Awesome

madns: the DNS server for pentesters

Dependencies & Requirements

• go language
• go dns package
• A domain you own

Installation on Linux

Install go

wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.17.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.17.5.linux-amd64.tar.gz

Add go to your environment/PATH

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin:$HOME/go/bin' >> ~/.profile
source ~/.profile

Install madns (installs to ~/go/bin/madns)

go install github.com/awgh/madns@latest

Create madns-config based off template

cp ~/go/pkg/mod/github.com/awgh/madns@*/madns-config.json.example ./madns-config.json

Setup madns config

Edit the madns-config.json file, according to the following instructions.

Port

Standard DNS port, only change if you know your setup differs.

"Port": 53

Dealing with systemd-resolved

If your system is running systemd-resolved (common for Ubuntu), you will have to follow these instructions to free up port 53: https://medium.com/@niktrix/getting-rid-of-systemd-resolved-consuming-port-53-605f0234f32f

Handlers

This is where you define the domain/subdomain to trigger your email notification.

Each handler has a trigger portion, which describes the (sub)domains that it will handle, and either a Redirect command or a Respond command. You must have a Redirect or a Respond command in each handler, but not both!

Additionally, handlers can have a NotifyEmail instruction, which notify you by email when the handler is invoked. They can also use the NotifySlack instruction, which sends the same notification to a Slack channel via webhooks.

. is the default DNS handler, if a query doesn't match any other handler it will use this handler.

Redirect handlers

Redirect commands will redirect the request to an upstream DNS server. Redirect commands require the IP address and the port, like "8.8.8.8:53".

Respond handlers

Respond commands will respond with a fixed response. Respond commands only need the IP address or the domain name (for a CNAME). IP addresses can be either IPv4 or IPv6, and will generate an A/AAAA record accordingly.

Examples

The following example is a catch-all handler that will redirect requests not handled by another handler to another DNS Server, in this case 8.8.8.8:

".": {
        "Redirect": "8.8.8.8:53"
        "NotifyEmail": "youremail@domain.com"
     },

Now you’ll want to create a subdomain that will trigger when a DNS lookup is performed on it for testing double blind XXE/SQLi/etc. It can be useful to setup an email with a +filterkeyword to make it easier to tell which handler fired when you get a successful hit.

In the following example, the triggering domain will always respond with a fixed address and also notify you of the hit by email:

"your.triggering.domain": { 
        "Respond": "192.168.1.1", 
        "NotifyEmail": "youremail+filterkeyword@domain.com"
        }

SMTP Configuration (Optional)

If you want to use the NotifyEmail feature, you have to set the SMTP configuration values.

"SmtpUser":"yourburneremail@gmail.com",
"SmtpPassword":"<password to yourburneremail>",
"SmtpServer":"smtp.gmail.com:587",
"SmtpDelay":30,

The SmtpDelay parameter determines how many seconds madns will batch up alerts into a single email. By default, this is set to 1 minute, so there will be a 1 minute delay before the first email is sent unless the SmtpDelay is set.

Gmail SMTP enable less-secure apps

So gmail does that whole security thing and won't let madns log in and perform SMTP unless you enable less secure apps. https://www.google.com/settings/security/lesssecureapps

Start madns

If you're listening to the default port 53 (or anything lower than 1024):

sudo madns -c madns-config.json &

For ports above 1024:

madns -c madns-config.json &

Configure your domain

Add an subdomain record (an A record) in your DNS management section of your domain to point to the IP address that madns is running on. For example:

Type		Name			Value				TTL
A		<special>		<ip-to-madns-server>		7200
NS		<subdomain>		<special.domain>		7200

Also ensure that incoming/outgoing traffic on port 53 is open and outgoing SMTP traffic is allowed on your box.

Test madns

Get the nameserver registered for your domain

dig domain -t NS

Use that nameserver to query your subdomain

dig @<nameserver.from.previous.dig> subdomain.domain -t NS

If all is well you should see something like

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;<subdomain.domain.> IN    NS

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
.<subdomain.domain>. 259200 IN NS   <special.domain.>
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
<special.domain.>          3600    IN      A       <ip.of.host.running.madns>

Now test with curl

curl subdomain.subdomain.domain

On the madns server you see notifications to stdout that it hit the Handler and sent an email such as:

2017/09/21 11:24:37 sent email to xxe+dns@hotmail.com

systemd service file

You can set up madns to run as a systemd server which starts on boot.

Run the following commands to install madns in /opt and create a systemd service file for it.

sudo mkdir -p /opt/madns/
sudo cp ~/go/bin/madns /opt/madns/
sudo cp madns-config.json /opt/madns/
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/madns.service

Put the following contents into the madns.service file and save it:

[Unit]
Description=madns DNS server
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/opt/madns
ExecStart=/opt/madns/madns -c madns-config.json
ExecStop=/bin/kill $MAINPID
KillMode=process
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5s
Type=simple

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=madns.service

Finally, reload the systemd config files and start/enable madns:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable madns
sudo systemctl start madns