WHOIS Agent — SiteSentinel

What This Agent Does

The WHOIS Agent retrieves domain registration information including registrar, creation date, expiration date, nameservers, and registrant details when available.

Category Information

Property	Value
Category Name	`Domain Info`
Category Icon
Source File	`src/checks/whois.check.js`

Information Retrieved

Domain Registrar

The company where the domain is registered (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare).

Creation Date

When the domain was first registered. Newer domains may indicate higher risk.

Expiration Date

When the domain registration expires. Soon-to-expire domains may be abandoned.

Updated Date

When domain records were last modified.

Nameservers

DNS servers handling the domain (reveals hosting provider).

Domain Age

Calculated time since domain creation.

Data Sources

Libraries Used

whois — WHOIS lookup library
Or external WHOIS API service

WHOIS Query

const whois = require('whois');
const hostname = new URL(url).hostname;

// Perform WHOIS lookup
whois.lookup(hostname, (err, data) => {
  if (err) {
    // Handle error
    return;
  }
  
  // Parse WHOIS data
  const registrar = extractField(data, 'Registrar:');
  const creationDate = extractField(data, 'Creation Date:');
  const expirationDate = extractField(data, 'Expiry Date:');
  const nameservers = extractNameservers(data);
});

WHOIS Privacy

Privacy Protection

Many domains use WHOIS privacy protection services that hide registrant details. This is legal and common, but can make it harder to verify site ownership.

Common privacy services include:

WhoisGuard (Namecheap)
Domains By Proxy (GoDaddy)
Cloudflare Privacy Protection
Contact Privacy Inc.

Domain Age Analysis

Domain Age	Risk Level	Notes
< 7 days	High Risk	Very new domains are often used for phishing
7-30 days	Elevated Risk	Still relatively new, warrants caution
1-6 months	Moderate	Could be legitimate new business
> 6 months	Lower Risk	Established domain (not a guarantee of safety)

Return Value

{
  category: 'Domain Info',
  icon: 'clipboard',
  score: null, // Informational, no score
  checks: [
    {
      name: 'Domain Registrar',
      status: 'info',
      description: 'Registered with Cloudflare, Inc.',
      severity: 'low'
    },
    {
      name: 'Domain Age',
      status: 'info',
      description: 'Domain is 3 years, 2 months old',
      severity: 'low'
    },
    {
      name: 'Expiration',
      status: 'info' | 'warn',
      description: 'Expires in 8 months',
      severity: 'low'
    }
  ],
  whoisData: {
    registrar: 'Cloudflare, Inc.',
    creationDate: '2022-10-15',
    expirationDate: '2026-10-15',
    nameservers: ['ns1.cloudflare.com', 'ns2.cloudflare.com']
  }
}