Microsoft 'slapped' by foul-mouthed DNS listing

Microsoft has become the victim of pranksters who have replaced DNS information held on several sub-domains, which look like they are held by Microsoft - though they are not - with a string of potty-mouthed insults aimed at the software giant.

Comments levelled at Redmond, which all show up as convoluted extraneous domains, include slurs along the lines of microsoft.com.will.be.beaten.with.my.spanner.net and microsoft.com.is.a.steaming.heap.of.fucking-bullshit.net as well as the apparently pro-open source comment: microsoft.com.should.give.up.because.linuxisgod.com.

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At the time of writing the comments were all showing up when searching for genuine DNS information on the Microsoft.com domain using the Whois database. And it appears they have been available for quite some time. (Screen grab here). They show up ahead of the relevant results because of the prevalent use of 'microsoft.com' and remind businesses of the need to be aware of anywhere their brand is being abused and any means used to do so. Other major companies have also been abused in this way.

The Whois database typically contains data on the registered owner of a domain, such as contact details as well as expiry date of the domain and the date it was registered.

However, a spokeswoman for Whois denied any hacking of its own service has occurred and said its search is just pulling information from the crsnic.net database which is owned and operated by Verisign.

It is unclear who the guilty party is though one line on the page reads: microsoft.com.zzz.is.0wned.and.hax0red.by.sub7.net.

It seems likely this is a reference to the Sub7 backdoor Trojan which is a popular tool among hackers and script kiddies bent on causing disruption through largely childish and offensive website defacements.

At the time of writing Verisign had not responded to questions about the listing.