BlastDNS

An async rust library for DNS lookups. Can be used to perform simple, one-off lookups or bulk lookups in parallel with many resolvers, similar to massdns.

Features

BlastDNS is simultaneously a:

• Rust CLI tool
• Rust library
• Python library

Benchmark

20K DNS lookups against local dnsmasq, with 100 workers:

CLI

The CLI mass-resolves hosts using a specified list of resolvers. It outputs to JSON.

# send all results to jq
$ blastdns hosts.txt --rdtype A --resolvers resolvers.txt | jq

# print only the raw IPv4 addresses
$ blastdns hosts.txt --rdtype A --resolvers resolvers.txt | jq '.response.answers[].rdata.A'

# load from stdin
$ cat hosts.txt | blastdns --rdtype A --resolvers resolvers.txt

# skip empty responses (e.g., NXDOMAIN with no answers)
$ blastdns hosts.txt --rdtype A --resolvers resolvers.txt --skip-empty | jq

# skip error responses (e.g., timeouts, connection failures)
$ blastdns hosts.txt --rdtype A --resolvers resolvers.txt --skip-errors | jq

CLI Help

$ blastdns --help
BlastDNS - Async DNS spray client

Usage: blastdns [OPTIONS] --resolvers <FILE> [HOSTS_TO_RESOLVE]

Arguments:
  [HOSTS_TO_RESOLVE]  File containing hostnames to resolve (one per line). Reads from stdin if not specified

Options:
      --rdtype <RECORD_TYPE>
          Record type to query (A, AAAA, MX, ...) [default: A]
      --resolvers <FILE>
          File containing DNS nameservers (one per line)
      --threads-per-resolver <THREADS_PER_RESOLVER>
          Worker threads per resolver [default: 2]
      --timeout-ms <TIMEOUT_MS>
          Per-request timeout in milliseconds [default: 1000]
      --retries <RETRIES>
          Retry attempts after a resolver failure [default: 10]
      --purgatory-threshold <PURGATORY_THRESHOLD>
          Consecutive errors before a worker is put into timeout [default: 10]
      --purgatory-sentence-ms <PURGATORY_SENTENCE_MS>
          How many milliseconds a worker stays in timeout [default: 1000]
      --skip-empty
          Don't show responses with no answers
      --skip-errors
          Don't show error responses
  -h, --help
          Print help
  -V, --version
          Print version

Example JSON output

BlastDNS outputs to JSON by default:

{
  "host": "microsoft.com",
  "response": {
    "additionals": [],
    "answers": [
      {
        "dns_class": "IN",
        "name_labels": "microsoft.com.",
        "rdata": {
          "A": "13.107.213.41"
        },
        "ttl": 1968
      },
      {
        "dns_class": "IN",
        "name_labels": "microsoft.com.",
        "rdata": {
          "A": "13.107.246.41"
        },
        "ttl": 1968
      }
    ],
    "edns": {
      "flags": {
        "dnssec_ok": false,
        "z": 0
      },
      "max_payload": 1232,
      "options": {
        "options": []
      },
      "rcode_high": 0,
      "version": 0
    },
    "header": {
      "additional_count": 1,
      "answer_count": 2,
      "authentic_data": false,
      "authoritative": false,
      "checking_disabled": false,
      "id": 62150,
      "message_type": "Response",
      "name_server_count": 0,
      "op_code": "Query",
      "query_count": 1,
      "recursion_available": true,
      "recursion_desired": true,
      "response_code": "NoError",
      "truncation": false
    },
    "name_servers": [],
    "queries": [
      {
        "name": "microsoft.com.",
        "query_class": "IN",
        "query_type": "A"
      }
    ],
    "signature": []
  }
}

Debug Logging

BlastDNS uses the standard Rust tracing ecosystem. Enable debug logging by setting the RUST_LOG environment variable:

# Show debug logs from blastdns only
RUST_LOG=blastdns=debug blastdns hosts.txt --rdtype A --resolvers resolvers.txt

# Show debug logs from everything
RUST_LOG=debug blastdns hosts.txt --rdtype A --resolvers resolvers.txt

# Show trace-level logs for detailed internal behavior
RUST_LOG=blastdns=trace blastdns hosts.txt --rdtype A --resolvers resolvers.txt

Valid log levels (from least to most verbose): error, warn, info, debug, trace

Rust API

use blastdns::{BlastDNSClient, BlastDNSConfig};
use futures::StreamExt;
use hickory_client::proto::rr::RecordType;
use std::time::Duration;

// read DNS resolvers from a file (one per line -> vector of strings)
let resolvers = std::fs::read_to_string("resolvers.txt")
    .expect("Failed to read resolvers file")
    .lines()
    .map(str::to_string)
    .collect::<Vec<String>>();

// create a new blastdns client with default config
let client = BlastDNSClient::new(resolvers).await?;

// or with custom config
let mut config = BlastDNSConfig::default();
config.threads_per_resolver = 5;
config.request_timeout = Duration::from_secs(2);
let client = BlastDNSClient::with_config(resolvers, config).await?;

// lookup a domain
let result = client.resolve("example.com", RecordType::A).await?;

// print the result as serde JSON
println!("{}", serde_json::to_string_pretty(&result).unwrap());

// resolve_batch: process many hosts in parallel with bounded concurrency
// streams results back as they complete
let wordlist = ["one.example", "two.example", "three.example"];
let mut stream = client.resolve_batch(
    wordlist.into_iter().map(Ok::<_, std::convert::Infallible>),
    RecordType::A,
    false,  // skip_empty: don't filter out empty responses
    false,  // skip_errors: don't filter out errors
);
while let Some((host, outcome)) = stream.next().await {
    match outcome {
        Ok(response) => println!("{}: {} answers", host, response.answers().len()),
        Err(err) => eprintln!("{} failed: {err}", host),
    }
}

// resolve_multi: resolve multiple record types for a single host in parallel
let record_types = vec![RecordType::A, RecordType::AAAA, RecordType::MX];
let results = client.resolve_multi("example.com", record_types).await?;
for (record_type, result) in results {
    match result {
        Ok(response) => println!("{}: {} answers", record_type, response.answers().len()),
        Err(err) => eprintln!("{} failed: {err}", record_type),
    }
}

Python API

The blastdns Python package is a thin wrapper around the Rust library.

# install python dependencies
uv sync
# build and install the rust->python bindings
uv run maturin develop
# run tests
uv run pytest

To use it in Python, you can use the Client class:

import json
import asyncio
from blastdns import Client, ClientConfig


async def main():
    resolvers = ["1.1.1.1:53"]
    client = Client(resolvers, ClientConfig(threads_per_resolver=4, request_timeout_ms=1500))

    # resolve: lookup a single host
    response = await client.resolve("example.com", "AAAA")
    print(json.dumps(response, indent=2))

    # resolve_batch: process many hosts in parallel with bounded concurrency
    # streams results back as they complete
    hosts = ["one.example.com", "two.example.com", "three.example.com"]
    async for host, response in client.resolve_batch(hosts, "A"):
        if "error" in response:
            print(f"{host} failed: {response['error']}")
        else:
            print(f"{host}: {len(response['answers'])} answers")

    # resolve_multi: resolve multiple record types for a single host in parallel
    record_types = ["A", "AAAA", "MX"]
    results = await client.resolve_multi("example.com", record_types)
    for record_type, response in results.items():
        if "error" in response:
            print(f"{record_type} failed: {response['error']}")
        else:
            print(f"{record_type}: {len(response['answers'])} answers")


asyncio.run(main())

Python API Methods

• Client.resolve(host, record_type=None): Lookup a single hostname. Defaults to A records. Returns a JSON-shaped dictionary matching the CLI output.

• Client.resolve_batch(hosts, record_type=None, skip_empty=False, skip_errors=False): Resolve many hosts in parallel. Takes an iterable of hostnames and streams back (host, response) tuples as results complete. Set skip_empty=True to filter out successful responses with no answers. Set skip_errors=True to filter out error responses. Useful for processing large wordlists efficiently.

• Client.resolve_multi(host, record_types): Resolve multiple record types for a single hostname in parallel. Takes a list of record type strings (e.g., ["A", "AAAA", "MX"]) and returns a dictionary keyed by record type. Each value is either a successful response or an error dictionary with an "error" key.

ClientConfig exposes the knobs shown above (threads_per_resolver, request_timeout_ms, max_retries, purgatory_threshold, purgatory_sentence_ms) and validates them before handing them to the Rust core.

Architecture

BlastDNS is built on top of hickory-dns, but only makes use of the low-level Client API, not the Resolver API.

BlastDNS is designed to be faster the more resolvers you give it.

Beneath the hood of the BlastDNSClient, each resolver gets its own ResolverWorker tasks, with a configurable number of workers per resolver (default: 2, configurable via BlastDNSConfig.threads_per_resolver).

When a user calls BlastDNSClient::resolve, a new WorkItem is created which contains the request (host + rdtype) and a oneshot channel to hold the result. This WorkItem is put into a crossfire MPMC queue, to be picked up by the first available ResolverWorker. Workers are spawned immediately during client instantiation.

Testing

To run the full test suite including integration tests, you'll need a local DNS server running on 127.0.0.1:5353 and [::1]:5353.

Install dnsmasq:

sudo apt install dnsmasq

Start the test DNS server:

sudo ./scripts/start-test-dns.sh

Then run tests with:

cargo test -- --ignored

When done, stop the test DNS server:

./scripts/stop-test-dns.sh

Linting

Run clippy for lints:

cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features

Run rustfmt for formatting:

cargo fmt --all