Authoritative Zone Transfer (AXFR)

Authoritative Zone Transfer, or AXFR, is a Domain Name System (DNS) mechanism used to transfer a complete DNS zone between DNS servers. Typically, a primary authoritative DNS server transfers all records within a zone to a secondary DNS server. These records can include information about domains, IP addresses, mail servers and name servers. AXFR is primarily used to keep DNS data synchronised across multiple servers, supporting the availability and resilience of DNS resolution. As a complete zone transfer can expose extensive information about a domain’s DNS structure, access should be restricted to authorised DNS servers and appropriately secured.