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312-50V12 · Question #163

As a Certified Ethical Hacker, you are conducting a footprinting and reconnaissance operation against a target organization. You discover a range of IP addresses associated with the target using the…

The correct answer is C. dnsrecon -r 162.241.216.0/24 -n nsl.example.com -t std. To perform reverse DNS lookups on an IP range and enumerate associated domain names, nameservers, and MX records using dnsrecon, the standard enumeration type with an IP range specified is the most effective approach.

Submitted by fatema_kw· Mar 4, 2026Reconnaissance Techniques

Question

As a Certified Ethical Hacker, you are conducting a footprinting and reconnaissance operation against a target organization. You discover a range of IP addresses associated with the target using the SecurityTrails tool. Now, you need to perform a reverse DNS lookup on these IP addresses to find the associated domain names, as well as determine the nameservers and mail exchange (MX) records. Which of the following DNSRecon commands would be most effective for this purpose?

Options

  • Adnsrecon -r 192.168.1.0/24 -n nsl.example.com -t axfr
  • Bdnsrecon -r 10.0.0.0/24 -n nsl.example.com -t zonewalk
  • Cdnsrecon -r 162.241.216.0/24 -n nsl.example.com -t std
  • Ddnsrecon -r 162.241.216.0/24 -d example.com -t brt

How the community answered

(55 responses)
  • A
    15% (8)
  • B
    7% (4)
  • C
    75% (41)
  • D
    4% (2)

Why each option

To perform reverse DNS lookups on an IP range and enumerate associated domain names, nameservers, and MX records using dnsrecon, the standard enumeration type with an IP range specified is the most effective approach.

Adnsrecon -r 192.168.1.0/24 -n nsl.example.com -t axfr

The `-t axfr` option attempts an AXFR (zone transfer), which is generally used for enumerating all records for a *known domain* and is rarely successful for external reconnaissance, rather than performing reverse lookups on an IP range to discover domains and their NS/MX records.

Bdnsrecon -r 10.0.0.0/24 -n nsl.example.com -t zonewalk

The `-t zonewalk` option is used for DNS zone walking, which enumerates records within a *specific domain* (often via NSEC records), and is not the appropriate method for iterating through an IP range to perform reverse lookups.

Cdnsrecon -r 162.241.216.0/24 -n nsl.example.com -t stdCorrect

The `dnsrecon -r 162.241.216.0/24 -t std` command is the most effective because the `-r` flag is used to specify an IP range for reverse DNS lookups (PTR records), and the `-t std` (standard enumeration) type ensures that after discovering domain names from these PTR records, `dnsrecon` will also query for NS (nameserver) and MX (mail exchange) records for those discovered domains, fulfilling all aspects of the question.

Ddnsrecon -r 162.241.216.0/24 -d example.com -t brt

The `-d example.com` flag specifies a target *domain* for forward enumeration, which contradicts the goal of *discovering* domain names through reverse lookups on an IP range, and the `-t brt` (brute-force) option is primarily for finding subdomains of a known domain, not for reverse DNS lookups.

Concept tested: DNS reconnaissance for reverse lookups and record enumeration.

Source: https://www.kali.org/tools/dnsrecon/

Topics

#DNS reconnaissance#reverse DNS lookup#DNSRecon#footprinting

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