TXTing 101

Finding Security Issues in the Long Tail of DNS TXT Records

Conference paper (2020)

Authors

Olivier van Der Toorn University of Twente
Roland van Rijswijk‑Deij University of Twente
Martina Lindorfer Technische Universität Wien
Anna Sperotto University of Twente
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Published Date

2020

Language

English

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Abstract

The DNS TXT resource record is the one with the most flexibility for its contents, as it is a largely unstructured. Although it might be the ideal basis for storing any form of text-based information, it also poses a security threat, as TXT records can also be used for malicious and unintended practices. Yet, TXT records are often overlooked in security research. In this paper, we present the first structured study of the uses of TXT records, with a specific focus on security implications. We are able to classify over 99.54% of all TXT records in our dataset, finding security issues including accidentally published private keys and exploit delivery attempts. We also report on our lessons learned during our large-scale, systematic analysis of TXT records.

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