As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, cyber attackers are constantly finding new ways to manipulate and hijack the internet. One such attack is DNS poisoning, which is a deceitful cyber tactic that hackers use to divert online traffic to phishing websites and false web servers. It’s a spoofing attack in which hackers assume the identity of another device, client, or user, making it easier to intercept protected information or disrupt regular web traffic flow. Hackers can use several malicious methods to execute DNS poisoning, such as directly hijacking a DNS server, machine-in-the-middle attacks, DNS cache poisoning via spam-like phishing emails, installing a virus onto visitors’ PCs or routers, and placing a worm to spread the damage to other devices.
To fully comprehend how DNS poisoning works, it’s essential to understand some concepts and context on how the internet delivers visitors to various domains. DNS poisoning is often confused with DNS spoofing, but they have a distinction between the two. DNS poisoning is a technique attackers use to compromise DNS data and substitute it with a malicious redirection. The end effect of DNS poisoning is DNS spoofing, in which a poisoned cache leads users to the malicious website. DNS resolvers are used to obtain the IP address connected to a domain name, and DNS caching keeps track of the answers to IP address requests for a specific period.
Hackers can poison DNS caches by specifically acquiring access to a DNS server to change its directory to route the domain name users enter to a different, inaccurate IP address. They can do this by imitating a server, tying up the server, or exploiting open ports. DNS poisoning is dangerous because once a device has been compromised, it can be challenging to rectify the issue since the device defaults to returning to the illicit site. The risks of DNS poisoning include malware and viruses, data theft, security blockers, censorship, and ARP poisoning.
To stay safe from DNS poisoning, it’s crucial to have DNS security solutions that help provide computing power to customers and facilitate their web-based traffic. It’s also essential to be aware of the threats and risks that can affect users and take necessary precautions to avoid DNS poisoning attacks.
