# What part of 'No!' is so hard for the DNS understand?

DevFeed: [What part of 'No!' is so hard for the DNS understand?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/what-part-of-no-is-so-hard-for-the-dns-understand-10859.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.apnic.net/2026/09/04/what-part-of-no-is-so-hard-for-the-dns-understand/>)

Author: Geoff Huston

Published: 2026-09-04T01:06:30Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [APNIC Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/apnic-blog.md>)

Topics: [servers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/servers.md>), [Caching](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/caching.md>), [DDoS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ddos.md>), [Cybercrime](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cybercrime.md>), [Availability](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/availability.md>), [Bot](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/bot.md>), [Script](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/script.md>)

Tags: [apnic-labs](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apnic-labs.md>), [attacks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/attacks.md>), [availability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/availability.md>), [bots](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bots.md>), [caching](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/caching.md>), [ddos](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ddos.md>), [dns](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/dns.md>), [generate](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/generate.md>), [measurement](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/measurement.md>), [random](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/random.md>), [server](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/server.md>), [servers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/servers.md>), [tech-matters](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tech-matters.md>)

## AI overview

The article explains how random name attacks overwhelm authoritative DNS servers by generating queries for nonexistent names, bypassing recursive resolver caches and potentially causing domain availability failures. It also describes APNIC Labs' measurement work on nonexistent-domain responses to improve DNS resilience.

## Source excerpt

At APNIC Labs we've been experimenting with understanding how the DNS handles requests to resolve nonexistent names to make the DNS more resilient to random name attacks.