Rule 53

If you can think of it, someone's done it in the DNS

This list was first published as a tweet thread: https://twitter.com/pgl/status/1405614755000295427

Generic DNS tunnelling

https://www.daemon.be/maarten/dnstunnel.html

DNS as a filesystem - storing files in other server's DNS caches (from @Benjojo12)

https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/dns-filesystem-true-cloud-storage-dnsfs

DNS for configuration management (from @QuinnyPig)

https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/aws-morning-brief/whiteboard-confessional-route-53-db/

HTTP over DNS

https://github.com/veggiedefender/browsertunnel

SSH over DNS

http://ebnj.net/sshoverdns/

IP over DNS - iodine

https://code.kryo.se/iodine/

VPN over DNS - SlowDNS

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.in.troiddns

IP to ASN mapping via DNS

https://team-cymru.com/community-services/ip-asn-mapping/#dns

Wikipedia over DNS (from @davidgl)

https://dgl.cx/wikipedia-dns

Twitter over DNS

https://cdocs.menandmice.com/display/MM/DNS+Fun

DNS over Twitter - @1111Resolver

Getting external IP over DNS

dig o-o.myaddr.l.google.com @NS1.google.com TXT +short

DNS text adventure game (@craigmayhew)

https://github.com/craigmayhew/dns-adventure-game

Source code distribution via DNS

https://decss.zoy.org

UK postcode geolocation via Twitter

https://find.me.uk

Brand Indicators via DNS (@BrandIndicators)

https://bimi.agari.com/

Star Wars intro via DNS / traceroute

https://beaglenetworks.net/post/42707829171/star-wars-traceroute

File transfer via DNS - dnsfilexfer (@leonjza)

https://leonjza.github.io/blog/2014/03/11/dnsfilexfer---yet-another-take-on-file-transfer-via-dns/

File hash lookups (NSRL RDS DB) (@circl_lu)

https://gist.github.com/adulau/4191d44e30fc01df38f1d5fe605fa920#querying-the-hashlooku

Malware command and control via AAAA records (@johullrich / @sans_isc)

https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Command+and+Control+Channels+Using+%22AAAA%22+DNS+Re

Cobalt Strike DNS Beacon (via TXT, A, AAAA records)

https://cobaltstrike.com/help-dns-beacon

DNS as a key-value database

https://dnskv.com

Leap seconds tables via DNS (@fanf)

https://dotat.at/cgi/git/leapseconds.git/blob/HEAD:/syntax.md

Timezone data via DNS

dig london.europe.tz.dotat.at TYPE29818

Twitter via DDNS updates (@jpmens)

https://jpmens.net/2011/04/18/rfc-2136-ddns-updates-to-twitter/

MP3 streaming via DNS (@Manawyrm)

https://twitter.com/Manawyrm/status/1406276000191811592

French postcodes geolocation via DNS (@bortzmeyer) (h/t @gjherbiet)

https://www.bortzmeyer.org/dns-code-postal-lonlat.html

Blogging over DNS (@hiway)

https://github.com/hiway/txtrex

Geocaching via DNS (h/t @_sehaas)

https://twitter.com/_sehaas/status/1406308408316334087

Airport data and German zip codes via DNS (@jpmens)

https://jpmens.net/2020/10/04/airports-of-the-world/

File signing via DNS (@jpmens)

https://jpmens.net/2012/07/31/lightweight-file-signing-with-dns/

Job postings via DNS (@Cloudflare) (h/t u/wiiittttt on Reddit)

https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-story-of-a-little-dns-easter-egg/

Euro 2020 results via DNS / traceroute (@_sehaas)

traceroute6 http://euro2020.austrian.soccer

or

mtr http://euro2020.austrian.soccer

https://twitter.com/_sehaas/status/1408366254583332865

Contacts database via DNS

https://www.num.uk/protocol

Job ads via DNS (@DNSFilter)

host -t txt jobs.dnsfilter.com

Finding your closest root server via DNS (h/t @jschauma)

dig +short @f.root-servers.net hostname.bind chaos txt

DNS tunneling without a domain (from @iagox86)

https://github.com/iagox86/dnscat2

Bad Horse via DNS

traceroute bad.horse

From Dr Horrible's Sing-Along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O03k0DV2m1k