DNS Museum · 51 entries
Categories
Every entry, grouped by the way DNS is being used.
Traceroutes
7 entries- A predictable traceroute path uses PTR records on its routers to spell lines from “American Pie”, turning reverse DNS into a lyric display.
- A traceroute to bad.horse spells lyrics through reverse-DNS names; signed.bad.horse adds a separate Easter egg in its TLS certificate chain.
- A static traceroute uses reverse-DNS names to reveal a Christmas tree, with each hop adding another branch to the seasonal picture.
- A traceroute display used live Euro 2020 scores, pairing a controlled route with DNS names to turn network diagnostics into a changing scoreboard.
- An IPv6 traceroute uses reverse-DNS names to draw a hand; raising the hop limit reveals more of the picture one numbered hop at a time.
- A traceroute spells out lyrics from “Let It Snow” in the reverse-DNS names returned for each hop.
- A predictable static route sends probes through selected IP addresses whose PTR records spell a Star Wars story in ordinary traceroute output.
DNS over...
10 entries- DONUTS expands to “DNS over normal, unencrypted TCP streams”: a deliberately literal reminder that DNS can run over a simple stream transport.
- IRC carries hostname and IP mappings that a local cache and libc Name Service Switch use to resolve names without publishing them through DNS.
- A Mastodon bot connects federated social messaging with DNS queries and reports whether the returned DNS data passed DNSSEC validation.
- DialDNS lets a caller ask a recursive resolver questions by telephone, turning spoken interaction into a novel DNS client interface.
- This project carries DNS questions and answers inside ICMP ping packets, using ping as the transport for DNS lookups.
- A Signal conversation presents DNS questions and answers as secure messages, exposing the resolver exchange through a familiar chat interface.
- SMS carries a compact representation of DNS questions and replies, demonstrating a constrained alternative to the usual UDP or TCP exchange.
- A Telegram bot accepts a DNS question in chat and returns the resolver’s answer as a message, placing lookup behind a messaging interface.
- A short-lived social account accepted DNS lookup requests and posted answers, using a platform API as the client interface.
- XEP-0418 describes how XMPP can carry DNS requests and responses, bringing resolver lookups into a formal messaging extension.
Tools and toys
16 entries- txtrex stores blog posts in TXT records: query one name to list posts and another to retrieve a post, making publishing possible with DNS alone.
- A Reverse Polish calculator accepts operands in a DNS name and returns a dynamically computed answer, a small service you can query with dig.
- A carefully formed DNS query retrieves a geocaching clue in TXT data, turning the resolver into a lightweight interface for a field game.
- Players issue DNS queries as game actions and read story text in the answers; round-robin responses can add chance to the adventure.
- These TXT-record experiments return ASCII art, mazes, QR codes, music, and games, showing how one textual answer format can support many toys.
- The Drink DNS server returns current or next-day weather in TXT answers; encode a city and time in the queried name to retrieve the report.
- dns.toys exposes small utilities through crafted DNS names, including currency conversion, world time, IP echo, number-to-words, and usable CIDR range calculations.
- Drink is Stéphane Bortzmeyer’s experimental authoritative DNS server: query different names and record types for dynamic answers such as greetings, client addresses, and diagnostics.
- This comic imagines Google focusing on its 8.8.8.8 public resolver, a cultural snapshot of how visible public DNS became.
- A web client retrieves page content from DNS answers while a conventional server supplies the surrounding page, blurring lookup and content delivery.
- Team Cymru maps an IP address to its autonomous system number through a structured DNS query, giving network operators a scriptable routing lookup.
- A DNS LOC record publishes an approximate location for the International Space Station, updated every 15 minutes on a best-effort basis.
- A high performance DNS server that answers TXT queries with AI answers
- A resolver query reports the client address visible to the DNS service, which can differ from the address configured on the device.
- A DNS query triggers a Wikipedia lookup and returns the result in an answer, using DNS as a text retrieval path for clients with limited connectivity.
- Each DNS query submits a Wordle-style guess and the answer reports game state, expressing an interactive loop in short DNS messages.
Tunnelling
6 entries- Browsertunnel sends arbitrary browser data through DNS prefetch requests. The channel is one-way because browser JavaScript cannot read the DNS answers.
- DNS tunnelling encodes data in query names and answers to create a constrained communications channel, a pattern with both legitimate and harmful uses.
- dnscat2 provides an encrypted command-and-control channel over DNS, with support for shells, file transfers, and TCP port forwarding.
- FToDNS transfers files through DNS queries and answers, splitting data across a transport with strict size and timing limits. It does not implement the FTP protocol.
- iodine builds an IP tunnel between two endpoints over DNS, so other IP traffic can use the link, with low throughput and DNS-shaped constraints.
- The Android app SlowDNS presents a VPN carried over DNS, an inventive option for networks that allow DNS but restrict other traffic.
Other things
12 entries- An experimental chatbot accepts conversational requests as DNS lookups, trading a familiar interface for DNS-sized questions and answers.
- BIMI uses DNS records to point mail systems to brand logos; the talk notes that DMARC must be configured before the logo display can be used.
- CatDNS is an intentionally playful authoritative DNS server: ask it for a name and it answers with a cat-themed result.
- A Route 53 proposal puts machine configuration in DNS records, using lookups in place of tools such as Puppet, Ansible, or Chef.
- DNSKV is a generic public key-value service: names identify keys and DNS answers return values, backed by caches distributed across recursive resolvers.
- A NoSQL experiment treats names in a DNS zone as hierarchical keys and their records as values, while inheriting DNS caching and update semantics.
- DNSFS layers filesystem operations over DNS and resolver caches; its author demonstrated the design by streaming an MP3 through the DNS-backed filesystem.
- Toolkit for data exfiltration via DNS
- This experiment divides image data into DNS-sized fragments and reassembles them at the client, stretching a lookup protocol into bulk transfer.
- Malicious software can retrieve payload fragments stored in DNS TXT records, using DNS as a delivery channel. This is a defensive case study.
- A shell pipeline requests encoded audio fragments through DNS, rebuilds the bytes, and plays them: an intentionally inefficient media transport.
- NUM built a DNS data protocol with an SDK and npm modules; its Yellow Pages example retrieves structured company contacts through public resolver infrastructure.