Reverse DNS Verification of BlogVault IPs : BlogVault

What is Reverse DNS (rDNS)?

Reverse DNS (rDNS) is the process of determining the domain name associated with a given IP address. It acts as a security layer by verifying the source of an IP address, helping prevent impersonation and spoofing attacks.

For example, if your site logs show a request from 8.8.8.8, you can use an rDNS lookup tool to confirm that the IP belongs to Google, ensuring it’s a legitimate source.

Why BlogVault Uses rDNS Verification

We’ve upgraded our system to support rDNS-based verification for our IPs. This ensures your site continues to receive uninterrupted BlogVault services (such as backups, malware scans, and updates) while staying protected from spoofed IPs or fake bot activity.

You can request your hosting provider or firewall administrator to add *.bvserver.net to the list of verified bots.
When an rDNS lookup is performed, BlogVault IPs will resolve to domains under *.bvserver.net, confirming their authenticity.

How IP Addresses Can Be Used in Attacks

IP addresses are unique identifiers used for communication between devices over the internet.
However, attackers often spoof IPs, sending requests that appear to come from legitimate sources, to bypass security measures.

rDNS verification helps confirm whether an IP truly belongs to the domain it claims to represent, protecting your site from such impersonation attempts.

How Sites Handle Requests from IPs

Web hosts and firewalls commonly block suspicious IPs to protect sites from malicious bots. While this is generally good practice, it can also block trusted bots that perform useful tasks, like Googlebot for indexing or uptime monitors for site health checks.

Similarly, BlogVault needs access to your site to perform critical maintenance activities such as:

Automated backups
Daily malware scans
Site syncs and updates

With rDNS verification, your host can easily confirm that BlogVault requests are from trusted sources without manual IP whitelisting.

BlogVault IPs and Their Domains

Previously, ensuring uninterrupted BlogVault services required manually whitelisting our IP addresses. However, since IPs can change periodically, this approach was cumbersome and error-prone.

To simplify this, all BlogVault IPs now map to *.bvserver.net, allowing seamless verification via rDNS without managing IP lists manually.

How to Perform an rDNS Lookup

There are two key steps to verify an IP address using rDNS:

Check which domain the IP maps to (reverse lookup).
Confirm that the domain maps back to the same IP (forward lookup).

This ensures a valid and trustworthy association between the IP and the domain.

✅ Option 1: Using Online Tools

You can use any online rDNS lookup tool, such as:

After the reverse lookup, use a DNS lookup tool to verify that the domain points back to the same IP.

✅ Option 2: Using Command-Line Tools

If you prefer the command line, you can use utilities such as:

host
dig
nslookup

In the following example, we have used a host to run both steps of the verification process.

If the IP maps to a domain under bvserver.net, and a subsequent lookup of that domain points back to the same IP, the verification is successful.

Final Recommendation

To ensure uninterrupted access for BlogVault services, ask your host or firewall provider to add *.bvserver.net to the verified bots list. This will allow BlogVault’s legitimate IPs to communicate with your site securely while blocking unknown or malicious traffic.

Need Help?

We’re continuously improving our system to enhance security and reliability. If you have any questions or need assistance with IP verification, please contact us at support@blogvault.net; our team will be happy to help.