A subdomain is a prefix that comes before the root domain. Subdomains are often used on websites to send traffic to a different IP address while still keeping users on the same root domain. For example, Mailgun hosts our developer documentation on a separate service, so we use a documentation subdomain, documentation.mailgun.com.
- I agree with Microsoft's recommendation: Use a sub-domain of the company's already-registered Internet domain name. So, if you own foo.com, use ad.foo.com or some such. The most vile thing, as I see it, is using the registered Internet domain name, verbatim, for the Active Directory domain name.
- Actual tests have shown a small advantage in the search engines for domain names with dashes, as with your-town-real-estate.com. As domain registration is inexpensive, get the dashed name as well as yourtownrealestate.com. The name without dashes is easier for users, so it should be the main domain on your servers.
- For my name ideas, I focused on creating names that appeal to customer values using words like: Virtual, Digital, Reliable, Trackable.A business name that lets your customer know what solutions you provide or the core values your business hold is a great way to make your business appear trustworthy and relevant.
- Subdomains are a prefix added to your domain name in order to help navigate and organize sections of your website. They are primarily used to manage site areas that are extensive enough to require their own hierarchy, such as online stores, blogs or support platforms.
Fuzzing is fun. But fuzzing is even more fun when you have a solid wordlist to work with. When it comes to hunting down subdomains there are a few lists out there to plug into your fuzzer, but most are small, one-shot affairs. I set out to build a list of popular subdomains which was comprehensive and could be easily kept up-to-date.
For this project I needed to get hold of DNS records. A lot of DNS records. After trying various sources, I settled upon Rapid7's Project Sonar Forward DNS data set, which includes '.. regular DNS lookup for all names gathered from the other scan types, such as HTTP data, SSL Certificate names, reverse DNS records, etc'. Rapid7's data set uses a really nice mix of real-world sources and is regularly updated. Perfect.
The first challenge was how to handle 1.4 billion (68 GiB) raw DNS records in a reasonable amount of time; my first attempt at processing the data took well over a week to complete on a reasonably beefy server, hardly ideal for updating frequently.
Here's the process I needed to optimise:
- Trim non-domain name data and de-dupe.
The data set contains all DNS record types (mx, txt, cname, etc), so dupes are common. - Remove suffixes using a list built from the Public Suffix List.
.com, .co.uk. .ninja, etc need to go so we can properly distinguish subdomains from domains. - Extract subdomains and tally up the number of times each occurs.
One point per subdomain per domain to keep things fair. - Sort the results by tally.
And we're done!
Optimisation
The second step, removing domain suffixes, took the most time, this part alone taking days. I spent a good while trying out different solutions, from a parallel sed with a sizeable regex to native bash processing. I eventually settled on a Python script and was able to cut the processing time right down to just under 2 hours.
Next I trained my eye on the system commands I was using. A considerable amount of time (many hours) was taken up by awk, sort, uniq and company. I did some research and with one fell swoop cut these down to mere minutes by setting the LC_ALL=C environment variable, which is perfect for working with subdomains. For more information on why this works, see Jacob Nicholson's blog post on the topic.
Selection
The next question was which part of the domain to use. Just the left-most subdomain? Explode and tally all subdomain parts? Use all of the subdomain parts as one entry? I tried the latter approach and the results were more than a little messy. I didn't find much accord in how people structure their sub-subdomains.
Going with the first option and using just the left-most subdomain I got really good results, with a clear list of winners emerging. I also found that using this list recursively covered the majority of sub-subdomain uses. Win-win. I didn't try splitting and using all subdomain parts, but I strongly suspect diminishing returns.
After the above optimisations the whole process takes around 2.5 hours of grunt work on a server with a 10-core (20-thread) Intel Xeon running at 3 GHz, with 48 GB of memory. Performance would likely be improved by feeding data from an SSD.
The results
Without further ado, the 50 most popular subdomains as of 27th February 2016:
Cool Subdomain Names Generator
Count | Subdomain | |
---|---|---|
20,395,943 | www | Obviously! |
1,090,647 | ||
258,838 | remote | Everyone loves remote access |
168,575 | blog | |
133,529 | webmail | |
129,202 | server | Creative |
100,849 | ns1 | |
92,737 | ns2 | |
73,465 | smtp | |
72,115 | secure | If you need a subdomain for this you have issues |
68,339 | vpn | |
63,883 | m | Lots of mobile sites |
62,808 | shop | |
60,777 | ftp | Still going strong |
58,484 | mail2 | |
44,481 | test | Well, hello |
44,115 | portal | |
43,645 | ns | |
43,624 | ww1 | |
42,235 | host | |
40,726 | support | |
40,107 | dev | Hello again |
37,666 | web | When www isn't enough |
37,345 | bbs | Yes, really. Looking into this, many people equate 'BBS' with 'Forum' |
37,131 | ww42 | Domains parked with a large domain squatter |
37,069 | mx | |
36,876 | ||
36,870 | cloud | Fluffy |
35,584 | 1 | |
35,481 | mail1 | |
34,475 | 2 | |
33,696 | forum | |
31,291 | owa | Good old Outlook |
31,254 | www2 | |
30,392 | gw | |
29,916 | admin | Likely a good target |
29,763 | store | |
29,251 | mx1 | |
29,124 | cdn | |
29,083 | api | |
28,691 | exchange | |
28,475 | app | |
26,728 | gov | Uhm |
26,459 | 2tty | Mostly from .asia and .pw TLDs |
26,229 | vps | |
24,964 | govyty | ' |
24,951 | hgfgdf | ' |
24,768 | news | |
24,521 | 1rer | ' |
24,395 | lkjkui | ' |
There are some predictable subdomains in the list (www, mail, ftp, etc), some more unexpected results (I didn't expect bbs to be so popular), and some results near the bottom (but which continue off the bottom of the list) such as dsasa and hgfgdf for which I haven't been able find an origin, but seem to mostly fall under the .asia and .pw top level domains. If you know anything about these, drop me a comment below.
Code
I've made the code available in the DNSpop github repo in case you want to make any changes or maintain your own list. I've also posted the most popular 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 and 1,000,000 subdomains using the latest data set. The top 1 million subdomains is probably overkill for most fuzzing applications, but the 10k and 100k lists offer pretty good coverage.
Thanks go to Stephen Haywood, who coincidentally maintains an AXFR subdomain list, for discussion around optimising the subdomain stripping process. Additional thanks to Motoko for reminding me that the pv command exists, allowing progress to be shown, and giving hope, during processing.
If you already have a website but want to branch it out a bit, a subdomain is a great way to get the best of both worlds. Whether you’re adding a company blog or selling website merchandise, segmenting your site with a subdomain is a practical solution. Here’s how you can create a subdomain for your website through Name.com hosting.
What can I use a subdomain for?
There are several reasons why you might want to divide your website into distinct sections using a subdomain. Usually, a subdomain is set up when you want to run a site that is parallel to your existing website, but just different enough that you don’t want it to be part of your primary navigation. For example, perhaps you offer B2B business services but want to write a blog. Setting up a subdomain for the blog part of your website divides that specific written content from your product landing pages and white papers. You might also want a subdomain if you are setting up an eCommerce section of your website.
How to set up a subdomain
Let’s say you have a style blog called A Whimsical Wardrobe, and you’ve decided it’s time to start selling merchandise on it. Creating a subdomain for your online store will tie it in with the website while allowing the freedom to create something that stands out.
Step 1: Log into your account
The first step is to log into the cPanel dashboard for the website you want to add the subdomain to. To do that, sign into your Name.com account and press Web Hosting. Ccproxy 8 0 keygen. Press the cPanel Login button to be taken to your cPanel homepage.
Step 2: Add the subdomain
Now, scroll down to the Domains heading and press the Subdomain button.
In the Subdomain section, you’ll enter the string you want to the left of the dot in your subdomain. Once it has been entered, the Document Root will autofill. By keeping that section as-is, anything you add to your normal document root folder will load on that subdomain. Press Create to set up your subdomain.
Step 3: Add DNS records
Your subdomain will not resolve properly if you don’t add the correct DNS records to it now that it has been created. To do that, go back to your normal Name.com account and choose Web Hosting from the My Account menu. Scroll down the page to the DNS Management section, and make sure the website that hosts your subdomain is selected.
Use the drop-down menu on the left to choose the “A” record type from the menu. In the Host field, type the “sub” part of your subdomain. Then, type your IP address into the Answer section, which you can find by scrolling to the top of your page and looking at the Server IP Address. Press Add record once you’re finished.
Step 4: Wait for your subdomain to resolve
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It could take up to 24 hours for your subdomain to properly resolve after you’ve added the DNS records, so don’t worry if it doesn’t work right away. With your subdomain successfully created, you can start working on your next project and make your website even better than ever.
Will my SSL certificate cover my subdomain?
We always recommend using an SSL certificate on your website to offer your visitors a secure browsing experience. However, only certain SSL certificates have the ability to cover subdomains. Once you add a subdomain to your website, you’ll need to upgrade your SSL certificate to one that offers the wildcard feature. When a wildcard SSL certificate in place, it will cover all future subdomains that you add to your website.
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