So this comes from the first hit on a google search.  I only mention that 
because the information comes from another vendor who shall remain nameless 
(grin). 

Domain Name System (DNS) is a protocol that provides mapping service between 
domain names and IP addresses. A client sends a DNS query in the form of a 
domain name, and a DNS server answers with the IP address associated with that 
domain name. DNS typically uses UDP port 53. A DNS message is normally 
contained within a single UDP packet. DNS uses compression to eliminate the 
repetition of domain names in a message. The compression schema uses a pointer 
to refer to a prior name string when the string repeats later in a DNS message. 
A DNS message containing a pointer that points to itself, or pointers that 
point to each other, result in a pointer loop. Pointer loops are protocol 
anomalies that should be detected. This is because some DNS handlers could fail 
to handle such packets, resulting in denial of service conditions. A packet 
containing this type of protocol anomaly could also indicate that non-DNS 
traffic is being transmitted over DNS ports. For example, illegal peer-to-peer 
downloading, Trojan activity, odd chat programs, etc.



Regards,

Brandon Carroll - CCIE #23837
Senior Technical Instructor - IPexpert
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On Apr 4, 2010, at 3:42 PM, Anantha Subramanian Natarajan wrote:

> Hi All,
>  
>    My understanding on when Cisco ASA  does DNS inspection by default it also 
> verifies compression pointer loop exists.I sort of understand that,if 
> compression pointer loop exists,it would cause infinite lookup of the DNS 
> server.My question is ,what is meant by compression pointer loop.
>  
> Thanks for great help
>  
> Regards
> Anantha Subramanian Natarajan
>    
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