How DNS Spoofing Puts Your Data at Risk
and How to Protect Yourself

In DNS spoofing, hackers will modify DNS records that are directing web traffic in a way that users will now be sent to fraudulent websites that may seem legitimate. Basically, DNS is the internet's phone book. When someone types in the web address in a browser, the DNS is responsible for translating that human-readable address like "www.amazon.com" into an IP address that the user's computer can use to reach that server.

However, DNS can be tricked. In DNS spoofing, the cybercriminals place false DNS records in the DNS server cache, which resolves and directs users to websites controlled by the attacker. These fraudulent websites look genuine, impersonating trusted bank sites or e-commerce outlets, setup to steal confidential information, like usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and even personal identification numbers.

Though DNS spoofing and DNS phishing are often part and parcel of the same attack, they are still different. So, here is a breakdown of both definitions to highlight their differences:

• DNS Spoofing: This refers to altering DNS records in some manner to redirect users to fraudulent websites. Spoofing is the first part of the attack whereby the hacker controls where users are being sent. Consider it as compromising a technique leading web traffic to its destination.
• DNS Phishing: This comes into play the moment a hacker has successfully altered DNS records (through spoofing). Phishing refers to creating a fake website that resembles a legitimate one. The goal of this site is to deceive users into entering sensitive data, such as login credentials or credit card numbers.

In brief, while DNS spoofing is that part of the attack which lies in the altering of a user's address, DNS phishing is a derivation of the counterfeit act that concerns the creation and

operation of a fake fraudulent site that's intended for compromising the data of unsuspecting users who believed they were on a legitimate platform.

To better understand how DNS spoofing works, let’s go step by step. Here’s an example:

• 1. User Requests a website: Imagine a user wants to visit a bank’s website, such as "www.bankofamerica.com." They type the address into their browser.
• 2. DNS Request Sent to Server: The user’s device sends a DNS query to the DNS server to resolve the domain name "www.bankofamerica.com" into an IP address. The DNS server is supposed to resolve to the original, correct IP address of the actual site.
• 3. Cache Poisoning by the Attacker: In a DNS spoofing attack, the attacker intercepts a DNS request or poisons the DNS cache with false records. The server does not respond with the IP address it's supposed to for "www.bankofamerica.com;" instead, it returns a response with a wrong one pointing to a malicious website controlled by the attacker.
• 4. User Redirection: The compromised DNS server then redirects the user to a fake website which appears to be genuine. The user might not notice the difference, especially if the phishing page mimics the bank’s login page.
• 5. Data Theft: The user, believing the site is legitimate, enters their sensitive information—username, password, credit card number—into the fake site. This information is from derived from the attacker and can be used maliciously. This is very hard to detect as the fake website resembles the real one very closely and the user remains ignorant that his DNS query has been altered.

The DNC Democratic National Committee (DNC) Hack of 2016, a widely known incident of DNS Spoofing. Hackers used this technique as part of a multi-layered attack to infiltrate the DNC’s network. By redirecting staff members into accessing a fraudulent website, such as a phishing one, it would lead employees in revealing secrets or log in credentials. These logins served as an entry point to the internal network leading to one of the most famous data leaks in U.S. political history.

The attack showed that DNS Spoofing when combined with phishing is more devastating. The stolen information resulted in reputational damage and financial loss of the organization.

Let’s explore the different techniques attackers use to execute DNS spoofing:

1. Cache Poisoning

• Mechanism: Targeting at caches in the DNS server, attackers inject malicious entries into the database of the server to corrupt its responses. After cache poisoning, the server can only give wrong information routing to fraudulent sites.
• Impact: Time lost visiting such fraudulent sites unknowingly is valuable to the attacker for harvesting the sensitive information.
• Detection & Prevention: Cached attacks on DNS can be countered by DNSSEC for authentication of DNS responses and repudiation of attempts at tampering.

2. Man-in-the-Middle attacks

• How it Works: When the attacker manages to intercept DNS requests and responses between user and DNS resolver, he has the power to modify response and ultimately redirect a user to the malicious page.
• Impact: Stealing sensitive information such as login credentials, financial, and personal details. This may include installing either DNS over HTTPS (DoH) or DNS over TLS (DoT) for encryption of DNS queries hence making them undetectable.

3. Compromised DNS Server

• Mechanism: Attackers acquire a DNS server and modify its records so that users are directed to counterfeit websites. These attacks are mostly because of exploiting vulnerabilities in the server, or an unauthorized access.
• Effects: The attacker can influence a major portion of web traffic at a time but affects many at once.
• Detection and Prevention: Audit and patch the DNS server often and multi-factor authentication would be enforced to prevent unauthorized access.

4. ARP Spoofing along with DNS Spoofing

• Mechanism: Impersonating a legitimate DNS server using ARP spoofing on a local network and then inject fraudulent DNS records.
• Impact: It causes Man-in-the-Middle attacks and allows the attacker to steal user credentials and sensitive data through DNS phishing.
• Detection & Prevention: Use static ARP entries to prevent devices from poisoning the ARP cache of the network.

5. Rogue DHCP Servers

• How It Works: A rogue DHCP server assumes the identity of the DNS server for the devices connected. This leads to the interception of DNS requests from the attacker and redirection of users toward phishing domains.
• Impact: The attacker has full control of the DNS traffic, thus enabling phishing and data stealing.
• Detection and Prevention: Configure the DHCP in network devices to detect and shut down unauthorized DHCP servers.

6. DNS Rebinding

• How It Works: The attacker resolves a domain to their server and then changes the DNS record to resolve users to internal IP addresses, thus bypassing firewalls and security mechanisms.
• Impact: Internal network resources have become exposed to outside attacks leading to theft or manipulation of data within internal systems.
• Detection & Prevention: Firewalls, including network segmentation, are used to block unauthorized access to the internal resources.

7. Compensation of DNS Over HTTPS (DoH)

• How It Works: Even though DNS Over HTTPS (DoH) encrypts the traffic of DNS, attackers misuse such traffic and redirect users to their malicious servers for phishing.
• Impact: Attackers can steal user's private data, infect the system with malware, and redirect it to phishing sites.
• Detection & Prevention: For the averting of this risk, Use trusted DoH providers and monitor the encrypted traffic for abnormalities.

A multi-layered approach to security will be required to protect against DNS spoofing and phishing attacks. A full account of measures to be taken for data protection is given here:

• 1. Switch to Secure DNS Servers: You can always pick from a few good trustworthy DNS servers such as Google Public DNS or Cloudflare DNS. They keep the malicious domains filtered and provide you better DNS resolution, helping to protect from DNS spoofing.
• 2. Enable DNS Security Extensions: Adding a layer of cryptographic signatures in DNSSEC to DNS responses allows you to check if the data received is legitimate or not tampered use-wise. This works out very well to prevent DNS spoofing attacks.
• 3. Data Encrypt with VPN: A VPN will lock away all your internet traffic and all activities that relate to it, DNS queries included. This all work to protect against interception and modification of DNS traffic by the attacker. By routing the packages through a secure server, the VPN ensures that no one tampers with your DNS requests.
• 4. Clear Your DNS Cache Often: It helps to clear any possibly poisoned DNS records when one clears the DNS cache manually or automatically. Therefore, have your device set for regular cache clearing or do it manually from time to time.
• 5.Observe Network Activity for Unusual Patterns: Using the tools available for monitoring the network to look out for anomalous behavior involving DNS network traffic. An unexpected response from a DNS server could be signs that an attack is in progress.

Impacts due to DNS spoofing could be hazardous and far-reaching downstream, employing factors affecting both personnel and corporate business establishments as follows:

• 1. Identity Theft

  All the information that could be regarded as social security numbers, email accounts, and other forms of IDs could be obtained.

  It has the potential of becoming fraudulent data used for acts of fraud or traded on the dark web.

• 2. Financial Loss

  From banking sites, hackers are targeting login credentials being taken out or credit card info. With the processed data misused on fraudulent transactions, it’s quite a large monetary loss.

• 3. Malware Infections

  With DNS Spoofing, one can forward users to malicious sites carrying malware. Once the device is infected, reprisals for further DNS phishing attacks could follow.

• 4. Damaged Reputation

  Witnessing DNS Spoofing attacks could really ruin an organization. First and foremost, the loss of reputation and customer trust because of the compromise of the DNS server. That would likely be followed by losses incurred due to lawsuits for stolen customer data.

DNS spoofing and phishing constitute grave cyber threats that could have dire implications. However, prevention is better than cure; an understanding of the operating mechanism of any such attacks and subsequent implementation of preventive measures such as DNSSEC, VPNs, and secure DNS server would be vital. Proactive cautioning regarding identifying anomalies and possible weaknesses on the network from the users' end will help secure sensitive information in the long term.