0

From RFC 3912:

3. Protocol Example

If one places a request of the WHOIS server located at whois.nic.mil for information about "Smith", the packets on the wire will look like:

  client                           server at whois.nic.mil

  open TCP   ---- (SYN) ------------------------------>
             <---- (SYN+ACK) -------------------------
  send query ---- "Smith<CR><LF>" -------------------->
  get answer <---- "Info about Smith<CR><LF>" ---------
             <---- "More info about Smith<CR><LF>" ----
  close      <---- (FIN) ------------------------------
             ----- (FIN) ----------------------------->

This:

  client                           server at whois.nic.mil

  open TCP   ---- (SYN) ------------------------------>
             <---- (SYN+ACK) -------------------------

Seems like a two way TCP handshake? Which, does that exist?

I think this is what that should be mentioned:

  client                           server at whois.nic.mil

  open TCP   ---- (SYN) ------------------------------>
             <---- (SYN+ACK) -------------------------
             ---- (ACK) ------------------------------>

I think it is basically a shorthand to the three way handshake...

Community
  • 1
ImBoredAllTheTime
  • 125
  • 3
  • 8

1 Answers1

0

Whois is nothing specific, it does normal TCP/IP operations.

It is probably just an oversight (as there is no need in fact to give those details for the protocol, once it is said it uses TCP as transport then TCP rules apply), based on when it is written and the fact the first RFC on whois was on March 1982.

And for completeness, while unrelated to your question, it does not (should not) matter so much anymore as its successor is RDAP and all efforts should be on that and not on whois anymore that should die for many obvious reasons.

Patrick Mevzek
  • 9,921
  • 7
  • 32
  • 43
  • What is RDAP??? – ImBoredAllTheTime Mar 17 '21 at 16:19
  • "What is RDAP???" Broadly summarizing, same as whois but with JSON over HTTPS instead of raw unspecified text over TCP that is whois. This can be a gentle introduction to it: https://about.rdap.org/ otherwise the raw stuff is RFC 7481 to 7484 (+7485 useful for context) and other ones (see https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/regext/documents/ ). Note that some of these RFCs are right now being updated (that is in process of being superseded) – Patrick Mevzek Mar 17 '21 at 16:30
  • Hmm... tell me an example url where it returns json – ImBoredAllTheTime Mar 17 '21 at 16:39
  • Did you read any of the given links? Try with https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/verisign.com if you want one example. But then all this discussion is offtopic for this question. – Patrick Mevzek Mar 17 '21 at 16:49