S3DNS

s3dns is a lightweight DNS server that helps uncover cloud storage buckets (AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Azure Blob) by resolving DNS requests, tracing CNAMEs, and matching known bucket URL patterns.

It's a handy companion for pentesters, bug bounty hunters, and cloud security analysts who want to catch exposed cloud buckets during DNS traffic analysis.

If S3DNS saves you time on a recon session, consider giving it a ⭐️ — it helps others find the project.

🆕 Update 2026/03/06

• TCP/53 support — S3DNS now listens on both UDP and TCP port 53. Clients that retry over TCP after a truncated UDP response are handled correctly, with the query forwarded upstream over TCP to retrieve the full answer.
• Larger DNS buffer — UDP receive buffer increased from 512 to 4096 bytes. EDNS0 options from the client are passed through to the upstream resolver unchanged.
• Response cache — TTL-based LRU cache for DNS responses shared across UDP and TCP paths. Reduces upstream load and latency during active recon sessions. Configurable via CACHE_SIZE (default: 1000 entries, set to 0 to disable).
• Rate limiting — Per-client-IP request rate limit to prevent abuse. Configurable via RATE_LIMIT (default: 100 req/s, set to 0 to disable).
• Subdomain takeover detection — When a domain matches a cloud storage pattern but returns NXDOMAIN, S3DNS flags it as a possible domain takeover. This indicates a dangling DNS record pointing to an unclaimed bucket that an attacker could register.
• IPv6 IP-range checks — AAAA records are now also resolved and checked against known cloud storage IP ranges. AWS IPv6 S3 prefixes are loaded alongside IPv4 ranges.
• CNAME depth limit — Recursive CNAME chain following is now capped (default: 10 hops) to prevent infinite loops on crafted or cyclic records. Configurable via the max_cname_depth parameter.

Update 2025/08/19

• Added offline AWS IP ranges as a JSON file.
• Added offline Azure Storage IP ranges as a JSON file.
• Added the option to disable the IP range check for either service using:
  • AZURE_IP_RANGES=false or AWS_IP_RANGES=false (default is true).
• Moved regex_patterns and hardcoded patterns to the patterns folder as YAML files. You can add your own patterns.
  • Regex patterns must start with regex_.
• Added multiple more cloud providers
  • IBM Cloud Object Storage
  • Oracle Object Storage
  • Alibaba OSS
  • Backblaze B2
  • Linode Object Storage
  • Scaleway Object Storage
  • Vultr Object Storage
  • Cloudflare R2

Update 2025/06/21

• Added AWS GovCloud support.

Update 2025/04/16

• Updated regex patterns.
• Updated output for better visibility (displaying the original domain for CNAMEs, the client IP, and IP range indicators).
• Auto-downloading of IP ranges from AWS — now checking those too!
• Option to add your own IP ranges (manually adjust the patterns or IP ranges in the class).

Update 2025/04/14

• Added regex support for Google Cloud Storage and Azure Blob Storage buckets.

🚀 Features

• Runs as a DNS server on port 53 (UDP and TCP)
• Detects potential cloud storage buckets in DNS requests:
  • AWS S3 (virtual-host and path style, including GovCloud)
  • GCP Buckets
  • Azure Blob Containers
  • DigitalOcean Spaces, Wasabi, IBM COS, Oracle Object Storage, Alibaba OSS, Backblaze B2, Linode, Scaleway, Vultr, Cloudflare R2
• Follows CNAME chains recursively (configurable depth limit) to catch masked cloud bucket links
• Flags potential subdomain takeovers — cloud storage patterns that return NXDOMAIN
• Checks resolved IPs (both A and AAAA) against known AWS S3 and Azure Storage IP ranges
• TTL-aware response cache to reduce latency and upstream load during recon
• Per-IP rate limiting to prevent abuse
• Logs all findings to console and file
• Container-friendly

⚙️ How It Works

S3DNS listens on port 53 (UDP and TCP) for DNS queries. For every request it:

1. Extracts the requested domain
2. Checks the response cache — if a valid cached answer exists, it is returned immediately
3. Forwards the request to a real DNS resolver (e.g., 1.1.1.1) — over UDP for UDP clients, over TCP for TCP clients
4. Returns the valid DNS response to the client

In parallel, it:

• Checks for cloud storage bucket patterns (regex and hardcoded hostname matching)
• Checks resolved IPs against known AWS S3 and Azure Storage ranges (IPv4 and IPv6)
• Follows CNAME chains recursively up to the configured depth
• Flags NXDOMAIN hits on matched patterns as possible subdomain takeover candidates
• Logs all findings to console and s3dns.log

⚡ Use this as your DNS during recon, and it will passively surface cloud buckets and takeover candidates for every domain your tools or browser resolve.

🧱 Prerequisites

You will only need one of the following:

• Python 3.11+
• Docker (optional, but recommended)

🔧 Installation

Only needed if you want to run it locally with Python

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/olizimmermann/s3dns.git
cd s3dns

Install Dependencies

(Using a virtual environment is recommended)

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

🧪 Usage

Run with Python

Port 53 requires elevated privileges:

sudo python s3dns.py

If sudo claims a missing module, try: sudo venv/bin/python s3dns.py

• If you build the image yourself, be sure to tag it the same as the Docker Hub version for consistency: docker build -t ozimmermann/s3dns:latest .

Use Docker

The easiest way to get started with S3DNS.

docker pull ozimmermann/s3dns:latest
docker run --rm -p 53:53/udp -p 53:53/tcp \
  -v "./bucket_findings/:/app/buckets/" \
  --name "s3dns" \
  ozimmermann/s3dns:latest

Build and Run with Docker

docker build -t ozimmermann/s3dns:latest .

docker run --rm -p 53:53/udp -p 53:53/tcp \
  -v "./bucket_findings/:/app/buckets/" \
  --name "s3dns" \
  ozimmermann/s3dns:latest

Findings are saved:

• In the terminal, and/or
• In ./bucket_findings/

Troubleshooting

When using S3DNS on the same machine where you perform analysis, it may help to set the --network host flag:

docker run --rm -p 53:53/udp -p 53:53/tcp \
  -v "./bucket_findings/:/app/buckets/" \
  --network host \
  --name "s3dns" \
  ozimmermann/s3dns:latest

Since port 53 requires elevated privileges, some users (e.g., Mac users) may need sudo:

sudo docker run --rm -p 53:53/udp -p 53:53/tcp \
  -v "./bucket_findings/:/app/buckets/" \
  --name "s3dns" \
  ozimmermann/s3dns:latest

🌐 Using S3DNS in Recon

Set your system or tool's DNS resolver to your S3DNS instance.

While browsing or fuzzing your target, S3DNS analyzes every domain and tells you if it resolves to:

• An AWS S3 bucket
• A GCP bucket
• An Azure Blob container
• Any of 13 other supported cloud storage providers

It follows CNAMEs, so if a domain points to cdn.example.com, which in turn points to a cloud bucket, it will catch that too.

It also flags potential subdomain takeovers — if a domain matches a cloud storage pattern but the target does not exist (NXDOMAIN), the dangling record is highlighted as a possible takeover candidate.

Use it passively while analyzing a site to spot exposed buckets and takeover opportunities without active probing.

⚙️ Configuration

You can tweak behavior via command-line flags, environment variables, or by modifying s3dns.py.

Precedence for every option is: command-line flag > environment variable > interactive prompt / default. Running with no flags behaves exactly as before.

Command-Line Flags

Run python s3dns.py -h for the full list:

Example:

sudo python s3dns.py -l 0.0.0.0 -u 1.1.1.1 --rate-limit 200 --no-azure-ip-ranges

Environment Variables

⚠️ Note on Azure IP Ranges

Since Microsoft does not explicitly name their Azure Blob Storage IP ranges, S3DNS uses all publicly provided Azure Storage IP addresses. This may lead to false positives. Consider disabling this check if you encounter issues:

AZURE_IP_RANGES=false

Adding Custom Patterns

Add YAML files to the patterns/ directory. Files prefixed with regex_ are treated as regex patterns; all others are treated as substring matches.

Debug Mode

Python:

sudo su
export DEBUG=true
python s3dns.py

Docker:

docker run --rm -p 53:53/udp -p 53:53/tcp \
  -v "./bucket_findings/:/app/buckets/" \
  -e "DEBUG=true" \
  --name "s3dns" \
  ozimmermann/s3dns:latest

Setting multiple environment variables in Docker:

docker run --rm -p 53:53/udp -p 53:53/tcp \
  -v "./bucket_findings/:/app/buckets/" \
  -e "LOCAL_DNS_SERVER_IP=0.0.0.0" \
  -e "REAL_DNS_SERVER_IP=1.1.1.1" \
  -e "RATE_LIMIT=200" \
  -e "CACHE_SIZE=2000" \
  --name "s3dns" \
  ozimmermann/s3dns:latest

Sample Output

Contributing

Contributions are welcome — new cloud provider patterns, bug fixes, and improvements. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Pattern files live in patterns/. Adding support for a new provider is as simple as adding a YAML entry — no Python required.

📄 License

MIT License — Free to use, improve, and share.

⚠️ Disclaimer

Use responsibly. Only scan domains you own or have explicit permission to analyze.

Unauthorized access or probing may be illegal.