Botnet Detection Technology Based on DNS

Abstract

With the help of botnets, intruders can implement a remote control on infected machines and perform various malicious actions. Domain Name System (DNS) is very famous for botnets to locate command and control (C and C) servers, which enormously strengthens a botnet’s survivability to evade detection. This paper focuses on evasion and detection techniques of DNS-based botnets and gives a review of this field for a general summary of all these contributions. Some important topics, including technological background, evasion and detection, and alleviation of botnets, are discussed. We also point out the future research direction of detecting and mitigating DNS-based botnets. To the best of our knowledge, this topic gives a specialized and systematic study of the DNS-based botnet evading and detecting techniques in a new era and is useful for researchers in related fields.

Keywords

• botnet
• DNS
• fast flux
• domain flux
• DGA
• C and C