UltraDNS Enterprise Security (first-look)

First look at the propritory DNS people are talking about

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Architecture Deep Dive
3. Attack Scenarios & Historical Vulnerabilities
4. Proactive Defense Strategies
5. AI-Driven Threat Detection (YARA + Elastic)
6. Shodan & OSINT Reconnaissance
7. Penetration Testing Methodology
8. Comparative Analysis
9. References

1. Overview

UltraDNS is a proprietary, anycast-based authoritative DNS service optimized for enterprises requiring:

• Sub-10ms global resolution via 200+ PoPs
• FPGA-accelerated DDoS mitigation (Layer 3-7)
• Zero-downtime SLA with DNSSEC enforcement

Key Use Cases:

• Financial institutions (e.g., Mastercard’s payment routing)
• Government agencies (DoD’s .mil domains)
• Streaming media (Netflix’s regional redirection)

2. Architecture Deep Dive

Core Components

graph LR
  A[User Query] --> B[Anycast PoP]
  B --> C{Query Analysis}
  C -->|Legit| D[Authoritative Response]
  C -->|Malicious| E[Scrubbing Center]
  E --> F[Block/Sinkhole]

Data Flow:

1. Edge Nodes: Linux-based, tuned for 2M QPS/node (net.core.rmem_max=16777216)
2. Threat Intelligence: Real-time feeds from Neustar’s Security Operations Center (SOC)
3. GeoIP Routing: Custom MaxMind integration with 3ms latency-based failover

Proprietary Protocols:

• NXDOMAIN rate limiting (patented) to combat DNS amplification attacks
• EDNS Client Subnet obfuscation to prevent resolver fingerprinting

3. Attack Scenarios & Historical Vulnerabilities

A. Documented Exploits

B. Zero-Day Scenarios

1. Anycast Poisoning

• How: BGP hijacking + DNS cache injection
• Indicators:
  • Sudden TTL deviations (>300ms) from trusted PoPs
  • Unusual ANY query spikes (YARA rule below)

2. FPGA Firmware Exploit

• How: Malformed TCP DNS packets triggering buffer overflow
• Detection:
  • alert dns any any -> any 53 (msg:"FPGA Exploit Attempt"; content:"|01 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 01|"; depth:10;)

4. Proactive Defense Strategies

For UltraDNS Clients

1. DNSSEC Hardening

# Verify DNSSEC chain
dig +dnssec example.com @ns1.ultradns.net

2. API Security

• Enforce mutual TLS (mTLS) for UltraDNS API
• Rotate keys using HashiCorp Vault

3. DDoS Mitigation

// named.conf
options {
    rate-limit { responses-per-second 50; };
    allow-transfer { none; };
};

5. AI-Driven Threat Detection

YARA Rules for Elastic AI

A. Zero-Day Detection

rule UltraDNS_ZeroDay {
  meta:
    author = "SOC_Team"
    severity = "Critical"
  strings:
    $nxdomain_spike = "NXDOMAIN count >1000/s" 
    $fpga_anomaly = "TCP DNS packet.len >512"
  condition:
    any of them and dns.query == "*.ultradns.net"
}

B. DDoS Signature

rule UltraDNS_DDoS {
  strings:
    $any_query_flood = "ANY queries >5000/s"
    $ecs_spoofing = "EDNS Client Subnet mismatch"
  condition:
    all of them
}

Elastic Integration

// Example Kibana alert
{
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "must": [
        { "match": { "event.category": "dns" } },
        { "range": { "dns.query.count": { "gte": 5000 }}}
      ]
    }
  }
}

6. Shodan & OSINT Recon

Live Hunting:

# Find exposed AXFR servers
shodan search 'port:53 "axfr" hostname:"ultradns.net"' --fields ip_str,org

Passive DNS:

# Historical resolution data
curl "https://api.shodan.io/dns/domain/example.com?key=API_KEY"

7. Penetration Testing

1. Zone Transfer Testing

dig @ns1.ultradns.net example.com AXFR +nocookie

2. API Fuzzing

import requests
headers = {"X-API-Key": "invalid"}
response = requests.post("https://api.ultradns.com/zones", headers=headers)
assert response.status_code != 200  # Expect 403

8. Comparative Analysis

9. References

1. Neustar Security Patents
2. CVE Database
3. Elastic DNS Detection Guide

Appendix: Sample Attack PCAP

Available at: https://malware-traffic-analysis.net/2023/ultradns-ddos.pcap

To-Do:

• Deploy YARA rules in Elastic SIEM
• Schedule quarterly BGP hijacking drills
• Validate DNSSEC chain-of-trust
• OSINT harvest UltraDNS developer github pages

🔝 Back to Top