# Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP)

The Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) is an alternative protocol to WHOIS that specifies how to access internet resource registration data. It is specifically designed to address various shortcomings in WHOIS. It makes use of HTTPS and follows a RESTful (representational state transfer) web services model.

# Using RDAP to query the RIPE Database

The contents of RIPE database can be accessed using RDAP via https://rdap.db.ripe.net/{objectType}/{key} where {objectType} must be one of the object types listed below.

List of supported object types

Object Type Description
autnum AUT-NUM and AS-BLOCK objects. Example: https://rdap.db.ripe.net/autnum/3333
domain DOMAIN objects. Example: https://rdap.db.ripe.net/domain/193.0.6.139.in-addr.arpa
ip INETNUM and INET6NUM objects. Example: https://rdap.db.ripe.net/ip/193.0.0.0/21 or https://rdap.db.ripe.net/ip/2001:67c:2e8::/48
entity PERSON, ROLE and MNTNER objects. Example: https://rdap.db.ripe.net/entity/RIPE-NCC-MNT

The value of {key} depends on the object type.

For example:

curl -v https://rdap.db.ripe.net/ip/2001:67c:2e8:9::c100:14e6

queries for IP information, while

curl -v https://rdap.db.ripe.net/domain/193.0.6.139.in-addr.arpa

queries for domain information.

If the RIPE Database is not authoritative for the requested resource, the response will redirect to the authoritative RIR.

The entities path segment allows searching for matching entities based on a term. The output is an array with objects in RDAP format.

Syntax:

https://rdap.db.ripe.net/entities?fn={fn}&handle={handle}

Where:

  • fn: Returns all the matches for person:, role:, and org-name: attributes.
    • Example: https://rdap.db.ripe.net/entities?fn=RIPE-RIPE
  • handle: Returns all the matches for organisation:, nic-hdl: attributes.
    • Example: https://rdap.db.ripe.net/entities?handle=RIPE-RIPE

The domains path segment allows searching for matches based on a term. The output is an array with objects in RDAP format.

Syntax:

https://rdap.db.ripe.net/domains?name={name}

Where:

  • name: Returns all the matches for the domain: attribute
    • Example: https://rdap.db.ripe.net/domains?name=196.46.95.in-addr.arpa

# Help

The help path segment return a valid RDAP object containing the default set of notices for the service. The rdapConformance element in the response include the extension identifiers for all the extensions implemented.

Syntax:

https://rdap.db.ripe.net/help

# RDAP Specification

The RDAP protocol is specified in the following RFCs:

# RDAP profiles

In addition to the base RDAP specification, we also implement the following profiles:

# Known Issues

Known issues with the RDAP implementation for RIPE Database can be found on GitHub (opens new window).