNS Footprinting

Lab Objective:

To gather DNS-related information of the target domain using both command-line tools and web-based utilities. This includes identifying authoritative name servers, DNS record types, IP addresses, and associated metadata.

Overview:

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a foundational component of internet infrastructure. It translates human-friendly domain names into machine-readable IP addresses. Understanding how DNS is configured for a target organization provides attackers or ethical hackers with key insights such as IP address ranges, mail servers, hosting providers, and potentially vulnerable points of entry.

In this lab, two primary approaches were used:

• The nslookup command-line utility for direct DNS queries.
• A web-based NSLOOKUP tool for accessible DNS footprinting.

Task 1: Gather DNS Information using nslookup Command Line Utility and Online Tool

Step 1: Launch Command Prompt

• Logged in to the Windows 11 virtual machine.
• Opened Command Prompt to begin DNS interrogation.

Step 2: Basic nslookup Execution

• Ran the command:

  nslookup
  
  

• Output displayed the default DNS resolver:

  Server:  dns.google
  Address: 8.8.8.8