DNS

Prompt

DNS is what enables us to access much of the internet without remembering IP addresses, analyze the network packet capture to understand more about DNS.

You can read this guide to learn more about computer networking.

DNS.pcap0.9KB

Walk-Through

This challenge evaluates the user’s ability to understand a packet capture containing network traffic using the DNS protocol. Use Wireshark or, if provided, the web-based CloudShark tool to solve the challenge.

Background

The DNS (Domain Name Service) protocol enables a system that allows devices to lookup the IP address of a domain name. This is useful because, as humans, it is much easier for us to remember “google.com” instead of the specific IP address that you should use when you want to reach any website’s services.

All of the questions and answers in this challenge are specific to the DNS protocol, so it may be helpful to learn more about DNS through our video explanation or on the web:

Guide

Questions 1 and 2 can be solved by looking for a packet with “Standard query” in the info column (packet #4). Once found, expanding the packet dissectors for Domain Name System (DNS) will yield the answers.

This is a partial screenshot of the Network capture in Cloudshark. Notice that packet 4 has DNS under the “Protocol” column. The answers have been redacted by white shapes with red outlines.
This is a partial screenshot of the Network capture in Cloudshark. Notice that packet 4 has DNS under the “Protocol” column. The answers have been redacted by white shapes with red outlines.

Questions 3 – 5 can be solved by looking for a packet with “Standard query response” in the info column (packet #5). When you click on the packet, it will say “(response)” next to the DNS portion of the frame (indicated in the image below with a red circle). Once found, expand the packet dissectors for the ‘Answers’ section under DNS.

This is the output of packet 5. In order to find the answer to question 3, you will need to count the number of entries in the answer section. This answer is not shown. The answers have been redacted.
This is the output of packet 5. In order to find the answer to question 3, you will need to count the number of entries in the answer section. This answer is not shown. The answers have been redacted.

Other Resources to Learn about DNS:

https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/what-is-dns/

https://aws.amazon.com/route53/what-is-dns/

Questions

1. What is the type of the DNS query requested?

2. What domain was requested?

3. How many items were in the response?

4. What is the TTL for all of the DNS records?

5. What is the IP address for the "welcome" subdomain?

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