Provided by: dnsdbq_2.6.0-2ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
dnsdbq — DNSDB query tool
SYNOPSIS
dnsdbq [-acdfgGhIjmqSsUv468] [-A timestamp] [-B timestamp] [-b bailiwick] [-D asn_domain]
[-i ip] [-J input_file] [-k sort_keys] [-L output_limit] [-l query_limit]
[-M max_count] [-N hex[/rrtype[,...]]] [-n name[/rrtype[,...]]] [-O offset]
[-p output_type] [-R hex[/rrtype[,...][/bailiwick]]]
[-r name[/rrtype[,...][/bailiwick]]] [-T transform[,...]] [-t rrtype[,...]]
[-u server_sys] [-V verb] [-0 function=thing]
DESCRIPTION
dnsdbq constructs and issues queries to Passive DNS systems which return data in the IETF
Passive DNS Common Output Format. It is commonly used as a production command line
interface to such systems.
dnsdbq displays responses in various formats. Its default query type is a "lookup" query.
As an option, it can issue a "summarize" query type. Different Passive DNS systems or
versions of those systems may implement different query features.
FARSIGHT SECURITY'S DNSDB
Farsight Security's "DNSDB" is one such Passive DNS system which is accessed by specifying
system "dnsdb".
You'll need to get an API key from Farsight to use dnsdbq with DNSDB.
Farsight's passive DNS infrastructure performs a complex process of "bailiwick
reconstruction" where an RRset's position within the DNS hierarchy is approximated. This
serves two purposes:
1. Provide context of the location of a given DNS record within the DNS hierarchy.
2. Prevent "untrustworthy" records that are a result of intentional or unintentional
cache poisoning attempts from being replicated by downstream consumers.
For example, given the fully qualified domain name www.dachshund.example.com, valid
bailiwicks would be dachshund.example.com, example.com, or com.
OPTIONS
-a enables ASINFO/CIDR annotation for IP addresses in A (IPv4 address) RRsets. The
metadata thus appended depends on which data source is given by -D.
-A timestamp
Specify a forward time fence. Only results seen by the passive DNS on or after this
time will be selected. See also -c. See the TIMESTAMP FORMATS section for more
information about this.
-B timestamp
Specify a backward time fence. Only results seen by the passive DNS sensor network on
or before this time will be selected. See also -c. See the TIMESTAMP FORMATS section
for more information about this.
-b bailiwick
specify bailiwick (only valid with -r queries).
-c by default, -A and -B (separately or together) will select partial overlaps of database
tuples and time search criteria. To match only completely bracketed tuples, add the -c
("completeness") flag (this is also known as "strict" mode). Can only be specified
once, and for reasons of geometry, affects both -A and -B if both are specified.
-D specify the data source for ASINFO/CIDR annotations, if enabled by -a. Default is
asn.routeviews.org, but you may wish to try aspath.routeviews.org.
-d enable debug mode. Repeat for more debug output.
-f specify batch lookup mode allowing one or more queries to be performed. Queries will
be read from standard input and are expected to be in one of the following formats:
- RRset (name) query: rrset/name/NAME[/RRTYPE[,...][/BAILIWICK]]
- RRset (raw) query: rrset/raw/HEX[/RRTYPE[,...][/BAILIWICK]]
- Rdata (name) query: rdata/name/NAME[/RRTYPE][,...]
- Rdata (IP address) query: rdata/ip/ADDR[,PFXLEN]
- Rdata (raw) query: rdata/raw/HEX[/RRTYPE][,...]
- Change query options: $OPTIONS {options}
Where options :==
[-A timestamp] [-B timestamp] [-c] [-g] [-G]
[-l query_limit] [-L output_limit] [-O offset]
$OPTIONS alone on a line allows command line options to be changed mid-batch. If no
options are given, the query parameters will be reset to those given on the command
line, if any, or else to defaults.
A line starting with a # will be ignored as a comment.
Any internal slash (/) or comma (,) characters within the search names of a batch entry
must be URL-encoded (for example, %2F or %2C). So, to search for the domain
"212.0/24.150.104.24.in-addr.arpa" the search string would be specified as
"212.0%2F150.104.24.in-addr.arpa".
For raw queries, the hex value is an even number of hexadecimal digits specifying a raw
octet string. The "raw" wire-format encodings are standardized. The embedding of these
in dnstable is documented in the dnstable-encoding(5) manual page. This topic is
explained in detail at <https://www.farsightsecurity.com/blog/txt-record/dnsdb-
rawhex-20161125>.
In batch lookup mode, each answer will be followed by a '--' marker, so that
programmatic users will know when it is safe to send the next lookup, or if lookups are
pipelined, to know when one answer has ended and another begun. This option cannot be
mixed with -n, -r, -R, or -i. See the EXAMPLES section for more information on how to
use -f.
If two -f options are given, then each answer will also be preceded by a '++' marker
giving the query string (as read from the batch input) in order to identify each answer
when a very large batch input is given, and the '--' marker will include an
error/noerror indicator and a short message describing the outcome. With two -f
options and also -m, answers can appear in a different order than the batched
questions, and the
-g return graveled results if available. The default is to return aggregated results
("rocks"). Gravel is a feature for providing Volume Across Time. Note that not all
Passive DNS system APIs support this feature, and not all time ranges contain granular
results ("gravel").
-G undo the effect of -g, this returning rocks rather than gravel. (Used in $OPTIONS in
batch files.)
-h emit usage and quit.
-I request information from the API server concerning the API key itself, which may
include rate limit, query quota, query allowance, or privilege levels; the output
format and content is dependent on the server_sys argument (see -u ) and upon the -p
argument. -I -p json prints the raw info. -I -p text prints the information in a more
understandable textual form, including converting any epoch integer times into UTC
formatted times.
-i ip
specify rdata ip ("right-hand side") query. The value is one of an IPv4 address, an
IPv6 address, an IPv4 network with prefix length, an IPv4 address range, or an IPv6
network with prefix length. If a network lookup is being performed, the delimiter
between network address and prefix length is a single comma (",") character rather than
the usual slash ("/") character to avoid clashing with the HTTP URI path name
separator. See EXAMPLES section for more information about separator substitution
rules.
-J input_file
opens input_file and reads newline-separated JSON objects therefrom, in preference to
-f (batch mode) or query mode. This can be used to reprocess the output from a prior
invocation which used -j (or -p json). Sorting, limits, and time fences will work.
Specification of a domain name, RRtype, Rdata, or offset is not supported at this time.
If input_file is "-" then standard input (stdin) will be read.
-j synonym for -p json.
-k sort_keys
when sorting with -s or -S, selects one or more comma separated sort keys, among
"first", "last", "duration", "count", "name", "type", and/or "data". The default order
is be "first,last,duration,count,name,type,data" (if sorting is requested.) Names are
sorted right to left (by TLD then 2LD etc). Data is sorted either by name if present,
or else by numeric value (e.g., for A and AAAA RRsets.) Several -k options can be
given after different -s and -S options, to sort in ascending order for some keys,
descending for others.
-l query_limit
query for that limit's number of responses. If specified as 0 then the DNSDB API server
will return the maximum limit of results allowed. If -l, is not specified, then the
query will not specify a limit, and the DNSDB API server may use its default limit.
-L output_limit
clamps the number of objects per response (under -[R|r|N|n|i|f]) or for all responses
(under -[fm|ff|ffm]) output to output_limit. If unset, and if batch and merge modes
have not been selected with the -f and -m options, then the -L output limit defaults to
the -l limit's value. Otherwise the default is no output limit.
-M max_count
for the summarize verb, stops summarizing when the count reaches that max_count, which
must be a positive integer. The resulting total count may exceed max_count as it will
include the entire count from the last RRset examined. The default is to not constrain
the maximum count. The number of RRsets summarized is also limited by the query_limit.
-m used only with -f, this causes multiple (up to ten) API queries to execute in parallel.
In this mode there will be no "--" marker, and the combined output of all queries is
what will be subject to sorting, if any. If two -f flags are specified with -m, the
output will not be merged, can appear in any order, will be sorted separately for each
response, and will have normal '--' and '++' markers. (See -f option above.)
-N hex[/rrtype[,...]]
specify raw rdata data ("right-hand side") query. Hex is as described above for -f.
-n name
specify rdata name ("right-hand side") query. The value is a DNS domain name in
presentation format, or a left-hand ("*.example.com") or right-hand ("www.example.*")
wildcard domain name. Note that left-hand wildcard queries are somewhat more expensive
than right-hand wildcard queries.
-O offset
to offset by #offset the results returned by the query. This gives you incremental
results transfers. Cannot be negative. The default is 0 which means no offset.
-p output_type
select output type. Specify:
text for presentation output meant to be human-readable. This is the default. dns
is a synonym, for compatibility with older programmatic callers.
json for newline delimited JSON output. See also <https://jsonlines.org/>.
csv for comma separated value output. This format is information losing, since it
cannot express multiple resource records that are in a single RRset. Instead,
each resource record is expressed in a separate line of output. See the
DNSDBQ_TIME_FORMAT environment variable for controlling how timestamps are
formatted for this option.
minimal outputs only the owner name or rdata, one per line and deduplicated; for use
by shell scripts.
-q makes the program reticent about warnings.
-R hex[/rrtype[,...][/bailiwick]]
specify raw rrset owner data ("left-hand side") query. Hex is as described above for
-f.
-r name[/type[,...][/bailiwick]]
specify RRset ("left-hand side") name query. See discussion in -n above as to the
format of and limitations on query names.
-s sort output in ascending key order. Limits (if any) specified by -l and -L will be
applied before and after sorting, respectively. In batch mode, the -f, -ff, and -ffm
option sets will cause each batch entry's result to be sorted independently, whereas
with -fm, all outputs will be combined before sorting. This means with -fm there will
be no output until after the last batch entry has been processed, due to store and
forward by the sort process.
-S sort output in descending key order. See discussion for -s above.
-T transform[,...]
specify one or more transforms to be applied to the output:
datefix always show dates in the format selected by the DNSDBQ_TIME_FORMAT environment
variable, not in database format.
reverse show the DNS owner name (rrname) in TLD-first order (so, COM.EXAMPLE rather
than EXAMPLE.COM).
chomp strip away the trailing dot (.) from the DNS owner name (rrname).
-t rrtype[,...]
specify the resource record type(s) desired. Default is ANY. If present, this option
should precede any -R, -r, -N, or -n options. This option is not allowed if the -i
option is present. Valid values include those defined in DNS RFCs, including ANY. A
special-case supported in DNSDB is ANY-DNSSEC, which matches on DS, RRSIG, NSEC,
DNSKEY, NSEC3, NSEC3PARAM, and DLV resource record types.
If multiple rrtype values are specified, each will be sent separately to the database
server, consuming quota if there is a quota. Such queries will be sent simultaneously
in parallel, which may have a load impact on the server.
-u server_sys
specifies the Passive DNS system and thus its syntax for RESTful URLs. Can be "dnsdb"
or "circl". The default is "dnsdb". See also environment variable DNSDBQ_SYSTEM.
-V verb
The verb to perform, i.e. the type of query, either "lookup" or "summarize". The
default is the "lookup" verb. As an option, you can specify the "summarize" verb,
which gives you an estimate of result size. At a glance, it provides information on
when a given domain name, IP address or other DNS asset was first-seen and last-seen by
the global sensor network, as well as the total sensor network observation count. This
verb respects the database limit (see -l) in that the resulting summary will only be of
rows that would have been returned by the "lookup" verb. See also -M.
-0 function=thing
This is a developer tool meant to feed automated testing systems.
-U turns off TLS certificate verification (unsafe).
-v report the version of dnsdbq and exit.
-4 use to force connecting to the DNSDB server via IPv4.
-6 use to force connecting to the DNSDB server via IPv6.
-8 Normally dnsdbq requires that -n or -r arguments are 7-bit ASCII clean. Non-ASCII
values should be queried using PUNYCODE IDN encoding. This -8 option allows using
arbitrary 8 bit values.
TIMESTAMP FORMATS
Timestamps may be one of following forms.
- positive unsigned integer : in Unix epoch format.
- negative unsigned integer : negative offset in seconds from now.
- YYYY-MM-DD [HH:MM:SS] : in absolute form, in UTC time, as DNSDB does its fencing
using UTC time.
- %uw%ud%uh%um%us : the relative form with explicit labels (w=weeks, d=days,
h=hours, m=minutes, s=seconds). Calculates offset from UTC time, as DNSDB does
its fencing using UTC time.
When using batch mode with the second or forth cases, using relative times to now, the value
for "now" is set when dnsdbq starts.
A few examples of how to use timefencing options.
# tuples ending after Aug 22, 2015 (midnight)
$ dnsdbq ... -A 2015-08-22
# tuples starting before Jan 22, 2013 (midnight)
$ dnsdbq ... -B 2013-01-22
# tuples starting or ending from 2015 (midnight to midnight)
$ dnsdbq ... -B 2016-01-01 -A 2015-01-01
# tuples ending after 2015-08-22 14:36:10
$ dnsdbq ... -A "2015-08-22 14:36:10"
# tuples ending within the last 60 minutes
$ dnsdbq ... -A "-3600"
# tuples ending after "just now"
$ date +%s
1485284066
$ dnsdbq ... -A 1485284066
# batch mode with only tuples ending within last 60 minutes,
# even if feeding inputs to dnsdbq in batch mode takes hours.
$ dnsdbq -f ... -A "-3600"
EXAMPLES
A few examples of how to specify IP address information.
# specify a single IPv4 address
$ dnsdbq ... -i 128.223.32.35
# specify an IPv4 CIDR
$ dnsdbq ... -i 128.223.32.0/24
# specify a range of IPv4 addresses
$ dnsdbq ... -i 128.223.32.0-128.223.32.32
Perform an RRset query for a single A record for farsightsecurity.com. The output is
serialized as JSON and is piped to the jq program (a command-line JSON processor, see
<https://stedolan.github.io/jq/>) for pretty printing.
$ dnsdbq -r farsightsecurity.com/A -l 1 -j -a | jq .
{
"count": 6350,
"time_first": 1380123423,
"time_last": 1427869045,
"rrname": "farsightsecurity.com.",
"rrtype": "A",
"bailiwick": "farsightsecurity.com.",
"rdata": [
"66.160.140.81"
],
"dnsdbq-rdata": [
{
"asinfo": [ 6939 ],
"cidr": "66.160.128.0/18",
"rdata": "66.160.140.81"
}
]
}
Note the "dnsdbq-rdata" element added due to the use of the -a option.
Perform a batched operation for a several different rrset and rdata queries. Output is again
serialized as JSON and redirected to a file.
$ cat batch.txt
rrset/name/wikipedia.org
rrset/name/dmoz.org
rrset/raw/0366736902696f00/A
rdata/name/pbs.org
rdata/name/opb.org
rdata/ip/198.35.26.96
rdata/ip/23.21.237.0,24
rdata/raw/0b763d73706631202d616c6c
$ dnsdbq -j -f < batch.txt > batch-output.json
$ head -1 batch-output.json | jq .
{
"count": 2411,
"zone_time_first": 1275401003,
"zone_time_last": 1484841664,
"rrname": "wikipedia.org.",
"rrtype": "NS",
"bailiwick": "org.",
"rdata": [
"ns0.wikimedia.org.",
"ns1.wikimedia.org.",
"ns2.wikimedia.org."
]
}
ASINFO/CIDR LOOKUPS
When the -a option is used, every address seen in a response will cause a DNS lookup under
the domain specified by the -D option. This stream of DNS queries might be an intolerable
information leak depending on the nature of the underlying research, and it could also lead
to unusably bad performance depending on the placement of your configured recursive DNS
service.
For best results, always use an on-server or on-LAN recursive DNS service, and consider
whether to configure that recursive DNS service to be a "stealth secondary" of the zone
denoted by the -D option. For the default -D value, more information can be found online at
http://archive.routeviews.org/dnszones/.
Use of DNS lookups to retrieve ASINFO/CIDR metadata can be extremely fast and surveillance-
free, but some attention must be paid in order to obtain that outcome. For occasional low-
volume use, your current recursive DNS placement and configuration is probably good enough.
Note that while Passive DNS information is historical, the ASINFO/CIDR annotations made
possible using the -a and -D options are based on current information. Internet routing
system information may have changed since the DNS data was recorded. More information about
this can be found online at https://github.com/dnsdb/dnsdbq/blob/master/README.
FILES
~/.isc-dnsdb-query.conf, ~/.dnsdb-query.conf, /etc/isc-dnsdb-query.conf, or
/etc/dnsdb-query.conf: configuration file which can specify the API key and other variables.
The first of these files which is readable will be used, alone, in its entirety. See the
DNSDBQ_CONFIG_FILE environment variable which can specify a different configuration file to
use.
The variables which can be set in the configuration file are as follows:
DNSDBQ_SYSTEM contains the default value for the -u option described above. The
last setting found for any given variable will prevail.
DNSDB_API_KEY, APIKEY contains the user's DNSDB apikey (no default).
DNSDB_SERVER contains the URL of the DNSDB API server (default is
https://api.dnsdb.info), and optionally the URI prefix for the
database. The default URI prefix for system "dnsdb2" is
"/dnsdb/v2/lookup"; the default for "dnsdb1" is "/lookup".
CIRCL_AUTH, CIRCL_SERVER
enable access to a passive DNS system compatible with the CIRCL.LU
system.
ENVIRONMENT
DNSDBQ_CONFIG_FILE specifies the configuration file to use, overriding the internal search
list.
DNSDB_API_KEY contains the user's apikey. The older APIKEY environment variable has
been retired, though it can still be used in the configuration file.
Note that environment variables are unprotected, and putting one's API
key in an unprotected place could cause inadvertant sharing.
DNSDB_SERVER contains the URL of the DNSDB API server, and optionally a URI prefix to
be used (default is "/lookup"). If not set, the configuration file is
consulted.
DNSDBQ_TIME_FORMAT controls how human readable date times are presented in the output. If
"iso" (the default) then ISO8601 (RFC3339) format is used, for example;
"2018-09-06T22:48:00Z". If "csv" then an Excel CSV compatible format is
used; for example, "2018-09-06 22:48:00".
EXIT STATUS
Success (exit status zero) occurs if a connection could be established to the back end
database server, even if no records matched the search criteria. Failure (exit status
nonzero) occurs if no connection could be established, perhaps due to a network or service
failure, or a configuration error such as specifying the wrong server hostname.
SEE ALSO
dig(1), jq(1), libcurl(3), dnstable-encoding(5)
February 11, 2023