Apple Owns Mystery Domains, Hosted on Amazon Cloud Server

While doing some digging around today, I noticed that Apple, Inc. owns a bunch of nonsensical domain names that use Apple’s own DNS, but are hosted on Amazon’s cloud server. These domains continue to be registered on a regular basis, some as late as last week. And they’ve been buying these nonsensical domain names and setting up web hosting for at least 6 months now. I’m not sure what they’re up to, and it could be just them testing. But whatever it is, it doesn’t make much sense as of now.

On January 29, 2014, Apple registered two different domain names that appear to make no sense (at least to me):

hs76ksgxebfh2md.com
ntcfiniplfbresibfjnuszrnmyfisc.net

Both of these sites resolve to an Amazon Linux AMI Test Page. Try them out for yourself, you’ll see a test page when you go to any of those domains in your web browser.

Both of these domains appear to be owned by Apple, Inc.:

Domain Name: ntcfiniplfbresibfjnuszrnmyfisc.net
Registry Domain ID: 1844489196_DOMAIN_NET-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.corporatedomains.com
Registrar URL: www.cscprotectsbrands.com
Updated Date: 2014-01-27 19:46:18 -0500
Creation Date: 2014-01-27 19:46:18 -0500
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2015-01-27 19:46:17 -0500
Registrar: CSC CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC.
Registrar IANA ID: 299
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8887802723
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Domain Administrator
Registrant Organization: Apple Inc.
Registrant Street: 1 Infinite Loop
Registrant City: Cupertino
Registrant State/Province: CA
Registrant Postal Code: 95014
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.4089961010
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +1.4089741560
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Domain Administrator
Admin Organization: Apple Inc.
Admin Street: 1 Infinite Loop
Admin City: Cupertino
Admin State/Province: CA
Admin Postal Code: 95014
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.4089961010
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax: +1.4089741560
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email:
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Domain Administrator
Tech Organization: Apple Inc.
Tech Street: 1 Infinite Loop
Tech City: Cupertino
Tech State/Province: CA
Tech Postal Code: 95014
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: +1.4089961010
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax: +1.4089741560
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email:
Name Server: nserver4.apple.com
Name Server: nserver.apple.com
Name Server: nserver2.apple.com
Name Server: nserver3.apple.com

The name servers are currently set to resolve to apple.com name servers. But apparently are using Amazon’s Amazon Linux AMI web services.

On January 24, 2014, Apple registered trollqtkhoverlaysbynk.biz. But, on January 25, 2014, Apple deleted trollqtkhoverlaysbynk.biz which is now available for registration.

I checked the server’s IP for these most recent domains, and it appears that there are actually 24 different domains total, all owned by Apple. They all appear to be ‘made up’ nonsense type words:

1 hs76ksgxebfh2md.com

2 ogpwcickblflv.net

3 ocxrylnbtbornw.net

4 ntcfiniplfbresibfjnuszrnmyfisc.net

5 ncolyqpsfpsp.net

6 mrljplgyqaxegra.net

7 lufdsnreeoky.net

8 lfafbwyvhggh.net

9 kldiefnymkbuidx.net

10 jaxmqwmskvpukig.net

11 ftrtoeeiihqy.net

12 fqfvtunwcsto.net

13 ennglegjttqt.net

14 crlmjuwvgmxf.net

15 bfrdafvnohjvue.net

16 agikugkoyord.net

17 xlrlhcvcqoopk.info

18 wiclcpmnonvco.info

19 tgquxfxndseof.info

20 pplmloracgrvn.info

21 yjdkxvdptdhvdy.in

22 stkjpcljfbsncam.com

23 royxolaihpvfef.net

24 xctexmtcuakw.net

What’s also ‘weird about this, is that it’s a combination of .net, .info, and .in domains. The domains on this IP address have been around for a while now, are not indexed in Google, and were registered as far back as March 1, 2013 (I didn’t check the whois of all 24 domains).

Do you care to guess what Apple’s up to? The domains aren’t being used for http traffic, since the pages are actually just Linux test web pages at this point. And, furthermore, they don’t appear to be indexed in Google.

I suppose that these domains are some sort of test, but why set them up on an Amazon server? Surely there are servers that Apple has that could be used?