# Rogue WHOIS server gives researcher superpowers no one should ever have | Ars Technica

<https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/09/rogue-whois-server-gives-researcher-superpowers-no-one-should-ever-have/>

- Host: [arstechnica.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/arstechnica.com/)
- Saved: September 12, 2024 (2024-09-13T01:28:01Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e238d6853582/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e238d6853582.json

## What Jamie wrote

This is a pretty incredible story and I’m surprised that there is no cryptographic signing requirements for a WHOIS server like this. In this case this researcher simply setup a WHOIS server where one previously was and a bunch of things just trusted it because it was there!

> To Harris’s surprise, his server received queries from slightly more than 76,000 unique IP addresses within a few hours of setting it up. Over five days, it received roughly 2.5 million queries from about 135,000 unique systems. The entities behind the systems querying his deprecated domain included a who’s who of Internet heavyweights comprising domain registrars, providers of online security tools, governments from the US and around the world, universities, and certificate authorities, the entities that issue browser-trusted TLS certificates that make HTTPS work.

It seems wild that such a critical function wouldn't require some form of certificate to prove it is valid.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT293: Weekly Thing 293 / WHOIS, Glowtime, Place](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/293/), Notable

## Same host

- [Reviewing iOS 18 for power users: Control Center, iCloud, and more | Ars Technica](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/f018ee92a977/) (arstechnica.com, September 23, 2024)
- [Vaporizing plastics recycles them into nothing but gas | Ars Technica](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/f57b97090a57/) (arstechnica.com, September 23, 2024)
- [Google calls for halting use of WHOIS for TLS domain verifications | Ars Technica](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/3c1c10b1d7e5/) (arstechnica.com, September 23, 2024)
- [NIST proposes barring some of the most nonsensical password rules | Ars Technica](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/f08de805839a/) (arstechnica.com, September 27, 2024)
- [Your doctor’s office could be reading your blood pressure all wrong - Ars Technica](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/9252bf79ee50/) (arstechnica.com, October 10, 2024)

## Saved the same week

- [Why AI Can Push You to Make the Wrong Decision at Work](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/873b4d4fc195/) (brainfacts.org, September 12, 2024)
- [My Thoughts About Apple’s iPhone 16 “Glowtime” Event – On my Om](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/7ee9c458e4da/) (om.co, September 12, 2024)
- [The new reMarkable Paper Pro adds a color display](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/a678ccb7abe9/) (engadget.com, September 12, 2024)
- [Windows NT vs. Unix: A design comparison by Julio Merino](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/8802b65f3bf1/) (blogsystem5.substack.com, September 12, 2024)
- [LLM Visualization](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/bacc2e780b02/) (bbycroft.net, September 12, 2024)

## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/09/rogue-whois-server-gives-researcher-superpowers-no-one-should-ever-have/