This is because under the Verisign GRS, name servers for second level domains also get entries created. So, you can create a Whois entry for an arbitrarily named server, like ycombinator.com.paulgraham.have.mychildren.com, and it will show up.
I haven't been involved in Whois and tld stuff in a while, but back in the day, these host Whois records were allowed because the gtld servers needed glue for domain names - after all, if your domain name is ycombinator.com and your name server is ns1.ycombinator.com, how can a resolver recurse to find that, unless te gtld servers also have an A record for that label/object?
So, you could just go create arbitrary A records at the gtld level, which would cause a corresponding Whois entry to be created. Hilarity for all involved.
Comments
This is because under the Verisign GRS, name servers for second level domains also get entries created. So, you can create a Whois entry for an arbitrarily named server, like ycombinator.com.paulgraham.have.mychildren.com, and it will show up.
I haven't been involved in Whois and tld stuff in a while, but back in the day, these host Whois records were allowed because the gtld servers needed glue for domain names - after all, if your domain name is ycombinator.com and your name server is ns1.ycombinator.com, how can a resolver recurse to find that, unless te gtld servers also have an A record for that label/object?
So, you could just go create arbitrary A records at the gtld level, which would cause a corresponding Whois entry to be created. Hilarity for all involved.