Domain hijackers

[ivor.brands]

Just a quick warning to everyone. I just received an abuse mail from my registrar. To my surprise, a newly registered domain was hosting an illegal torrent site!

I regged the domain, already set the nameserver to Cloudflare, but did not yet add the domain to my account. This was about 3 weeks ago.

Seems the torrent boys are actively searching for these type of domains so they can add them to their own accounts.

After adding the domain to my account I was appointed different nameservers, so that would probably solve the problem.

[sdayman]

@ivor.brands

already set the nameserver to Cloudflare, but did not yet add the domain to my account

Can you please explain this? How would you know which name servers to use if you didn’t add the domain to your account?

[thedaveCA]

The nameservers don’t matter. Remember that all of Cloudflare’s nameservers will answer queries immediately, not just the specifically named servers?

Cloudflare is effectively paused, all records will be returned in state, and Cloudflare will eventually remove the site if it isn’t activated by changing the nameservers, but in the meantime, it will resolve.

[cloonan]

@ivor.brands

quick warning

+1

Do not point to Cloudflare name servers without having your domain signed up in your account first. When you point to Cloudflare name servers without claiming the site first (or the site is deleted), you are effectively opening up DNS control to whomever signs up the domain first or re-signs the zone on our platform. The fix is to add the zone to your account first and then point it to your Cloudflare assigned name servers.

From:

Community Tip - Best Practices to Address DNS Hijacking

Issue In DNS hijacking, the attacker redirects queries to a different domain name server. This can be done either with malware or with the unauthorized modification of a DNS server. Try the suggestions in this Community Tip for best practices for dealing with DNS hijacking. Background hi·jack /ˈhīˌjak/ verb past tense: hijacked; past participle: hijacked unlawfully seize (an aircraft, ship, or vehicle) in transit and force it to go to a different destination or use it for one’s own purpo…