Usually we mean DNS uses UDP port 53 but TCP port 53 is reserved for DNS too.
After some time the one question may become interesting for any specialist working with information technologies or information security:
When does DNS use UDP or TCP?
After some time the one question may become interesting for any specialist working with information technologies or information security:
When does DNS use UDP or TCP?
Answer is provided by RFC5966, section 4. Transport Protocol Selection, where you may find such statements:
Most DNS [RFC1034] transactions take place over UDP [RFC0768]. TCP [RFC0793] is always used for zone transfers and is often used for messages whose sizes exceed the DNS protocol's original 512-byte limit.
So, every request except zone transfer (query type AXFR) and the large message (more than 512 bytes) containing one is processed by UDP.
One can ask: "Why AXFR and large messages must use TCP?". The reason is ability to use UDP-based services with large responses for DDoS-attacks.
One can ask: "Why AXFR and large messages must use TCP?". The reason is ability to use UDP-based services with large responses for DDoS-attacks.
All general-purpose DNS implementations MUST support both UDP and TCP transport.
It means that each DNS-server implementation must support both transport protocols.