Understanding the Implementation and Security Implications of Protective DNS Services

Abstract

Domain names are often registered and abused for harmful and illegal Internet activities. To mitigate such threats, as an emerging security service, Protective DNS (PDNS) blocks access to harmful content by proactively offering rewritten DNS responses, which resolve malicious domains to controlled hosts.While it has become an effective tool against cybercrime, given their implementation divergence, little has been done from the security community in understanding the deployment, operational status and security policies of PDNS services.