dnstracer

dnstracer is a Rust-based implementation of dnstracer, a DNS tracing tool that follows the chain of DNS servers responsible for resolving a domain name. It helps trace the delegation path from the root DNS servers down to the authoritative servers for a specific domain.

Features

• Traces DNS delegation paths for domain names.
• Supports both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
• Allows specifying custom DNS query types.
• Handles recursive and authoritative DNS queries.
• Provides detailed output of DNS servers and records.

Installation

Requirements

• Rust (version 1.XX or higher)
• Cargo (Rust's package manager)

Installing dnstracer

Clone the repository and build the project using cargo:

cargo install dnstracer

Running

Once built, you can run dnstracer-rs from the target directory:

dnstracer [options] <domain>

Example

dnstracer example.com

This will trace the DNS delegation for the domain example.com, showing the path of DNS servers involved in the resolution.

Usage

dnstracer [OPTIONS] <domain>

Options

• -c, --no-positive-cache
  • disable positive response caching, default enabled
• -C, --negative-cache
  • enable negative response caching, default disabled
• -e, --edns0
  • disable EDNS0, default enabled
• -o, --overview
  • enable overview of received answers, default disabled
• -q, --query-type <QUERY_TYPE>
  • The type of record (A, AAAA, NS ...) [default: A]
• -r, --retries <RETRIES>
  • amount of retries for DNS requests, default 3 [default: 3]
• -s, --server <SERVER>
  • Start the query at the given DNS server (IP or hostname) If . is specified, A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET will be used [default: .]
• -t, --timeout <TIMEOUT>
  • Limit time to wait per try [default: 5]
• -S, --source-address <SOURCE_ADDRESS>
  • use this source address
• -6, --ipv6
  • Force using IPv6 for DNS queries (no IPv4)
• -4, --ipv4
  • Force using IPv4 for DNS queries (no IPv6)
• -T, --tcp
  • Force using TCP for DNS queries
• -h, --help
  • Print help
• -V, --version
  • Print version

Output

dnstracer provides detailed output for each DNS server in the delegation chain:

• The IP address and name of each DNS server.
• Whether the response is authoritative or not.
• The DNS records associated with the query.

Sample Output

$ dnstracer www.example.com -o              
Tracing to www.example.com[A] via A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. (198.41.0.4), maximum of 3 retries
A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. [.] (198.41.0.4)
 |\___ a.gtld-servers.net. [com] (192.5.6.30)
 |      |\___ ns1.example.com. [example.com] (192.0.2.1) found authoritative answer
 |      |\___ ns2.example.com. [example.com] (198.51.100.1) found authoritative answer
 |       \___ ns2.example.com. [example.com] (2001:db8::1) found authoritative answer
 |\___ a.gtld-servers.net. [com] (2001:503:a83e::2:30)
 |      |\___ ns1.example.com. [example.com] (192.0.2.1) (cached)
 |      |\___ ns2.example.com. [example.com] (198.51.100.1) (cached)
 |       \___ ns2.example.com. [example.com] (2001:db8::1) (cached)
 |\___ b.gtld-servers.net. [com] (192.33.14.30)
 ...
ns1.example.com. (192.0.2.1) 	www.example.com. 86400 IN A 203.0.113.1
ns2.example.com. (198.51.100.1) 	www.example.com. 86400 IN A 203.0.113.1
ns2.example.com. (2001:db8::1) 	www.example.com. 86400 IN A 203.0.113.1

Contributing

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature).
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature').
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/your-feature).
5. Create a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.