projectdiscovery/nuclei · warning

no records found

Error message

no records found

What it means

Runtime DSL failure raised by the built-in `resolve()` helper (pkg/operators/common/dsl/dsl.go:100). `resolve(host[, format])` performs a live DNS query through nuclei' dnsclientpool for a record type (a, aaaa, cname, ns, txt, srv, ptr, mx, soa, caa); if the query succeeds but sliceutil.FirstNonZero finds no non-empty value in the matching record slice, it returns this error, which fails the whole DSL matcher/extractor expression.

Source

Thrown at pkg/operators/common/dsl/dsl.go:100

			dns.TypeAAAA:  rawResp.AAAA,
			dns.TypeCNAME: rawResp.CNAME,
			dns.TypeNS:    rawResp.NS,
			dns.TypeTXT:   rawResp.TXT,
			dns.TypeSRV:   rawResp.SRV,
			dns.TypePTR:   rawResp.PTR,
			dns.TypeMX:    rawResp.MX,
			dns.TypeCAA:   rawResp.CAA,
			dns.TypeSOA:   rawResp.GetSOARecords(),
		}

		if values, ok := dnsValues[dnsType]; ok {
			firstFound, found := sliceutil.FirstNonZero(values)
			if found {
				return firstFound, nil
			}
		}

		return "", fmt.Errorf("no records found")
	}))
	_ = dsl.AddFunction(dsl.NewWithMultipleSignatures("getNetworkPort", []string{
		"(Port string,defaultPort string) string)",
		"(Port int,defaultPort int) int",
	}, false, func(args ...interface{}) (interface{}, error) {
		if len(args) != 2 {
			return nil, dsl.ErrInvalidDslFunction
		}
		port := types.ToString(args[0])
		defaultPort := types.ToString(args[1])
		if port == "" || stringsutil.EqualFoldAny(port, knowPorts...) {
			return defaultPort, nil
		}
		return port, nil
	}))

	dsl.PrintDebugCallback = func(args ...interface{}) error {
		gologger.Debug().Msgf("print_debug value: %s", fmt.Sprint(args...))

View on GitHub (pinned to 265b3a3dec)

Solutions

1. Verify with `dig <host> <TYPE> +short` that the record exists for the target before using `resolve()` with that type in the template
2. If record absence is expected, do not gate the matcher on `resolve()`: use the dedicated `dns` protocol block with its own question/matcher, which handles empty answers gracefully
3. Restrict the template's matcher to targets known to have the record (e.g. via a preliminary condition), or default the format to '4'/'a' which nearly always resolves
4. For SDK/Go usage, treat the returned error as 'no match' rather than a scan failure — the error is per-expression and non-fatal to the scan

Example fix

# before
dsl:
  - resolve('{{BaseDomain}}','mx') != ''
# after (use the dns protocol, which matches on the actual DNS answer)
dns:
  - type: MX
    host: '{{BaseDomain}}'
    matchers:
      - type: word
        words:
          - '{{mx_record}}'

# pre-check the record exists before relying on resolve() in a template
# (shell equivalent of the guard)
dig +short "$HOST" MX | grep -q . && echo 'safe to use resolve(mx)' || echo 'skip'

func hasDNSRecord(host, rtype string) bool {
	// reuse miekg/dns or net.LookupMX style API; treat error as false
	_, err := net.LookupMX(host)
	return err == nil
}

// in Go SDK: evaluate DSL manually and degrade to no-match
result, err := govaluate.NewEvaluableExpressionWithFunctions(dslExpr, dsl.HelperFunctions)
if err != nil { /* compile error: template bug */ }
if _, err := result.Evaluate(data); err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no records found") {
		// record absence => not a finding, continue scan
	}
}

When it happens

Trigger: A DSL matcher/extractor such as `dsl: resolve('{{Hostname}}','mx') != ''` executed against a domain that has no MX records (or none of the requested type). The DNS exchange itself succeeds (a query error returns a different error), but rawResp.MX/TXT/CAA/etc. is empty or all-zero.

Common situations: Templates assuming a record type that the target zone does not publish (e.g. CAA or SRV on typical domains); internal/intranet hosts with split-horizon DNS that return empty answers; newly created domains with only A records; templating `resolve()` against arbitrary user-supplied targets where record absence is normal.

Related errors

• unresolved DSL placeholders must be inside string literals
• unresolved DSL placeholder %q is not inside a string literal
• invalid dns type
• failed to compile expression %q: %w
• failed to evaluate expression %q: %w

AI-assisted analysis of projectdiscovery/nuclei@265b3a3dec (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0ddb4c431ad508fe. Report an issue: GitHub.