# 43 - Pentesting WHOIS

## Basic Information

**WHOIS** \(pronounced as the phrase "who is"\) is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomous system, but is also used for a wider range of other information. \(From [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHOIS)\)

**Default port:** 43

```text
PORT   STATE  SERVICE
43/tcp open   whois?
```

## Enumerate

Get all the information that a whois service has about a domain:

```bash
whois -h <HOST> -p <PORT> "domain.tld"
echo "domain.ltd" | nc -vn <HOST> <PORT>
```

Notice than sometimes when requesting for some information to a WHOIS service the database being used appears in the response:

![](../.gitbook/assets/image%20%28269%29.png)

Also, the WHOIS service always needs to use a **database** to store and extract the information. So, a possible **SQLInjection** could be present when **querying** the database from some information provided by the user. For example doing: `whois -h 10.10.10.155 -p 43 "a') or 1=1#"` you could be able to **extract all** the **information** saved in the database.

## Shodan

* `port:43 whois`

## HackTricks Automatic Commands

```text
Protocol_Name: WHOIS    #Protocol Abbreviation if there is one.
Port_Number:  43     #Comma separated if there is more than one.
Protocol_Description: WHOIS         #Protocol Abbreviation Spelled out

Entry_1:
  Name: Notes
  Description: Notes for WHOIS
  Note: |
    WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomous system, but is also used for a wider range of other information.

    https://book.hacktricks.xyz/pentesting/pentesting-smtp

Entry_2:
  Name: Banner Grab
  Description: Grab WHOIS Banner
  Command: whois -h {IP} -p 43 {Domain_Name} && echo {Domain_Name} | nc -vn {IP} 43
```