asked on

DNS Wildcards

When a IIS server is running with a dns wildcard such as *.xyz.com, is there any way of querying it to see what sites it supports ?

E.g. get a list such as

site1.xyz.com
site3.xyz.com
www.xyz.com

thanks

periwinkle

Interesting question.

Under linux, I would use the host command, like:

host -l domainname

where domainname is the xyz.com in the above example. I don't know if there is an equivalent command under Windows?

Dave_Dietz

IIS and DNS are entirely different services.

IIS will handle any traffic it receives on an IP address it is listening on.

DNS determines what traffic gets sent to which IP.

If your DNS server is set to resolve *.xyz.com to 192.168.0.5 then *any* traffic going to *.xyz.com will be handled by IIS if IIS is listening on the address.

If you are meaning something more along the lines of "what Host Headers are configured for a given website?" then you could try something like the following from c:\inetpub\adminscripts:

cscript.exe adsutil.vbs get w3svc/X/serverbindings - where X is the site instance you are wanting to check

Hope this helps

Dave Dietz

plq

ASKER

The reason for asking is security

We have some sites such as

somecompanysdemo.ourdomain.com

and we don't want anyone else finding them. So its really a question of if we put these sites up can outsiders and hackers tell that they exist ?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Dave_Dietz

membership

This solution is only available to members.

To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.

Start Free Trial

plq

ASKER

Thanks for your help

periwinkle

Hmmm - I'd probably secure the sites via some form of password protection as well - it's just a matter of typing in another URL after visiting one of those sites, and your URL is then listed as a referrer of another site... if they run site stats, and get curious, they'll find your site. Worse yet, if they make their stats public, so will the search engines.

plq

ASKER

Yes, I looked at using authentication onto the web but just a bit worried that doing that will open up a back door to the server, e.g. through RDP. I know I can secure RDP by user or even by IP but don't have that much expertise in windows security to be confident that every thing else is properly closed off. Having said all that, the app is secured with database authentication anyway so they'd only get as far as the logon.

I think I can get around httpreferrer by adding a header to stop the page going into history ?

periwinkle

RE: avoiding the page going into history - I don't know, to be honest. The referrer is controlled (I believe) by the browser - it's up to the browser to report the proper page. You could try, but I wouldn't consider that sufficient control.