WDNS-CM-000003 - The Windows 2012 DNS Server must prohibit recursion on authoritative name servers for which forwarders have not been configured for external queries.

Information

A potential vulnerability of DNS is that an attacker can poison a name server's cache by sending queries that will cause the server to obtain host-to-IP address mappings from bogus name servers that respond with incorrect information. Once a name server has been poisoned, legitimate clients may be directed to non-existent hosts (which constitutes a denial of service), or, worse, hosts that masquerade as legitimate ones to obtain sensitive data or passwords.

To guard against poisoning, name servers authoritative for .mil domains should be separated functionally from name servers that resolve queries on behalf of internal clients. Organizations may achieve this separation by dedicating machines to each function or, if possible, by running two instances of the name server software on the same machine: one for the authoritative function and the other for the resolving function. In this design, each name server process may be bound to a different IP address or network interface to implement the required segregation.

Solution

Log on to the DNS server using the Domain Admin or Enterprise Admin account or Local Administrator account.

Press Windows Key + R, execute dnsmgmt.msc.

On the opened DNS Manager snap-in from the left pane, right-click on the server name for the DNS server and select 'Properties'.

Click on the 'Forwarders' tab.

If forwarders are not being used, click the 'Advanced' tab.

Select the 'Disable recursion (also disables forwarders)' check box.

See Also

https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_MS_Windows_2012_Server_DNS_V2R7_STIG.zip

Item Details

Category: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

References: 800-53|CM-6b., CAT|II, CCI|CCI-000366, Rule-ID|SV-215573r961470_rule, STIG-ID|WDNS-CM-000003, STIG-Legacy|SV-73009, STIG-Legacy|V-58579, Vuln-ID|V-215573

Plugin: Windows

Control ID: adb6cdd2c259210c7abe0019fb82b06ed4509557654c948079c769cf29b6475e