DNS protocol and enrichment

DNS is a critical protocol that translates human-readable domain names into machine-readable IP addresses, facilitating the seamless communication of devices on the internet. A DNS transaction involves a series of steps, and the data is encapsulated in DNS packets. In Figure 7.1, you can see a diagrammatic representation of the DNS structure:

Figure 7.1 – A sample DNS protocol packet

Here’s a breakdown of the important components of a DNS data packet shown in Figure 7.1:

• Header:
  • Identification: A 16-bit field that helps match responses with the corresponding queries
  • Flags: Various control flags, including query/response indicators, recursion desired, recursion available, and so on
  • Question count: Indicates the number of questions in the question section
  • Answer, authority, and additional resource record counts: Indicates the number of records in each of these sections
• Query:
  • QNAME: The domain name being queried...