Live briefing
Everything about WHOIS
Computer network protocol
WHOIS is a query and response protocol that is used for querying databases that store an Internet resource's registered users or assignees. These resources include domain names, IP address blocks and autonomous systems, but it is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores and delivers database content in a human-readable format. The current iteration of the WHOIS protocol was drafted by the Internet Society, and is documented in RFC 3912. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: WHOISA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: WHOIS Data Redaction and its Impact on Unsolicited Emails: A Field ExperimentInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: WHOIS running the InternetThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Detecting Malicious Domain Names with Abnormal WHOIS Records Using Feature-Based RulesCited 10 times
- Go sideways: Registration Data Access ProtocolA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Extensible Provisioning ProtocolA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun The WHOIS protocol or service.
Verb To look up using a whois protocol.
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
Detecting Malicious Domain Names with Abnormal WHOIS Records Using Feature-Based Rules
Disrupting Global Governance: The Internet Whois Service, ICANN, and Privacy
The impact of GDPR on WHOIS: Implications for businesses facing cybercrime
Replacing the Whois Protocol: IRIS and the IETF's CRISP Working Group
Revisiting Whois: Coming to REST
A Framework for Expressing Registration Data Directory Services (née WHOIS) Rules
Le WHOIS, talon d'Achille de la protection des données personnelles
Machine learning-based malicious URL detection using feature selection techniques and WHOIS features
🆕 Influential since 2022
📚 Books worth reading
WHOIS running the InternetGarth O. Bruen · 2015- 📕WHOI cable v2.0Jason I. Gobat · 2000
- 📕Legal issues regarding WHOIS databasesDana Irina Cojocarasu · 2009
- 📕Accuracy and integrity of the WHOIS databaseUnited States · 2002
- 📕WHOIS databaseUnited States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property · 2001
- 📕ICANN and the WHOIS databaseUnited States. Congress. House. Committee on Financial Services. Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit · 2007
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
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