CREST Practitioner Security Analyst (CPSA) Practice

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Which record type is necessary to identify the primary name server responsible for a zone?

Mail Exchanger (MX) Record
Start of Authority (SOA) Record
Pointer Record (PTR)
Address (A) Record

The correct answer is: Start of Authority (SOA) Record

The Start of Authority (SOA) record is essential for identifying the primary name server responsible for a specific zone in the Domain Name System (DNS). This record includes critical information about the domain, including the serial number, which is used for zone updates, the primary name server's name, and various timers related to refreshing and expiring records within the zone. By designating the primary name server, the SOA record plays a pivotal role in DNS functionality, ensuring that other DNS servers and clients know where to direct their queries for that particular zone. In contrast, while the other record types serve important roles in DNS management, they do not provide information about the primary name server. Mail Exchanger (MX) records specify mail servers for email handling within a domain, Pointer Records (PTR) are used for reverse DNS lookups to map an IP address to a domain name, and Address (A) Records map a domain to an IPv4 address, but none of these convey authority information over the zone like the SOA record does.