Domain name (DNS name): what it is and how it is attacked
The name the organisation owns, and the account at the registrar that controls it.
Also known as
- DNS name
- registrar
- domain registration
- registrant
- domain record
Typing any of them into the editor finds this object.
Why it matters on a security diagram
Whoever controls the registration controls the mail, the website and every certificate that can be issued for the name. It is usually held in an account nobody has looked at for years.
How it gets attacked, and what reduces it
How it gets attacked
- The registrar account, which redirects mail and web without touching the network at all
- Expiry, which achieves the same outcome by accident
- A similar name registered by somebody else and used in correspondence
What reduces it
- Lock the registration against transfer and put a phishing-resistant second factor on the registrar account
- Own the renewal as a named responsibility with a calendar entry, not a card that might decline
- Watch for names registered close to yours, which is usually the first move of a fraud
Where it sits
- Group
- Network · The paths traffic travels along.
- Whose side, by default
- Ours · Belongs to the organisation the diagram is about.
- Catalogue identifier
- domain-name
Reviewed . CC BY 4.0.
Others in network
- The internetWAN · public networkEverything outside your organisation's control.
- Routergateway · layer 3Sends information from one network to another, the way a junction sends cars down different roads.
- Switchlayer 2 · LAN switchConnects the devices inside one building or floor, passing each message only to the machine it is addressed to.
- Remote access gatewayVPN · VPN concentrator · remote access · Citrix · NetScaler · Ivanti · Pulse Secure · Fortinet · FortiGate · Palo Alto · GlobalProtect · SonicWall · AnyConnectThe door staff use to reach the internal network from outside.
- Address rangeCIDR · subnet · IP rangeA group of numbered addresses on a network, written as a single line such as 192.0.2.0/24 rather than listed one by one.
- Internet network operatorASN · autonomous system · AS number · BGP network · peeringOne organisation's own network on the internet, identified by a number so every other network knows whose it is.
The network group lists all 7 of them side by side.
Domain name on your own diagram
Open the editor, press N, and type DNS name. The object is placed and connected to whatever was selected, and Tab adds the next one already joined to it. Nothing is uploaded: the page is served with a Content Security Policy that forbids the browser from making any outbound request at all.
Open the diagram maker