Editing Whois

= Whois =

'''Whois''' is a passive reconnaissance tool used to gather public registration data about domain names, IP addresses, and ASNs.
It queries public WHOIS databases to retrieve ownership, administrative contacts, creation/expiry dates, and registrar details — all without touching the target server directly.

Whois is essential in early recon phases for identifying ownership chains, domain infrastructure, and legal responsibility.

== <span id="options"></span>Common Options ==

=== Query Control ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Option !! Description
<code>-h [HOST]</code>
-
<code>-p [PORT]</code>
-
<code>--verbose</code>
}

=== Input Types ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Option !! Description
<code>[DOMAIN]</code>
-
<code>[IP]</code>
-
<code>[ASN]</code>
}

=== Output Control ===
{| class="wikitable"
! Option !! Description
<code>-B</code>
-
<code>--raw</code>
-
<code>--no-recursion</code>
}

== Examples ==

=== <span id="ex-domain"></span>Basic Domain Lookup ===
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
whois example.com
</syntaxhighlight>
<code># Shows registrar, contact info, creation/expiry dates, etc.</code>

=== <span id="ex-ip"></span>IP Address Lookup ===
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
whois 1.1.1.1
</syntaxhighlight>
<code># Shows IP range owner (e.g. Cloudflare), ASN, and network details</code>

=== <span id="ex-asn"></span>Autonomous System Lookup ===
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
whois AS13335
</syntaxhighlight>
<code># Displays info about the AS number, usually held by ISPs or CDNs</code>

=== <span id="ex-customserver"></span>Query Specific WHOIS Server ===
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
whois -h whois.arin.net 8.8.8.8
</syntaxhighlight>
<code># Directs the query to ARIN for North American IP info</code>

=== <span id="ex-nowarnings"></span>Suppress Legal Info ===
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
whois -B example.com
</syntaxhighlight>
<code># Suppresses legal disclaimers in output (Debian variant)</code>

=== <span id="ex-recursion"></span>Disable Referral Recursion ===
<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
whois --no-recursion example.com
</syntaxhighlight>
<code># Prevents follow-up lookups to second-level registrars</code>

== See Also ==

    [[dig]]

    [[nslookup]]

    [[theHarvester]]

    [[recon-ng]]

    [[Nmap]]