Add Punycode Domain Name to Destination List

To block suspicious destinations and prevent phishing attacks, you can add a domain name that is encoded in Punycode to destination lists.

What is Punycode?

Punycode is a way to represent domain names that use characters outside of the standard ASCII set. The domain name system (DNS) accepts a subset of ASCII characters for domain name labels. Because Punycode uses characters that look similar, Punycode can be used to mislead unsuspecting users to malicious content.

In phishing attacks, a malicious actor may replace certain ASCII characters in a domain name with Unicode characters. A browser or mobile client displays the altered domain name (as Unicode) which closely resembles an authentic domain name. For example, bücher.com and bucher.com look similar but are different domains.

To prevent phishing attacks and block malicious domain names, encode a domain name that contains Unicode characters in Punycode. Once encoded, add the Punycode string to a destination list. For more information about Punycode, see RFC 3429.

Note: You must add Punycode-encoded domain names to a destination list one at a time.

Examples of Unicode and Punycode Encoded Strings

Add Top-Level Domains To Destination Lists < Add Punycode Domain Name to Destination List > Troubleshoot DNS Destination Lists