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How to hide BIND version

I like hiding the version of the servers I use: even though security via obscurity isn’t a proper solution, at worse it just won’t help. Hiding the BIND version was actually suggested to me by a DNS-testing service, DNSLookup. It’s quite a trivial setting. Find the relevant BIND config file (in Debian 6, it’s /etc/bind/named.conf.options, in other distros it might be just /etc/bind/named.conf or even /etc/named.conf), and within the options brackets, add at the end:
version "BIND";

For instance, here’s my current config file:

options {
	directory "/var/cache/bind";

	// If there is a firewall between you and nameservers you want
	// to talk to, you may need to fix the firewall to allow multiple
	// ports to talk.  See http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/800113

	// If your ISP provided one or more IP addresses for stable 
	// nameservers, you probably want to use them as forwarders.  
	// Uncomment the following block, and insert the addresses replacing 
	// the all-0's placeholder.

	// forwarders {
	// 	0.0.0.0;
	// };

	auth-nxdomain no;    # conform to RFC1035
	listen-on { any; };
	listen-on-v6 { any; };
	//listen-on-v6 { ::1; };
	//listen-on { 127.0.0.1; };
	//allow-recursion { 127.0.0.1; };
	version "BIND";
};

Well, that’s about it. Don’t forget to apply the changes (apply changes via Webmin or use a command such as /etc/init.d/bind9 reload)

Posted in Linux, servers, software.


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