Special Publication 800-81 

Sponsored by the 

Department of Homeland Security

Secure Domain Name System 

(DNS) Deployment Guide 

Recommendations of the National Institute 

of Standards and Technology

Ramaswamy Chandramouli 

Scott Rose

Secure Domain Name System (DNS)

Deployment Guide 

Recommendations of the National

Institute of Standards and Technology 

Ramaswamy Chandramouli 

Scott Rose

NIST Special Publication 800-81 

Sponsored by the Department of

Homeland Security

C O M P U T E R S E C U R I T Y

Computer Security Division

Information Technology Laboratory

National Institute of Standards and Technology

Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8930 

May 2006 

U.S. Department of Commerce 

Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary

Technology Administration

Robert C. Cresanti, Under Secretary of Commerce for

Technology

National Institute of Standards and Technology

William A. Jeffrey, Director
SECURE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM (DNS) DEPLOYMENT GUIDE

Reports on Computer Systems Technology

The Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology

(NIST) promotes the U.S. economy and public welfare by providing technical leadership for the nationís 

measurement and standards infrastructure. ITL develops tests, test methods, reference data, proof of

concept implementations, and technical analysis to advance the development and productive use of

information technology. ITLís responsibilities include the development of technical, physical,

administrative, and management standards and guidelines for the cost-effective security and privacy of

sensitive unclassified information in Federal computer systems. This Special Publication 800-series

reports on ITLís research, guidance, and outreach efforts in computer security and its collaborative

activities with industry, government, and academic organizations.

Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this

document in order to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. 

Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the

National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the

entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose.

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SECURE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM (DNS) DEPLOYMENT GUIDE

Acknowledgements

The authors, Ramaswamy Chandramouli and Scott Rose of the National Institute of Standards and 

Technology (NIST), wish to thank their colleagues who reviewed drafts of this document. Special thanks

are due for members of the Government DNSSEC Working Group who provided useful feedback and

pointers to some of the documents referred to in this document. The authors also thank Tim Grance of

NISTís Computer Security Division and Doug Montgomery of NISTís Advanced Network Technologies 

Division for their leadership and guidance throughout this project. We are especially grateful to Douglas 

Maughan of the Department of Homeland Security for the sponsorship of this effort. 

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SECURE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM (DNS) DEPLOYMENT GUIDE

Table of Contents

Executive Summary............................................................................................................ES-1

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1-1

1.1 Authority................................................................................................................ 1-1

1.2 Purpose and Scope............................................................................................... 1-1

1.3 Audience ............................................................................................................... 1-1

1.4 Document Structure .............................................................................................. 1-2

2. Securing Domain Name System................................................................................... 2-1

2.1 What is the Domain Name System (DNS)? ........................................................... 2-1

2.2 DNS Infrastructure................................................................................................. 2-2

2.3 DNS Components and Security Objectives ........................................................... 2-6

2.4 Focus of the Document ......................................................................................... 2-6

3. DNS Data and DNS Software ........................................................................................ 3-1

3.1 Zone File ............................................................................................................... 3-1

3.2 Name Servers ....................................................................................................... 3-1

3.2.1 Authoritative Name Servers........................................................................ 3-2

3.2.2 Caching Name Servers .............................................................................. 3-2

3.3 Resolvers .............................................................................................................. 3-2

4. DNS Transactions ......................................................................................................... 4-1

4.1 DNS Query/Response........................................................................................... 4-1

4.2 Zone Transfer........................................................................................................ 4-1

4.3 Dynamic Updates.................................................................................................. 4-2

4.4 DNS NOTIFY ........................................................................................................ 4-3

5. DNS Hosting EnvironmentóThreats, Security Objectives, and Protection 

Approaches ........................................................................................................................... 5-1

5.1 Host Platform Threats............................................................................................ 5-1

5.2 DNS Software Threats........................................................................................... 5-2

5.3 Threats Due to DNS Data Contents....................................................................... 5-2

5.4 Security Objectives................................................................................................ 5-2

5.5 Host Platform Protection Approach........................................................................ 5-3

5.6 DNS Software Protection Approach....................................................................... 5-3

5.7 DNS Data Content Control ñ Protection Approach ................................................ 5-3

6. DNS TransactionsóThreats, Security Objectives, and Protection Approaches ...... 6-1

6.1 DNS Query/Response Threats and Protection Approaches................................... 6-1

6.1.1 Forged or Bogus Response........................................................................ 6-1

6.1.2 Removal of Some RRs............................................................................... 6-2

6.1.3 Incorrect Expansion Rules Applied to Wildcard RRs .................................. 6-2

6.1.4 Protection Approach for DNS Query/Response ThreatsóDNSSEC........... 6-2

6.2 Zone Transfer Threats and Protection Approaches ............................................... 6-3

6.3 Dynamic Updates Threats and Protection Approaches.......................................... 6-4

6.4 DNS NOTIFY Threats and Protection Approaches ................................................ 6-5

6.5 Threats Summary.................................................................................................. 6-5

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7. Guidelines for Securing DNS Hosting Environment................................................... 7-1

7.1 Securing DNS Host Platform ................................................................................. 7-1

7.2 Securing DNS Software......................................................................................... 7-1

7.2.1 Running the Latest Version of Name Server Software................................ 7-1

7.2.2 Turning Off the BIND Version Query .......................................................... 7-2

7.2.3 Running Name Server Software with Restricted Privileges ........................ 7-2

7.2.4 Isolating the Name Server Software........................................................... 7-3

7.2.5 Dedicated Name Server Instance for Each Function .................................. 7-3

7.2.6 Removing Name Server Software from Nondesignated Hosts ................... 7-3

7.2.7 Network and Geographic Dispersion of Authoritative Name Servers.......... 7-4

7.2.8 Limiting Information Exposure through Partitioning of Zone Files ............... 7-4

7.2.9 Limiting Information Exposure through Separate Name Servers for Different

Clients 7-5

7.3 Content Control of Zone File.................................................................................. 7-5

7.4 Recommendations Summary ................................................................................ 7-6

8. Guidelines for Securing DNS Transactions................................................................. 8-1

8.1 Restricting Transaction Entities Based on IP Address ........................................... 8-1

8.1.1 Restricting DNS Query/Response Transaction Entities .............................. 8-2

8.1.2 Restricting Zone Transfer Transaction Entities........................................... 8-6

8.1.3 Restricting Dynamic Update Transaction Entities....................................... 8-7

8.1.4 Restricting DNS NOTIFY Transaction Entities............................................ 8-8

8.2 Transaction Protection through Hash-Based Message Authentication Codes (TSIG)8-9

8.2.1 Key Generation ........................................................................................ 8-11

8.2.2 Defining the Keys in the Communicating Name Servers .......................... 8-12

8.2.3 Instructing Name Servers to Use Keys in All Transactions ....................... 8-12

8.2.4 Checklists for Key File Creation and Key Configuration Process.............. 8-12

8.2.5 Securing Zone Transfers Using TSIG....................................................... 8-13

8.2.6 Securing Dynamic Updates Using TSIG or SIG(0) ................................... 8-13

8.2.7 Configuring Dynamic Update Forwarding Restrictions Using TSIG Keys.. 8-14

8.2.8 Configuring Fine-Grained Dynamic Update Restrictions Using TSIG/SIG(0)

Keys 8-14

8.3 Recommendations Summary .............................................................................. 8-16

9. Guidelines for Securing DNS Query/Response........................................................... 9-1

9.1 Enabling DNSSEC Processing in BIND................................................................. 9-1

9.2 DNSSEC Mechanisms and Operations ................................................................. 9-1

9.2.1 Sign and Serve........................................................................................... 9-1

9.2.2 Verify Signature.......................................................................................... 9-2

9.3 Generation of Public Key-Private Key Pair (DNSSEC-OP1).................................. 9-3

9.3.1 Key Pair GenerationóIllustrative Example................................................. 9-5

9.4 Secure Storage of Private Keys (DNSSEC-OP2) .................................................. 9-7

9.5 Publishing the Public Key (DNSSEC-OP3) and Setting Up Trust Anchors (DNSSECOP7) 9-7

9.6 Zone Signing (DNSSEC-OP4)............................................................................... 9-9

9.7 Establishing Trust Chain and Signature Verification (DNSSEC-OP8).................... 9-9

9.7.1 Recording and Communicating Results of Signature Verification ............. 9-12

9.8 Additional Protection Measures for DNS Query/Response .................................. 9-13

9.9 Dynamic Updates in a DNSSEC-Aware Zone...................................................... 9-13

9.10 Recommendations Summary .............................................................................. 9-16

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10. Guidelines for Minimizing Information Exposure through DNS Data Content Control

 10-1

10.1 Choosing Parameter Values in SOA RR.............................................................. 10-1

10.2 Information Leakage from Informational RRTypes............................................... 10-2

10.3 Using RRSIG Validity Periods to Minimize Key Compromise............................... 10-2

10.4 Recommendations Summary .............................................................................. 10-3

11. Guidelines for DNS Security Administration Operations ......................................... 11-1

11.1 Scheduled Key Rollovers (Key Lifetimes)............................................................ 11-1

11.1.1 Key Rollover in a Locally Secure Zone..................................................... 11-2

11.1.2 Key Rollover in a Chained Secure Zone................................................... 11-3

11.1.3 ZSK Key Rollover in a Chained Secure Zone........................................... 11-3

11.1.4 KSK Key Rollover in a Chained Secure Zone........................................... 11-3

11.2 Emergency Key Rollovers ................................................................................... 11-4

11.2.1 Emergency ZSK Rollover......................................................................... 11-4

11.2.2 Emergency KSK Rollover......................................................................... 11-5

11.3 Re-Signing a Zone .............................................................................................. 11-5

11.4 Recommendations Summary .............................................................................. 11-6

List of Appendices

Appendix Aó Definitions of Important Terms ....................................................................A-1

Appendix Bó Acronyms ......................................................................................................B-1

Appendix Có Bibliography..................................................................................................C-1

Appendix Dó Index ..............................................................................................................D-1

List of Figures

Figure 2-1. Partial DNS Name Space Hierarchy..................................................................... 2-3

Figure 2-2. Name Resolution Process (without cache search) ............................................... 2-5

Figure 9-1. RRSIG RRís RDATA Field Layout........................................................................ 9-2

Figure 9-2. A Mapping of Islands of Security.......................................................................... 9-8

List of Tables

Table 6-1. DNS Transaction Threats and Security Objectives................................................ 6-6

Table 8-1. Access Control Statement Syntax for DNS Transactions ...................................... 8-2

Table 9-1. Digital Signature Algorithms, Key Sizes, and Crypto Periods ................................ 9-5

Table 9-2. Impact of Trust Anchor in Labeling Responses ..................................................... 9-8

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SECURE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM (DNS) DEPLOYMENT GUIDE

Executive Summary

The Internet is the worldís largest computing network, with hundreds of million of users. From the

perspective of a user, each node or resource on this network is identified by a unique nameóthe domain

nameósuch as www.nist.gov. However, from the perspective of network equipment that routes

communications across the Internet, the unique identifier for a resource is an Internet Protocol (IP)

address, such as 172.30.128.27. To access Internet resources by user-friendly domain names rather than

IP addresses, users need a system that translates domain names to IP addresses and back. This translation

is the primary task of the Domain Name System (DNS).

The DNS infrastructure is made up of computing and communication entities that are geographically

distributed throughout the world. There are more than 250 top-level domains, such as .gov and .com, and

several million second-level domains, such as nist.gov and ietf.org. Accordingly, there are many name

servers in the DNS infrastructure, which each contain information about a small portion of the domain

name space. The DNS infrastructure functions through collaboration among the various entities involved.

The domain name data provided by DNS is intended to be available to any computer located anywhere in

the Internet. 

This document provides deployment guidelines for securing DNS within an enterprise. Because DNS

data is meant to be public, preserving the confidentiality of DNS data pertaining to publicly accessible IT

resources is not a security objective. The primary security goals for DNS are data integrity and source

authentication, which are needed to ensure the authenticity of domain name information and maintain the

integrity of domain name information in transit. This document provides extensive guidance on

maintaining data integrity and performing source authentication. Availability of DNS services and data is

also very important; DNS components are often subjected to denial of service attacks intended to disrupt 

access to the resources whose domain names are handled by the attacked DNS components. This

document presents guidelines for configuring DNS deployments to prevent many denial of service attacks 

that exploit vulnerabilities in various DNS components.

DNS is susceptible to the same types of vulnerabilities (platform, software, and network-level) as any

other distributed computing system. However, because it is an infrastructure system for the global

Internet, it has the following special characteristics not found in many distributed computing systems:

No well-defined system boundariesóparticipating entities are not subject to geographic or

topologic confinement rules 

No need for data confidentialityóthe data should be accessible to any entity regardless of the

entityís location or affiliation.

Because of these characteristics, conventional network-level attacks such as masquerading and message

tampering, as well as violations of the integrity of the hosted and disseminated data, have a completely

different set of functional impacts, as follows:

A masquerader that spoofs the identity of a DNS node can deny access to services for the set of

Internet resources for which the node provides information (i.e., domains served by the node).

This denial is not only for a limited set of clients but also for the entire universe of all clients 

needing access to those resources.

Bogus DNS information provided by a masquerader or intruder can poison the information cache

of the DNS node providing that subset of DNS information (i.e., the name server providing

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Internet access service to the enterpriseís users), resulting in a denial of service to the resources 

serviced by it.

Violation of the integrity of DNS information resident on its authoritative source or the

information cache of an intermediary that has accumulated information from several historical

queries may break the chained information retrieval process of DNS. This could result in either a

denial of service for DNS name resolution function or misdirection of users to a harmful set of

illegitimate resources.

If the name resolution data hosted by the DNS system violates content requirements as defined in

DNS standards, it could have adverse impacts such as increased workload on the DNS system, or

serving obsolete data that could result in denial of service to Internet resources. In most software,

program data independence (as in conventional database management systems [DBMS]) provides

a degree of buffer against adverse impacts due to erroneous data. In the case of DNS, the data

content determines the integrity of the entire system.

Based on these functional impacts, the deployment guidelines for secure DNS presented in this document 

broadly consist of the following generic and DNS-specific recommendations: 

Implement appropriate system and network security controls for securing the DNS hosting 

environment, such as operating system and application patching, process isolation, and network 

fault tolerance.

Protect DNS transactions such as update of DNS name resolution data and data replication that

involve DNS nodes within an enterpriseís control. The transactions should be protected using

hash-based message authentication codes based on shared secrets, as outlined in the Internet

Engineering Task Forceís (IETF) Transaction Signature (TSIG) specification.

Protect the ubiquitous DNS query/response transaction that could involve any DNS node in the

global Internet using digital signatures based on asymmetric cryptography, as outlined in IETFís

Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) specification.

Enforce content control of DNS name resolution data using a set of integrity constraints that are

able to provide the right balance between performance and integrity of the DNS system. 

This guide contains recommendations for securing a DNS name server. Part of those recommendations is

deployment of the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) for zone information. The basic steps to

accomplish that part of security are below:

Install a DNSSEC-capable name server implementation (see Section 7.2.1)

Check zone file(s) for any possible integrity errors (see Section 10)

Generate an asymmetric key pair for each zone and include them in the zone file (see Section 9.2 

and 9.3)

Sign the zone (see Section 9.6)

Load the signed zone onto the server

Configure name server to turn on DNSSEC processing (see Section 9.1) 

(Optional) Send copy of public key to parent for secure delegation.

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Note that this guide focuses on authoritative name servers for the most part, but the basic steps of

DNSSEC deployment for caching name servers are below:

Install a DNSSEC capable resolver implementation (see Section 7.2.1)

Obtain one or more trust anchors for zones the administrator wants validated (see Section 9.7)

Configure resolver to turn on DNSSEC processing (see Section 9.1).

The rest of the guide covers recommendations for secure configuration and operations of name servers.

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1. Introduction

1.1 Authority 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed this document in furtherance of its

statutory responsibilities under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002,

Public Law 107-347.

NIST is responsible for developing standards and guidelines, including minimum requirements, for

providing adequate information security for all agency operations and assets; but such standards and 

guidelines shall not apply to national security systems. This guideline is consistent with the requirements 

of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, Section 8b(3), ìSecuring Agency

Information Systems,î as analyzed in A-130, Appendix IV: Analysis of Key Sections. Supplemental

information is provided in A-130, Appendix III.

This guideline has been prepared for use by Federal agencies. It may be used by nongovernmental

organizations on a voluntary basis and is not subject to copyright, though attribution is desired. 

Nothing in this document should be taken to contradict standards and guidelines made mandatory and 

binding on Federal agencies by the Secretary of Commerce under statutory authority, nor should these

guidelines be interpreted as altering or superseding the existing authorities of the Secretary of Commerce,

Director of the OMB, or any other Federal official.

1.2 Purpose and Scope

This publication seeks to assist organizations in understanding the secure deployment of Domain Name

System (DNS) services in an enterprise. It provides practical guidance on securing each facet of DNS

within an organization based on an analysis of the operating environment and associated threats.

Currently, DNS is not the primary target of most attacks, but as hosts become more security aware, and

applications begin to rely on the DNS infrastructure for network operations, the DNS infrastructure will

become a more tempting target. The ultimate goal for DNSSEC is full deployment across the entire

domain tree on the infrastructure side, and implementation in applications that can demand the services

provided by DNSSEC. At present there are no operational nodes in the DNS domain tree that provide

DNSSEC capabilities. Hence, the first step towards fully deployment is to provide DNSSEC capability

for domain subtrees that have high security needs. Once DNSSEC capabilities become widely available

in the infrastructure, application developers will be able to develop DNSSEC-aware applications and thus 

use DNSSEC as a means for network security. 

In this guide, DNSSEC deployment is targeting the DNS infrastructure, not individual hosts. However, as

the infrastructure becomes more secure, DNSSEC will naturally push down to the individual clients that

make DNS queries. DNSSEC was designed with backward compatibility in mind, so that current 

network applications can gain some security from DNSSEC, provided that servers upstream are using 

DNSSEC, but in the future, it is hoped all systems (DNS name servers and clients) will be able to perform

at least some of the operations detailed in the DNSSEC specifications and this document.

1.3 Audience 

This document has been created for the administrators of DNS deployments, as well as computer security

staff and system administrators who are responsible for performing duties related to DNS. 

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1.4 Document Structure 

The remainder of this document is organized into the following ten major sections: 

Section 2 provides an introduction to DNS and DNS infrastructures. It also discusses the security

objectives of DNS and provides an overview of the aspects of DNS addressed by this document.

Section 3 introduces some basic DNS components, such as the zone file that holds DNS data, and

the name servers and resolvers that provide DNS services. 

Section 4 defines the different types of DNS transactions.

Section 5 discusses the threats, security objectives, and protection approaches involving the DNS

hosting environment. Section 6 provides the same types of information for DNS transactions.

Sections 7 and 8 present guidelines for securing the DNS hosting environment and DNS

transactions (except DNS query/response), respectively.

Section 9 provides recommendations for securing DNS query/response transactions.

Section 10 focuses on guidance for minimizing information exposure through DNS.

Section 11 presents guidelines for DNS security administration operations.

The document also contains appendices with supporting material. Appendix A presents definitions of

important DNS security terminology. Appendix B contains an acronym list, and Appendix C contains a

bibliography.

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2. Securing Domain Name System

This document provides deployment guidelines for securing the Domain Name System (DNS) in an

organization. The deployment guidelines follow from an analysis of security objectives and protection

approaches for all DNS components. The rationale for security objectives and mechanics for 

development of deployment guidelines are given below:

Security objectives for each DNS component are developed on the basis of analysis of the

operating environment and associated threats.

Secure deployment guidelines for each DNS component are provided through a combination of

configuration options and checklists that are based on policies or best practices.

The primary security specifications (with associated mechanisms) for which this document provides

deployment guidelines are as follows:

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC)

specifications, covered by Request for Comments (RFC) 4033, 4034, 4035, and 3833 [6,7,8,1]

1

IETF Transaction Signature (TSIG) specifications, covered by RFCs 2845 and 3007 [12,9].

2

2.1 What is the Domain Name System (DNS)?

The Internet is the worldís largest computing network, with more than 580 million users. From the

perspective of a user, each node or resource on this network is identified by a unique name: the domain

name. Some examples of Internet resources are: 

Web serversófor accessing Web sites 

Mail serversófor delivering e-mail messages 

Application serversófor accessing software systems and databases remotely.

From the perspective of network equipment (e.g., routers) that routes communication packets across the

Internet, however, the unique resource identifier is the Internet Protocol (IP) address, represented as a

series of four numbers separated by dots (e.g., 123.67.43.254). To access Internet resources by userfriendly domain names rather than these IP addresses, users need a system that translates these domain

names to IP addresses and back. This translation is the primary task of an engine called the Domain

Name System (DNS).

Users access an Internet resource (e.g., a Web server) through the corresponding client or user program

(e.g., a Web browser) by typing the domain name. To contact the Web server and retrieve the appropriate

Web page, the browser needs the corresponding IP address. It calls DNS to provide this information. 

This function of mapping domain names to IP addresses is called name resolution. The protocol that

DNS uses to perform the name resolution function is called the DNS protocol.

 1

 RFC 4033, DNS Security Introduction and Requirements, is available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4033.txt. RFC 4034,

Resource Records for the DNS Security Extensions, is available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4034.txt. RFC 4035, Personnel

Modifications for the DNS Security Extensions, is available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4035.txt. RFC 3833, Threat

Analysis of the Domain Name System (DNS), is available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3833.txt. 2

 RFC 2845, Secret Key Transaction Authentication for DNS (TSIG), is available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2845.txt. RFC

3007, Secure Domain Name System (DNS) Dynamic Update, is available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3007.txt. 

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The DNS function described above includes the following building blocks. First, DNS should have a data

repository to store the domain names and their associated IP addresses. Because the number of domain 

names is large, scalability and performance considerations dictate that it should be distributed. The

domain names may even need to be replicated to provide fault tolerance. Second, there should be

software that manages this repository and provides the name resolution function. These two functions

(managing the domain names repository and providing name resolution service) are provided by the

primary DNS component, the name server. There are many categories of name servers, distinguished by

type of data served and functions performed. To access the services provided by a DNS name server on 

behalf of user programs, there is another component of DNS called the resolver. There are two primary

categories of resolvers (caching/recursive/resolving name server and stub (non-caching) resolver),

3

distinguished by functionality. The communication protocol; the various DNS components; the policies

governing the configuration of these components; and procedures for creation, storage, and usage of

domain names constitute the DNS infrastructure.

2.2 DNS Infrastructure 

The DNS infrastructure is made up of computing and communication entities that are geographically

distributed throughout the world. To understand this DNS infrastructure, it is necessary first to examine

the structure behind the organization of domain names. The domain name space (the universe of all

domain names) is organized in the form of a hierarchy. The topmost level in the hierarchy is the root 

domain, which is represented as a dot (ì.î). The next level in the hierarchy is called the top-level domain

(TLD). There is only one root domain, but there are many TLDs. Each TLD is called a child domain of

the root domain. In this context, the root domain is the parent domain because it is one level above a

TLD. Each TLD, in turn, can have many child domains. The children of TLDs are called second-level or

enterprise-level domains. 

In a domain name representation, the symbol for the root domain usually is omitted. For example,

consider the domain name marketing.example.com. The rightmost label in this domain name (ìcom.î) is

a TLD. The next label to the left (ìexampleî) is the second-level or enterprise-level domain. The

leftmost label (ìmarketingî) is the third-level domain. It also is possible to have a fourth-level domain,

fifth-level domain, and so forth. Because each of the labels in marketing.example.com is called a domain

(TLD, second-level domain, third-level domain, etc.), the concatenation of all these labels from the

current level to the TLD is a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). In this document, however, the

FQDN is referred to as simply a domain name, and the level name is used to identify individual labels.

There is only one root domain. There are more than 250 TLDs, categorized into the following three

types:

Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs)ódomains associated with countries and territories. There are

more than 240 ccTLDs. Examples include .uk, .in, and .jp.

Sponsored generic TLDs (gTLDs)óspecialized domains with a sponsor representing a

community of interest. These TLDs include .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .aero, .coop, and .museum.

Unsponsored generic TLDs (gTLDs)ódomains without a sponsoring organization. The list of

unsponsored gTLDs includes .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .name, and .pro. 

 3 The caching/recursive/resolving name server is included under the category of resolver since it plays the dual role of being a 

resolver and a name server.

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There are several million enterprise-level (second-level or lower) domains. In fact, as of September 2004 

there were more than 60 million registered domain names. A partial DNS name space hierarchy is shown 

in Figure 2-1.

Root ì.î

.gov .com .uk .arpa

nist.gov dhs.gov example.com ac.uk co.uk in-addr.arpa

TLD

EnterpriseLevel

Domain

Figure 2-1. Partial DNS Name Space Hierarchy

There are many name servers in the DNS infrastructure. Each name server contains information about a

portion of the domain name space. Name servers are associated with levels as far as the first three levels

of domain name space are concerned. There are 13 name servers associated with the root level; they are 

called root servers. Two of the root servers are currently run by the U.S private sector corporation 

VeriSign; the rest are operated by other organizations around the world as a service to the Internet

community. The organizations that run name servers associated with a TLD are called registries. 

Generally, ccTLDs are run by designated registries in the respective countries, and gTLDs are run by

global registries. For example, VeriSign currently manages the name servers for the .com and .net TLDs,

a nonprofit entity called Public Internet Registry (PIR) manages the name servers for the .org TLD, and

another nonprofit organization called EDUCAUSE manages the name servers for the .edu TLD. All of

these registry organizations are subject to change, however. Domain registrants should be familiar with

the points of contact (called registrars) for their particular registry. The name servers associated with

enterprise-level domains and below are either run directly by the organizations that own those domains or

outsourced to Internet service providers (ISP) or other service providers.

The DNS infrastructure functions through collaboration among the various entities involved

(organizations that manage root servers, registries that run TLDs, etc.) A nonprofit, private sector

corporation, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), acts as the technical 

coordination body for aspects of DNS. For example, ICANN formulates policies for management of root

servers. ICANN also is the authority for creation of new TLDs. ICANN was established in 1998 by the

U.S. Department of Commerce.

A user (i.e., an individual or corporation) wishing to register a domain name (which can only be an

enterprise-level domain under a TLD) must contact an authorized entity called a registrar (which may

charge a fee, depending on the TLD in question). Registrars are companies that are authorized to register

domain names in a particular TLD (or even in a sub-domain of a TLD e.g. co.uk.) to end users. There are

registrars all over the world. When the registrar receives the userís registration request, the registrar 

verifies that the name is available by checking with the registry that manages the corresponding TLD (or

sub-domain under the TLD). If the name is available, the registrar registers the name with the appropriate

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registry. The registry then adds the new name to its registry database and publishes the new name in

DNS. Note that in some domains (some country codes and gTLDs for example), the same organization

acts as the registry and registrar for names in the domain. There is no middle organization that registers

names on behalf of the domain holder.

Organizations that register and obtain an enterprise-level domain name often have to create child domains

to properly identify Internet resources associated with various functional units. For example, the owner

of the domain name example.com might create the subdomain shipping to create and identify resources 

associated with the shipping department of the organization. Similarly, many other subdomains (in this

context, third-level domains) may be created to properly identify all of the Internet resources of the

organization. Often, however, in any one organization (that is, the owner of a second-level domain) there

will be many third-level domains but few Internet resources (Web servers, application servers, etc.) in

each of these domains. Hence, it is not economical to assign a unique name server for each of these thirdlevel and lower-level domains. Furthermore, it is administratively convenient to group all information

pertaining to an organizationís primary domain (i.e., a second-level or enterprise-level domain) and all its

subdomains into a single resource and manage it as a unit. 

To facilitate this grouping, the DNS defines the concept of a zone. A zone may be either an entire domain 

or a domain with one or more subdomains. A zone is a configurable entity within a name server under

which information on all Internet resources pertaining to a domain and a selected set of subdomains is

described. Thus, zones are administrative building blocks of the DNS name space, just as domains are the

structural building blocks. As a result, the term zone commonly is used even to refer to a domain that is

managed as a standalone administrative entity (e.g., the root zone, the .com zone). This document uses

the term zone to refer to a resource entity that contains domain name information about one or more

domains and is managed as a single administrative entity. In other words, the zone is the configurable

resource inside a deployed name server installation that contains the domain name information.

With this overall knowledge of DNS infrastructure (name servers and resolvers), domain names, zones,

name servers of various levels (i.e., root servers and TLD servers), and resolvers, the name resolution 

function can now be defined in more detail. When a user types the URL www.example.com into a Web 

browser, the browser program contacts a type of resolver called a stub resolver that then contacts a local

name server (called a recursive name server or resolving name server). The resolving name server will 

check its cache to determine whether it has valid information (the information is determined to be valid

on the basis of criteria described later in this document) to provide IP address for the accessed Internet

resource (i.e., www.marketing.example.com). If not, the resolving name server checks the cache to

determine whether it has the information regarding the name server for the zone marketing.example.com

(since this is the zone that is expected to contain the resource www.marketing.example.com). If the name

serverís IP address is in the cache, the resolverís next query will be directed against that name server. If

the IP address of the name server of marketing.example.com is not available in the cache, the resolver

determines whether it has the name server information for a zone that is one level higher than

marketing.example.com (i.e., example.com). If the name server information for example.com is not

available, the next search will be for the name server of the .com zone in the cache. 

If the complete search of the cache (as described above) does not yield the required information, the

resolving name server has no alternative but to start its search by querying the name server in the topmost

zone in the DNS name space hierarchy (i.e., the root server). If the cache search is successful, the 

resolving name server has to query the name servers in one of the levels below the root zone (in this

context, either marketing.example.com, example.com, or .com). Because the set of iterative queries

starting from the root server subsumes the set starting from any of the lower-level servers, this section

describes the name resolution process starting from the query sent to the root server by the resolving 

name server at the enterprise-level. 

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Contact with the root servers is enabled by a file called the ìroot hintsî file that is usually present in every

name server in DNS. The root hints file contains the IP address of one or more of the 13 root servers. 

The root server will contain information about the name servers for its child zones (i.e., TLDs). A TLD 

(e.g., .com) will contain name server information about its child zones (e.g., example.com). The name

server information about its child zones that is carried in a zone is called delegation information. The

delegation information is the one that is used by a zone to route name resolution requests for a resource

lower than it in the domain name hierarchy. Since the name resolution request in this example pertains to

a resource in the third-level domain, the root server must route the request to a lower-level name server.

The response to the resolving name server that involves sending this delegation information is called the

referral. The referral provides the name and IP address for the name servers for the TLD zone that is

relevant to the request (i.e., the .com zone) (since the query is for a resource in marketing.example.com). 

Using this referral, the resolving name server then formulates and sends a query to the .com zone name

server. This server will provide the referral for example.comís name server. If the 

marketing.example.com domain is included in example.comís zone, querying the name server for

example.com will provide the IP address for the resource www.marketing.example.com. A diagram of

the name resolution process (without cache search operations) is given in Figure 2-2.

Figure 2-2. Name Resolution Process (without cache search)

As the description of the name resolution process makes clear, a name server performs the following

functions:

It provides a referral to a child zone. 

It provides a mapping from domain name to IP address, called domain name resolution, or IP

address to domain name, sometimes called an inverse resolution, but is actually a standard query 

for a different type of data.

It provides an error message if the query is for a DNS entry that does not exist.

The name server performs these three functions with the same DNS database, which is called a zone file. 

A class of information called delegation information contains the name server information for child zones 

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in a parent zone and is used in performing the referral function. The mapping function is performed by a

class of information in a zone file called authoritative information and is provided by a set of records that

list the resources in that zone, along with its domain name and its corresponding IP address. Because the

resources belong to that zone, the information provided is deemed authoritative. Thus, a zone file contains

two categories of information: authoritative information (information about all resources for all domains 

in the zone) and delegation information (information about name servers for child zones). The locations 

in the zone file where delegation information appears are called delegation points. The level of a zone

file is the level of the topmost domain for which it contains authoritative information. In the previous 

example, the zone file in the name server of example.com is the enterprise-level zone file, and the 

corresponding name server is called the enterprise-level name server.

2.3 DNS Components and Security Objectives

Before security objectives can be determined, the building blocks of the DNS need to be specified. DNS

includes the following entities:

The platform (hardware and operating system) on which the name server and resolvers reside

The name server and resolver software

DNS transactions

DNS database (zone files)

Configuration files in the name server and resolver.

The media access-level network technology (i.e., Ethernet network connecting a stub resolver and the

local resolving name server) is not included in the definition of DNS.

Confidentiality, integrity, availability, and source authentication are security goals that are common to

any electronic system. However, DNS is expected to provide name resolution information for any 

publicly available Internet resource. Except for DNS data pertaining to internal resources (e.g., servers 

inside a firewall) that is provided by internal DNS name servers through secure channels, the DNS data

provided by public DNS name servers is not deemed confidential. Hence, confidentiality is not one of the

security goals of DNS. Ensuring the authenticity of information and maintaining the integrity of

information in transit is critical for efficient functioning of the Internet, for which the DNS provides the

name resolution service. Accordingly, integrity and source authentication are the primary DNS security

goals.

Because of the sheer diversity of name server platforms and the underlying networks in which DNS

components (such as name server software and resolver software) reside, preventing all types of denial of

service attacks is not feasible. Some baseline guidelines must be observed, however, to prevent denial of

service attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in the name server platform, zone file data content, and access 

control configuration for certain DNS transactions. 

2.4 Focus of the Document 

There are three main levels of name servers: root name servers, TLD name servers, and enterprise-level

name servers. This document provides deployment guidelines for securing name servers for the .gov

domain (zone) at the TLD level and for all enterprise-level name servers below the .gov TLD. Thus, the

guidelines cover secure configuration and operation of all name servers in all civilian agencies of the U.S.

Federal government. The target audience consists of zone administrators who are responsible for the

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configuration and operation of these name servers. The guidelines are equally applicable, however, to

any enterprise-level zone (e.g., mit.edu).

The security mechanisms to which the guidelines in this document apply conform to IETFís DNSSEC

and TSIG specifications. The guidelines in this document cover policies, configuration options, and

checklists for the following DNS components/associated operations: 

DNS hosting environment

ñ Host platform (OS, file system, communication stack)

ñ DNS software (name server, resolver)

ñ DNS data (zone file, configuration file)

DNS transactions

ñ DNS query/response

ñ Zone transfers 

ñ Dynamic updates

ñ DNS NOTIFY

Security administration

ñ Choice of algorithms and key sizes (TSIG and DNSSEC)

ñ Key management (generation, storage, and usage)

ñ Public key publishing and setting up trust anchors 

ñ Key rollovers (scheduled and emergency).

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3. DNS Data and DNS Software

The two primary software components of DNS are the name server and the resolver. The primary

functions of the name server are to host the database (called the zone file) containing domain information

and to provide responses to name resolution queries through authoritative responses or referrals. The

primary function of the resolver software is to formulate a name resolution query or series of queries. 

The primary DNS data is the zone file (the configuration file is another type of DNS data). Section 3.1 

discusses the composition of the zone file, and Sections 3.2 and 3.3 address the functions of various types

of name servers and resolvers, respectively. The discussion of name servers and resolvers is in the

enterprise-level context and may not apply to corresponding entities in the root and TLD levels.

3.1 Zone File

The zone file contains information about various resources in that zone. The information about each

resource is represented in a record called a resource record (RR). Because a zone may contain several

domains and several types of resources within each domain, the format of each RR contains fields for

making this identification. Specifically, the RR consists of the following major fields:

Owner name: the domain name or a resource name 

TTL: time to live in seconds 

Class: at present only one class, IN (denoting Internet), is used

RRType: type of resource

RData: information about the resource (depends upon RRType).

Some of the common RRTypes are:

A: Address RRType. An RR of this type provides the IP address for a host name (identified 

using a FQDN).

MX: Mail Exchanger RRType. An RR of this type provides the mail server host name for a

domain.

NS: Name Server RRType. An RR of this type provides a name server host name for a domain. 

IETF RFC 1035 provides the complete format of valid RRTypes in DNS.

4

 Because there could be

multiple resources of a given RRType (e.g., several hosts acting as name servers) under the same owner

name and since there is only one class (CLASS) (i.e., IN), the information of interest (e.g., all mail

servers [RRType = MX] in a domain) in a zone file is on a combination of RRs that contain the same

owner name, TTL, class, and RRType. The set of RRs with the same owner name, class, and RRType is

called an RRSet. Hence, logically a zone file is made up of several RRSets.

3.2 Name Servers

There are two main types of name servers: authoritative name servers and caching name servers. The

term authoritative is with respect to a zone. If a name server is an authoritative source for RRs for a

particular zone (or zones), it is called an authoritative name server for that zone (or zones). An

authoritative name server for a zone provides responses to name resolution queries for resources for that

 4

 RFC 1035, Domain Names - Implementation and Specification, is available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1035.txt. 

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zone, using the RRs in its own zone file. A caching name server (also called a resolving/recursive name

server), by contrast, provides responses either through a series of queries to authoritative name servers in

the hierarchy of domains found in the name resolution query or from a cache of responses built by using 

previous queries. 

3.2.1

3.2.2

Authoritative Name Servers 

There are two types of authoritative name servers: master (or primary) name server and slave (or

secondary) name server. To improve fault tolerance, there could be several slave name servers in an

enterprise. A master name server contains zone files that are created and edited manually by the zone

administrator. Sometimes a master name server allows the zone file to be dynamically updated by

authorized DNS clients. A master name server that is configured with this feature usually is called the

primary master name server. A slave (secondary) name server also contains authoritative information for 

a zone, but its zone file is a replication of the one in the associated master name server. The replication is

enabled through a transaction called zone transfer that transfers all RRs from the zone file of a master

name server to the slave name server. Because a name resolution query is for a specific RR, a zone

transfer actually is treated as a category of name resolution query with type code AXFR, which means 

ìall RRs for the zone that is being queriedî. Whenever the contents of a zone file are changed in the

master name servers, the slave name servers are notified of the change through a transaction called DNS 

NOTIFY. When a slave name server receives this request, it initiates a zone transfer request to the master

name server. 

Caching Name Servers 

A caching name server generally is the local name server in the enterprise that performs the name

resolution function on behalf of the various enterprise clients. A caching name server also is called a

resolving/recursive name server. The name resolution function is performed by a caching name server in

response to queries from a stub resolver. The search process involved in name resolution may involve

searching its own cache, recursively querying various authoritative name servers through a set of iterative

queries, or a combination of these methods.

A specific name server can be configured to be both an authoritative and a recursive name server. In this

configuration, the same name server provides authoritative information for queries pertaining to

authoritative zones while it performs the resolving functions for queries pertaining to other zones. To

perform the resolving function, it has to support recursive queries. Any server that supports recursive

queries is more vulnerable to attack than a server that does not support such queries (see the following

sections). As a result, authoritative information might be compromised. Hence, it is not a good security

practice to configure a single name server to perform both authoritative and recursive functions.

3.3 Resolvers 

Software such as Web browsers and e-mail clients that require access to Internet resources make use of

the DNS client, called the client resolver or stub resolver. The stub resolver formulates a name resolution

query for the resource sought by the Internet-accessing software and sends it to a caching (resolving)

name server in the enterprise. Stub resolvers generally are configured with a list of two or more resolving

name servers to provide some fault tolerance for their operation. A stub resolver often is referred to as

simply a resolver. A caching (resolving) name server that receives a query from a stub resolver also

formulates queries for sending them to authoritative name servers (if it is not able to respond to the query

from its cache) and hence also sometimes is referred to as a resolver because it has a resolving component

and a caching (name server) component. 

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4. DNS Transactions

The most common types of DNS transactions are the following:

DNS query/response

Zone transfer

Dynamic updates

DNS NOTIFY.

This section describes each of these transaction types.

4.1 DNS Query/Response 

This is the most common transaction in DNS. A DNS query originates from a resolver; the destination is

an authoritative or caching name server. The most common query is a lookup for an RR, based on its

owner name or RRType. The response may consist of a single RR, an RRSet, or an appropriate error

message.

As discussed previously, there are two types of queries: iterative and recursive. DNS resolvers that send

iterative queries tend to be more robust with regard to the types of responses they provide because they

may have to follow multiple referrals to obtain the final answer to a given query. If they also have a DNS

cache, they can build up a global view of name servers in the DNS and the responses from previous 

queries. This can be used to shorten the turnaround time for future queries. Recursive queries usually are

sent from stub resolvers that do not have the capability to handle complex DNS operations. Instead, they

rely on an upstream DNS entity (usually a name server with a cache that sends iterative queries on behalf

of a collection of stub resolvers) to perform the query and return the ultimate answer.

DNS queries are sent in a single UDP packet. The response usually is a single UDP packet as well, but 

data size may result in truncation, in which case the normal procedure is to reissue the query using TCP. 

UDP is preferred because of its lower overhead in consuming resources, and DNS administrators should

make sure the zone data in responses do not result in a large percentage of truncated DNS responses.

DNS queries are sent in the clear, and it is assumed that the response received is correct and from an

authentic source. As a result, it is possible for an active attacker to intercept (and alter) or forge responses

back to a querying client. Section 6.1 provides a more detailed examination of threats to the DNS

query/response transaction. Sections 8.1.1 and 9 provide security solutions proposed to address these

threats.

4.2 Zone Transfer

A zone transfer refers to the way a (secondary) slave server refreshes the entire contents of its zone file

from the (primary) master servers. This process enables a secondary name server to keep its zone file in

synch with its primary name server. A zone transfer transaction starts as a query from a secondary name

server to a primary name server. A zone transfer queryóin contrast to a DNS queryórequests all RRs

from a zone instead of requesting RRs of a given owner name or RRType. A zone transfer query 

originates from a secondary name server either in response to a DNS NOTIFY message (see Section 4.4)

or on the basis of the value of the Refresh data item in the RData field of the zoneís Start of Authority 

(SOA) RR.

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A zone transfer process has different security implications because it reveals a lot more information than a

normal DNS query and because of the increased resource usage of the message. The threats to a zone

transfer transaction are discussed in Section 6.2. The protection mechanisms are discussed in Sections

8.1.2 and 8.2.5.

4.3 Dynamic Updates

As enterprises add, delete, and move around IP-network-based resources (i.e., database servers, Web 

servers, mail servers, and even name servers), corresponding changes may need to be made to the zone

file that carries information about the domains where the resources are located. In the early days of DNS,

DNS zone administrators made such changes manually. When such changes became larger in volume

and more frequent, however, the manual update process was found to be inadequate, and the concept of

dynamic updates was introduced. Apart from volume and frequency, there are some applications that

require instant automatic updates to the DNS zone file through application programs. Examples of these

applications include Certificate Authority (CA) servers, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

servers, and Internet multicast address servers.

In a few instances, the DNS server is used as a repository for public key certificates. In these cases, a CA

server receives a public key from a user, signs it with its private key to generate a certificate, and stores

this certificate as a CERT-type RR (CERT RR) in a DNS server. A DHCP server dynamically assigns an

IP address to a requesting host, and then adds this information (host and newly assigned IP address) as an

A-type RR. The DHCP server also deletes this A-type RR after the IP address is returned by the host. An

Internet multicast server selects a new multicast IP address from the Internet multicast IP address space

and assigns it to the newly generated multicast group. Then the server adds this information (domain 

name of multicast group, newly selected multicast address) as an A-type RR in the DNS database so that

users can join the multicast group using a domain name rather than an IP address.

RFC 2136 [7] outlines the roadmap for the dynamic update mechanism, which subsequently was 

implemented in BIND 8 version and has continued in all versions since.

5

The dynamic update facility provides operations for addition and deletion of RRs in the zone file.

Because updates to the contents of an existing RR can be accomplished through deletion of the old record

and addition of the new record with the changed contents, no separate update operation is provided.

The suite of operations included in the dynamic update facility consists of the following:

Add or delete individual RRs for an existing domain 

Delete specific RRsets (a set of resource records with the same owner name, class, and RRType

[e.g., a set of RRs with RRType NS for the domain/owner name example.com with the common

class IN of course]) for an existing domain 

Delete an existing domain (all resource records for a given domain name [e.g., all RRs for the

domain example.com])

Add a new domain (one or more RRs for a new domain [e.g., adding an A-type RR for a new

domain NYBranch.example.com]).

 5

 RFC 2136, Dynamic Updates in the Domain Name System (DNS UPDATE), is available at

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2136.txt. 

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DNS zones that allow dynamic update open themselves to a host of malicious attacks. The full list of

potential attacks is detailed in Section 6.3. The proposed solution to limit or prevent these attacks is

given in Sections 8.1.3, 8.2.6, 8.2.7, and 8.2.8.

4.4 DNS NOTIFY

Whenever changes occur in the zone file of the primary (master) DNS server, the secondary (slave) DNS

servers that are supposed to carry identical data as the primary DNS server must be notified of the

changes. This notification is accomplished through the DNS NOTIFY message, which signals a

secondary DNS server to initiate a zone transfer (see Section 4.2). The DNS NOTIFY message is a much

more efficient and faster way of keeping secondary servers in sync with the primary server than the

alternative approach of secondary servers polling the primary server for changes via the SOA Refresh

value timeout.

Sending the DNS NOTIFY message, called a notify operation, is a default operation in BIND 9.x. The

next question that arises is: How does the DNS name server software know to which servers the DNS

NOTIFY message must be sent? The default in BIND 9.x is to notify servers that are defined in the NS

RRs for the zone. If there are any additional servers to which the zone administrator wants the DNS

NOTIFY message to be sent (e.g., stealth slave server), the DNS administrator can add the IP addresses of

the other entities in the BIND configuration file. The administrator also can stop the server from sending

notify messages for either a single zone or all the zones served by this name server through configuration

options. 

Once a secondary server receives a DNS NOTIFY message, it resets the relevant zoneís refresh value to

zero, prompting a zone transfer attempt. As in any zone refresh, if the zone serial number in the SOA RR 

has not increased (see Section 10.1), the zone transfer does not take place. This procedure allows changes 

to the zone to propagate to all name servers more quickly.

Since a DNS NOTIFY message triggers zone transfer, spurious DNS NOTIFY messages could result in

unnecessary zone transfers and hence potential denial of service. The proposed solution for minimizing

these spurious notifications is given in Section 8.1.4. 

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5. DNS Hosting EnvironmentóThreats, Security Objectives, and Protection

Approaches 

The DNS hosting environment consists of the following elements:

Host platform (operating system [OS], file system, communication stack)

DNS software (name server, resolver) 

DNS data (zone file, configuration file).

This section describes threats and recommended protection approaches for these portions of the hosting

environment.

5.1 Host Platform Threats

Threats to the platform that hosts DNS software are no different from threats that any host in the Internet

faces. These generic threats and their impactóviewed specifically from the point of view of DNS

hostsóare as follows:

Threat T1: The OS, any system software, or any other application software on the DNS host

could be vulnerable to attacks such as buffer overflows, resulting in denial of name resolution 

service.

Threat T2: The TCP/IP stack in DNS hosts (stub resolver, caching/resolving/recursive name

server, authoritative name server, etc.) could be subjected to packet flooding attacks (such as

SYNC and smurf), resulting in disruption of communication. An application layer counterpart of

this attack is to send a large number of forged DNS queries to overwhelm an authoritative or

resolving name server.

Threat T3: A malicious insider who has access to local area network (LAN) segments where

DNS hosts reside could launch an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing attack that

disrupts DNS message flows.6

Threat T4: The platform-level configuration file that enables communication (e.g., resolv.conf

and host.conf in Unix platforms) can be corrupted by viruses and worms or subject to

unauthorized modifications due to inadequate file-level protections, resulting in breakdown of

communication among DNS hosts (e.g., between a stub resolver and a resolving name server, 

between a resolving name server and an authoritative name server).

Threat T5: The DNS-specific configuration files (named.conf, root.hints, etc.), data files (zone

file), and files containing cryptographic keys could be corrupted by viruses and worms or

subjected to unauthorized modifications due to inadequate file-level protections, resulting in

improper functioning of name resolution service.

Threat T6: A malicious host on the same LAN as a DNS client may be able to intercept and/or

alter DNS responses. This would allow an attacker to redirect a client to a different site. This

could be the first action in an attack on a client host.

 6 This is not strictly a host threat, but rather a network threat, which is mitigated by placing DNS servers within their own

restricted LAN segments (e.g., via VLANs). Since generic network level threats are outside the scope of this document, this

threat has been included since it involves a DNS parameter (i.e., IP address).

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5.2 DNS Software Threats

Threats to the DNS software itself can have serious security impacts. The most common software

problems and the impact of threats against them are as follows:

Threat T6: DNS software (name server or resolver) could have vulnerabilities such as buffer

overflows that result in denial of service.

Threat T7: DNS software does not provide adequate access control capabilities for its

configuration files (e.g., named.conf), its data files (e.g., zone file) and files containing signing 

keys (e.g., TSIG, DNSKEY) to prevent unauthorized read/update of these files. These

capabilities are provided on top of OS file-level protection referred to in threats T4 and T5 and 

may depend upon the latter.

5.3 Threats Due to DNS Data Contents

DNS data is made up of two types: zone files and configuration files. The content of both these types of

DNS data has security ramifications. All the security deployment options discussed in this document 

relate to configuration file contents. Security implications due to zone file content are discussed in

Section 10, ìGuidelines for Minimizing Information Exposure through DNS Content Controlî, and are

mostly due to the following aspects of zone data:

Parameter values for certain key fields in RRs of various RRTypes

Presence of certain RRs in the zone file. 

The various types of undesirable contents in the zone file result in different security exposures and

potential threats as follows: 

Threat T8óLame Delegation: This error occurs when FQDN and/or IP addresses of name

servers have been changed in the child zone but the parent zone has not updated the delegation

information (NS RRs and glue records). In this situation, the child zone becomes unreachable

(denial of service).

Threat T9óZone Drift and Zone Thrash: If the Refresh and Retry fields in the SOA RR of the

primary name server are set too high and the zone file is changed frequently, there may be a

mismatch of data between the primary and secondary name servers. This error is called zone

drift; it results in incorrect zone data at the secondary name servers. If the Refresh and Retry 

fields in the SOA RR are set too low, the secondary server will initiate zone transfers frequently. 

This error is called zone thrash; it results in more workload on both the primary and secondary

name servers. Such incorrect data or increased workload may result in denial of service.

Threat T10óInformation for Targeted Attacks: RRs such as HINFO and TXT provide

information about software name and versions (e.g., for resources such as Web servers and mail 

servers) that will enable the well-equipped attacker to exploit the known vulnerabilities in those

software versions and launch attacks against those resources.

5.4 Security Objectives

Common objectives with respect to protection of the DNS host platform, DNS software, and DNS data

are integrity and availability.

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5.5 Host Platform Protection Approach

The protection/threat mitigation approaches for the DNS host platform consist of the following:

Running a secure OS

Secure configuration/deployment of OS.

These approaches are discussed in Section 7.1.

5.6 DNS Software Protection Approach

Best practice protection approaches for DNS software are as follows:

Running the latest version of name server software, or an earlier version with appropriate patches

Running name server software with restricted privileges

Isolating name server software

Setting up a dedicated name server instance for each function

Removing name server software from nondesignated hosts 

Creating a topological and geographic dispersion of authoritative name servers for fault tolerance

Limiting IT resource information exposure through two different zone files in the same physical

name server (termed split DNS) or through separate name servers for different client classes. 

These approaches are described in Sections 7.2.1 through 7.2.8.

5.7 DNS Data Content Control ñ Protection Approach 

Control of undesirable content in the zone file is accomplished by analyzing the contents for security

implications, formulating integrity constraints that will check for the presence of such contents and 

verifying the zone file data for satisfaction of those constraints. Therefore, the only protection approach

is to develop the zone file integrity checker software that contains the necessary constraints and can be

run against the zone file to flag those contents that violate the constraints. To aid in formulation of

constraints, desirable field values (ranges or lists) in the various RRs of zone file are required. These

constraints need to be developed not only for RRs in an unsigned zone but also for additional RRs in a

signed zone (zones that have implemented the DNSSEC specification). Hence, the recommendations for

control of content of zone files are deferred to Section 10 after discussion of deployment guidelines for

DNSSEC in Section 9 so that they cover those additional RRs as well.

The services provided by DNS also face threats resulting from vulnerabilities in network infrastructure

components such as routers. Network configuration issues are outside the scope of this guidance

document, however.

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6. DNS TransactionsóThreats, Security Objectives, and Protection

Approaches 

The threats to a DNS transaction depend on the type of transaction. Name resolution queries and 

responses (DNS query/response) between DNS clients (stub resolver or resolving name server) and DNS

servers (caching/resolving name server or authoritative name server) could involve any nodes in the

Internet; hence, the threats against them are much greater in number and severity compared to those for

zone transfer, dynamic update, and DNS NOTIFY transactions. In general, the nodes involved in zone

transfer, dynamic update, and DNS NOTIFY transactions are all within the administrative domain of a 

single organization. The only exceptions are instances in which the primary or secondary name servers of

an organization are run on its behalf by ISPs or other organizations. There usually is a preexisting trust 

relationship in these cases, however, so it is not difficult to set up a mutual authentication system for DNS

zone transfers.

6.1 DNS Query/Response Threats and Protection Approaches

DNS name resolution queries and responses (DNS query/response) generally involve single, unsigned,

and unencrypted UDP packets. The known threats to DNS query/response transactions have been

documented in IETF RFC 3833 and can be classified as follows:

Threat T11: Forged or bogus response

Threat T12: Removal of some RRs from the response

Threat T13: Incorrect expansion rules applied to wildcard RRs in a zone file.

6.1.1 Forged or Bogus Response

A forged or bogus response is a response that is different from the one that is expected from a legitimate

authoritative name server. A bogus response can originate from: 

A compromised authoritative name server (for queries originating from a resolving name server)

A poisoned cache of a resolving name server (for queries originating from a stub resolver).

An authoritative name server could be compromised by a platform-level attack on its OS or

communication stack (see Section 5.1).

The cache of a resolving (caching) name server could be poisoned by the following attacks:

Packet Interception. In this type of attack, the attacker eavesdrops on a request and is able to

generate and send a response by spoofing an authoritative name server before the real response

from the legitimate authoritative name server reaches the resolving name server.

ID Guessing and Query Prediction. In this type of attack, the attacker guesses the ID field in

the header of the DNS request message (because this field is only 16 bits long, brute force

guessing is possible) and possibly the QNAME and QTYPE (owner name and RRType,

respectively). The attacker then injects bogus data into the network as a response by spoofing a

name server. 

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Responses Accumulated from a Compromised Authoritative Name Server. A compromised

authoritative name server is directed by a controlling adversary to send out bogus responses to

queries from resolving name servers.

The impacts on a system serviced by a resolving name server that has a poisoned cache are as follows:

Denial of Service. If some crucial RRs such as address records (A RRs) are forged, the system

that requires this information can never establish connectivity with the intended node.

Client Redirection through Cache Poisoning. Client redirection is performed by selective

poisoning of DNS RRs whose RDATA element contains a name. Examples of such RRs are

CNAME, NS, and MX. The name resolution (i.e., IP address) information for these names is

found in a set of additional information (or glue records when discussing a delegation response). 

Normally the resolving name server obtains these necessary A/AAAA RRs through follow-up 

queries (also called triggered queries). The responses flowing into the network from these

follow-up queries present yet another opportunity for the attacker to insert bogus records. First,

the attacker can introduce arbitrary names of the attackerís choosing in the RDATA portion of

selected RRs; then the attacker can insert the IP addresses of servers (chosen by the attacker) in

associated glue records that are transmitted as an answer to follow-up queries. This type of attack

on two sets of related responses is called a name chaining attack. The overall effect of poisoning

the cache of a resolving name server this way is to misdirect several clients who are making use

of the services of that resolving name server. Redirecting the users to nodes of the attackerís

choosing may enable the attacker to capture sensitive information such as passwords.

6.1.2 

6.1.3 

6.1.4

 

Removal of Some RRs

Apart from injecting bogus or forged data in a response, an attacker also could remove RRs from a

response. This action might result in a name resolution query failure and denial of service.

Incorrect Expansion Rules Applied to Wildcard RRs

Many zones use wildcard RRs to economize on the volume of data in the zone file. The wildcard patterns 

are used for synthesizing RRs on the fly in generating responses for name resolution queries. (The

synthesis rules are outlined in section 4.3.2 of IETF RFC 1034 [4].)

7

 If synthesis rules are applied

incorrectly in a name server, the RRs associated with resources existing in an organization may not be

generated and made available in a DNS response. This fault also results in denial of service.

Protection Approach for DNS Query/Response ThreatsóDNSSEC

The underlying feature in the major threat associated with DNS query/response (i.e., forged response or

response failure) is the integrity of DNS data returned in the response. Hence, the security objective is to

verify the integrity of each response received. An integral part of integrity verification is to ensure that

valid data has originated from the right source. Establishing trust in the source is called data origin 

authentication. Hence, the security objectivesóand consequently the security servicesóthat are required

for securing the DNS query/response transaction are data origin authentication and data integrity 

verification.

These services could be provided by establishing trust in the source and verifying the signature of the data

sent by that source. The specification for a digital signature mechanism in the context of the DNS

infrastructure is in IETFís DNSSEC standard. The objectives, additional RRs, and DNS message

7

 RFC 1034, Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities, is available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1034.txt. 

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contents involved in DNSSEC are specified through RFCs 4033, 4034, and 4035. In DNSSEC, trust in

the public key (for signature verification) of the source is established not by going to a third party or a

chain of third parties (as in public key infrastructure [PKI] chaining), but by starting from a trusted name

server (such as the root name server) and establishing the chain of trust down to the current source of

response through successive verifications of signature of the public key of a child by its parent. The

public key of the trusted name servers is called the trust anchor. 

After authenticating the source, the next process DNSSEC calls for is to authenticate the response. This

requires that responses consist of not only the requested RRs but also an authenticator associated with

them. In DNSSEC, this authenticator is the digital signature of an RRSet. The digital signature of an

RRSet is encapsulated through a special RRType called RRSIG. The DNS client using the trusted public

key of the source (whose trust has just been established) then verifies the digital signature to detect if the

response is valid or bogus. 

To ensure that RRs associated with a query are really missing in the zone file and have not been removed

in transit, the DNSSEC mechanism provides a means for authenticating the nonexistence of an RR. It

generates a special RR called an NSEC RR that lists the RRTypes associated with an owner name as well

as the next name in the zone file. It sends this special RR, along with its signature, to the resolving name

server. By verifying this signature, a DNSSEC-aware resolving name server can determine which

authoritative owner name exists in a zone and which authoritative RRTypes exist at those owner names.

To protect against the threat of incorrect application of expansion rules for wildcard RRs, the DNSSEC 

mechanism provides a means of comparing the validated wildcard RR against an NSEC RR and thereby

verifying that the name server applied the wildcard expansion rules correctly in generating an answer.

DNSSEC can guarantee the integrity of name resolution responses to DNS clients acting on behalf of

Internet-based resources, provided the clients perform the DNSSEC signature verification. In many

cases, however, these DNS clients are stub resolvers that are not DNSSEC-aware. If signature

verification is performed by the resolving name server providing name resolution service for the clients,

the end-to-end integrity of the response data can be guaranteed only by protecting the communication 

channel between the resolving name server and the stub resolver.

IETFís design criteria consider DNS data to be public; hence, confidentiality is not one of the security

goals of DNSSEC. DNSSEC is not designed to directly protect against denial of service threats, although

it does so indirectly by providing message integrity and source authentication. DNSSEC also does not 

provide communication channel security because name resolution queries and responses travel over

millions of nodes of the public Internet. DNSSEC also can lead to a new type of weakness that did not 

exist in DNS before. An artifact of how DNSSEC performs negative responses allows a client to map all

the names in a zone. This could be a pretext to an attack, as an attacker can get a ìmapî of a target zone

with all domain names and IP addresses in the zone. Therefore, it is advisable that a zone only contain 

zone data that the administrator wants to be made public. For internal DNS, something like split DNS

(see Section 7.2.7) could be deployed.

6.2 Zone Transfer Threats and Protection Approaches

Zone transfers are performed to replicate zone files in multiple servers to provide a degree of fault 

tolerance in the DNS service provided by an organization. Threats from zone transfers have not been

documented formally through any IETF RFCs. A few threats could be expected, however: the first threat, 

denial of service, is common for any network transaction. The second threat is common to any network 

packet.

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Threat T14óDenial of Service: Because zone transfers involve the transfer of entire zones, they

place substantial demands on network resources relative to normal DNS queries. Errant or

malicious frequent zone transfer requests on the name servers of the enterprise can overload the

master zone server and result in denial of service to legitimate users.

Threat T15: The zone transfer response message could be tampered.

The denial of service can be minimized if the servers allowed to make zone transfer requests are restricted

to a set of known entities. To configure this restriction into the primary name server, there should be a

means of identifying those entities. Name server software such as BIND initially provided a

configuration feature to restrict zone transfer requests to a set of designated IP addresses. Because IP

addresses can be spoofed, however, this mode of configuration does not provide an adequate means of

restricting zone transfer access. 

The IETF developed an alternate mechanism called a transaction signature (TSIG), whereby mutual

identification of servers is based on a shared secret key. Because the number of servers involved in zone

transfer is limited (generally restricted to name servers in the same administrative domain of an

organization), a bilateral trust model that is based on a shared secret key may be adequate for most 

enterprise (except for very large ones). TSIG specifies that the shared secret key be used not only for 

mutual authentication but also for signing zone transfer requests and responses. Hence, it provides

protection against tampering of zone transfer response messages (threat T15). Protection of DNS data

alone (the payload) in a zone transfer message also can be ensured through verification of signature

records accompanying RRs from a DNSSEC-signed zone. These signatures, however, do not cover all

the information in a zone file (e.g., delegation information). Furthermore, they enable verification of only

the individual RRsets and not the entire zone transfer response message.

There is also another method to authenticate DNS transactions by using asymmetric cryptography (i.e.

public key cryptography). The format of the SIG(0) RR is similar to the resource record signature

(RRSIG) RR (see Section 9.2.1), and can be validated using a public key stored in the DNS (instead of a

shared secret key). SIG(0) can be more computationally expensive to use, but offers an advantage in that

a previous trust relationship may not be necessary to use SIG(0) signed messages. However, since most 

zone transfers occur between parties that have a previously established relationship, it is considered easier

to implement TSIG for authenticating zone transfer transactions.

6.3 Dynamic Updates Threats and Protection Approaches

Dynamic updates involve DNS clients making changes to zone data in an authoritative name server in real

time. Clients typically performing dynamic updates are CA servers, DHCP servers, and Internet multicast 

address servers. As with zone transfer transactions, the threats associated with dynamic update

transactions have not been officially documented by the IETF through an RFC. The following are some

common threats that could be expected, based on the fact that dynamic updates involve a data update

request transiting a network.

Threat T16óUnauthorized Updates: Unauthorized updates could have several harmful 

consequences for the content of zone data. Some harmful data operations include: (a) adding

illegitimate resources (new FQDN and new RRs to a valid zone file), (b) deleting legitimate

resources (entire FQDN or specific RRs), and (c) altering delegation information (NS RRs

pointing to child zones).

Threat T17: The data in a dynamic update request could be tampered.

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Threat T18óReplay Attacks: Update request messages could be captured and resubmitted 

later, thus causing inappropriate updates.

Threats T16 and T17 could be countered by authenticating the entities involved and providing a means to

detect tampering of the messages. Because these security objectives in the case of zone transfer are met 

by the TSIG/SIG(0) mechanism, the same TSIG/SIG(0) mechanism is specified for protecting dynamic

updates. Although the dynamic update message contains some replay attack (Threat T18) protection in

the prerequisite field of the message, TSIG/SIG(0) provides an additional mechanism to protect against 

replay attacks by including a timestamp field in the dynamic update request. This signed timestamp

enables a server to determine whether the timing of the dynamic update request is within the acceptable

time limits specified in the configuration.

It sometimes makes more sense to use SIG(0) protection mechanisms for dynamic update than for zone

transfer. Dynamic update transactions may happen between parties that do not always have a prior

security relationship or may be part of a bootstrapping operation. Therefore, it may be impractical to use

TSIG with a shared secret, but SIG(0) authentication using keys stored in the DNS may be a possibility.

6.4 DNS NOTIFY Threats and Protection Approaches

DNS NOTIFY is a message sent by primary (master) name servers to secondary (slave) name servers,

causing the secondary servers to start a refresh operation (i.e. query for SOA RR to check the serial

number) and perform a zone transfer if an update to the zone has occurred. Because the NOTIFY 

message is only a signal, there are only minor security risks in dealing with the message. The primary

security risk to consider is the following:

Threat T19óSpurious NOTIFY Messages: Secondary name servers would receive spurious 

DNS NOTIFY messages from sources other than the primary name server.

The only impact of receiving spurious DNS NOTIFY message is the increase in workload in secondary

name servers since a zone transfer will only occur when an updated zone is on the primary server. 

Because this threat is low impact, the only protection approach required is to configure the secondary

name servers to receive DNS NOTIFY message only from the enterpriseís primary name server. 

However, if TSIG is set up for use for all communication between a set of hosts, TSIG will be used with

NOTIFY messages as well.

6.5 Threats Summary

Table 6-1 summarizes the DNS transactions and their associated threats, security objectives, and IETF

security mechanism specifications to meet those goals.

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Table 6-1. DNS Transaction Threats and Security Objectives 

DNS Transaction Threats Security Objectives IETF Security

Specifications 

DNS Query/Response (a) Forged or bogus responses

(b) Removal of records (RRs) in

responses

(c) Incorrect application of

wildcard expansion rules 

(a) Data origin authentication

(b) Data integrity verification 

DNSSEC 

Zone Transfer (a) Denial of service

(b) Tampering of messages 

(a) Mutual authentication

(b) Data integrity verification 

TSIG

Dynamic Update (a) Unauthorized updates

(b) Tampering of messages 

(c) Replay attacks 

(a) Mutual authentication

(b) Data integrity verification 

(c) Signed timestamps 

TSIG or SIG(0)

DNS NOTIFY (a) Spurious notifications (a) To prevent denial of service

through increase in workload

Specify hosts from

which this message

can be received

TSIG or SIG(0)

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7. Guidelines for Securing DNS Hosting Environment 

The guidelines for secure configuration of the DNS hosting environment are classified under the

following headings:

Securing DNS host platform

Securing DNS software

Content control of zone file.

These guidelines are provided mostly in the context of BIND DNS name server software.

7.1 Securing DNS Host Platform

The platform on which the name server software runs should be hosted on a properly secured OS. Most

of the DNS installations run on a flavor of either Unix or Windows. Given this scenario, it is necessary to

ensure the following:

The latest OS patches are installed.

Recommended OS configuration practices are followed as issued by CERT®

/CC and NISTís

NVD metabase, based on identified vulnerabilities [18] that pertain to the application profile into

which the name server software fits. In particular, hosts that run the name server software should

not provide any other services and therefore should be configured to respond to DNS traffic only. 

In other words, the only allowed incoming and outgoing messages to these hosts should be

53/udp and 53/tcp.

7.2 Securing DNS Software 

Protection approaches for DNS software include choice of version, installation of patches, running it with

restricted privileges, restricting other applications in the execution environment, dedicating instances for

each function, controlling the set of hosts where software is installed, placement within the network, and

limiting information exposure by logical/physical partitioning of zone file data or running two name

server software instances for different client classes.

7.2.1 Running the Latest Version of Name Server Software

Each newer version of the name server software, especially the BIND software, generally is devoid of

vulnerabilities found in earlier versions because it has design changes incorporated to take care of those

vulnerabilities. Of course, these vulnerabilities have been exploited (i.e., some form of attack was

launched), and sufficient information has been generated with respect to the nature of those exploits. 

Thus, it makes good business sense to run the latest version of the BIND software because theoretically it

is the safest version. Even if the software is the latest version, it is not safe to run it in default mode. The

security administrator should become familiar with the new security settings for the latest version.

In some installations, it may not be possible to switch over to the latest version of the BIND software

immediately. In these situations, the administrator should keep pace with vulnerabilities identified in the

operational version and associated security patches [19].

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Checklist item 1: When installing the upgraded version of name server software, the administrator

should make necessary changes to configuration parameters to take advantage of new security features.

Checklist item 2: Whether running the latest version or an earlier version, the administrator should be

aware of the vulnerabilities, exploits, security fixes, and patches for the version that is in operation in the

enterprise. The following actions are recommended:

ñ Subscribe to ISCís mailing list called ìbind-announceî 

ñ Periodically refer to the BIND vulnerabilities page at

http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/bind-security.html

ñ Refer to CERT®/CCís Vulnerability Notes Database at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/ and the

NIST NVD metabase at http://nvd.nist.gov/. 

7.2.2 Turning Off the BIND Version Query

There is a feature in BIND that returns the version number of the server daemon running if a special

query is sent to the server. This query is for the string ìversion.bindî with query type TXT and query 

class Chaos (CH). This information may be of use to attackers who are looking for a specific version of

BIND with a discovered weakness. BIND can be configured to refuse this type of query by having the

following command in the BIND configuration file (/etc/named.conf).

options {

 version none;

 }; 

Checklist item 3: To prevent the release of information about which version of BIND is running on a

system, name servers should be configured to refuse queries for ìversion.bindî. 

7.2.3 Running Name Server Software with Restricted Privileges

If the name server software is run as a privileged user (e.g., root in Unix systems), any break-in into the

software can have disastrous consequences in terms of resources resident in the name server platform. 

Specifically, a hacker who breaks into the software acquires unrestricted access and therefore can

potentially execute any commands or modify or delete any files. Hence, it is necessary to run the name

server software as a nonprivileged user with access restricted to specified directories to contain damages

resulting from break-ins. 

The user name under which the name server software needs to run can be specified by using the chroot

command in BIND. This is why this approach is known as running the DNS server in a chroot jail. An

example command (entered on the command line) is the following:

chroot -u named –g other –t /var/named

where the options specify the following:

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ñu specifies the userID to which the name server software will change after starting. This user

account should be created prior to issuing the chroot command.

ñg is the groupID to which the userID should be assigned. If ñg is unspecified, the name server

will run under the userIDís primary group.

ñt specifies the directory in which the name server software owner will have privileges.

7.2.4

7.2.5

7.2.6

Isolating the Name Server Software 

Even if the DNS software (e.g., BIND) is run on a secure OS, the vulnerabilities of other software

programs on that platform can breach the security of DNS software. Hence, it is necessary to ensure that

the platform on which the DNS software runs contains no programs other than those needed for OS and 

network support.

Dedicated Name Server Instance for Each Function

An authoritative name server serves RRs from its own zone file; this function is called an authoritative

function. Serving RRs either from its cache (directly or by building up its cache dynamically through

iterative queries) is called a resolving function; this is how a resolving name server provides responses. A

name server instance can be configured as an authoritative name server, a resolving name server, or both. 

Because of attacks such as cache poisoning (see Section 6.1), however, a resolving name server has to be

run under security policy that is different from that of an authoritative name server. Hence, a name server

instance should always be configured as either an authoritative name server or a resolving name server. 

An authoritative name server is only intended to provide name resolution for the zones for which it has

authoritative information. Hence, the security policy should have recursion turned off for this type of

name server. Disabling recursion prevents an authoritative name server from sending queries on behalf of

other name servers and building up a cache using responses. Disabling this function eliminates the cache

poisoning threat. In BIND, recursion is disabled by using the options statement in the BIND 

configuration file as follows:

options {

 recursion no;

}; 

A resolving name server is only intended to provide resolving services (processing resolving queries on

behalf of clients) for internal clients. Thus, protection of resolving name servers can be ensured by

restricting their types of interactions (also called transactions) to designated hosts through various 

configuration options in the configuration file of the name server software.

Removing Name Server Software from Nondesignated Hosts

DNS software should not be running or present in hosts that are not designated as name servers. The

possibility arises in the case of DNS BIND software because of the fact that many versions of Unix

(including Solaris and Linux versions) come installed with BIND as default. Hence, while taking an

inventory of software in workstations and servers of the enterprise as part of the security audit, it is

necessary to look for BIND installations and remove them from hosts that are not functioning as name

servers.

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7.2.7 Network and Geographic Dispersion of Authoritative Name Servers

Most enterprises have an authoritative primary server and a host of authoritative secondary name servers. 

It is essential that these authoritative name servers for an enterprise be located on different network 

segments. This dispersion ensures the availability of an authoritative name server not only in situations in

which a particular router or switch fails but also during events involving an attack on an entire network

segment. In addition to network-based dispersion, authoritative name servers should be dispersed 

geographically as well. In other words, in addition to being located on different network segments, the

authoritative name servers should not all be located within the same building. One approach that some

organizations follow is to locate some authoritative name servers in their own premises and others in their

ISPsí data centers or in partnering organizations.

Checklist item 4: The authoritative name servers for an enterprise should be both network and 

geographically dispersed. Network-based dispersion consists of ensuring that all name servers are not

behind a single router or switch, in a single subnet, or using a single leased line. Geographic dispersion

consists of ensuring that not all name servers are in the same physical location, and hosting at least a

single secondary server off-site.

7.2.8 Limiting Information Exposure through Partitioning of Zone Files

Authoritative name servers for an enterprise receive requests from both external and internal clients. In

many instances, external clients need to receive RRs that pertain only to public services (public Web 

server, mail server, etc.) Internal clients need to receive RRs pertaining to public services as well as

internal hosts. Hence, the zone information that serves these RRs can be split into different physical files 

for these two types of clients: one for external clients and one for internal clients. This type of

implementation of the zone file is called split DNS. 

Split DNS does have some drawbacks. First, remote hosts (travelers using laptops to connect back to an

organization, for example) may not be using an internal resolving DNS server, and therefore may not be

able to see internal hosts. Second, internal host information may leak to outside the firewall (by accident

or attack), defeating the purpose of having a split DNS, or causing confusion of an internal and external

host having the same FQDN, but different IP addresses. Split DNS should not be seen as a replacement

for proper access control techniques.

Checklist item 5: For split DNS implementation, there should be a minimum of two physical files or

views. One should exclusively provide name resolution for hosts located inside the firewall. It also can

contain RRsets for hosts outside the firewall. The other file or view should provide name resolution only

for hosts located outside the firewall or in the DMZ, and not for any hosts inside the firewall.

To set up split DNS using BIND, the view statement is used in the BIND configuration file. For example,

to set up an authoritative view of the zone ìsales.mycom.comî for internal clients:

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view “insider” { 

match-clients { internal_hosts; };

 recursion no;

zone sales.mycom.com { 

 type master; 

 file “sales_internal.db”;

 }; 

}; 

In this statement, the file ìsales_internal.dbî contains the authoritative information for zone

ìsales.mycom.comî and restricts that information to queries coming from the address list named

ìinternal_hostsî. Section 8.1.1 provides details on how to set up this list. To set up a view of the same

zone, but with only external hosts for queries coming from outside the network, the following view

statement is used in the same configuration file:

view “outsider” {

match-clients { any; };

match-destinations { public_hosts; };

 recursion no;

zone sales.mycom.com { 

 type master; 

 file “sales_external.db”;

 }; 

}; 

This statement is very similar to the previous statement, except that the file with the zone view is

ìsales.external.dbî and the client list is given as ìanyî, meaning that queries coming from both outside

and inside the network can see the same external view of ìsales.mycom.com.î Together, these statements

allow internal clients to view both the internal and external hosts in ìsales.mycom.comî, whereas external

hosts (not on the same network) can see only DNS information contained in the external view of the zone

where the destination matches the address list ìpublic_hostsî.

7.2.9 Limiting Information Exposure through Separate Name Servers for Different 

Clients

Instead of having the same set of authoritative name servers serve different types of clients, an enterprise

could have two different sets of authoritative name servers. One set, called external name servers, can be

located within a DMZ; these would be the only name servers that are accessible to external clients and

would serve RRs pertaining to hosts with public services (Web servers that serve external Web pages or

provide B2C services, mail servers, etc.) The other set, called internal name servers, is to be located

within the firewall and should be configured so it is not reachable from outside and hence provides

naming services exclusively to internal clients. The purpose of both architecture options (i.e., two 

different sets of name servers and split DNS) is to prevent the outside world from knowing the IP

addresses of internal hosts. This configuration may be the only available option for enterprises that use

DNS server software that does not have the view feature found in BIND.

7.3 Content Control of Zone File

As stated in Section 5.7, the only protection approach for content control of DNS zone file is the use of a

zone file integrity checker. The effectiveness of integrity checking using a zone file integrity checker

depends upon the database of constraints built into the checker. Hence, the deployment process consists 

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of developing these constraints with the right logic, and the only determinant of the truth value of these

logical predicates are the parameter values for certain key fields in the format of various RRTypes. The

choice of these parameter values forms the deployment guidelines and is discussed in Section 10.

7.4 Recommendations Summary

The following items provide a summary of the major recommendations from this section:

Checklist item 1: When installing the upgraded version of name server software, the

administrator should make necessary changes to configuration parameters to take advantage of

new security features. 

Checklist item 2: Whether running the latest version or an earlier version, the administrator 

should be aware of the vulnerabilities, exploits, security fixes, and patches for the version that is

in operation in the enterprise. The following actions are recommended: 

ñ Subscribe to ISCís mailing list called ìbind-announceî 

ñ Periodically refer to the BIND vulnerabilities page at

http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/bind-security.html

ñ Refer to CERT®/CCís Vulnerability Notes Database at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/ and the

NIST NVD metabase at http://nvd.nist.gov/. 

Checklist item 3: To prevent the release of information about which version of BIND is running

on a system, name servers should be configured to refuse queries for ìversion.bindî.

Checklist item 4: The authoritative name servers for an enterprise should be both network and 

geographically dispersed. Network-based dispersion consists of ensuring that all name servers

are not behind a single router or switch, in a single subnet, or using a single leased line. 

Geographic dispersion consists of ensuring that not all name servers are in the same physical

location, and hosting at least a single secondary server off-site.

Checklist item 5: For split DNS implementation, there should be a minimum of two physical

files or views. One should exclusively provide name resolution for hosts located inside the

firewall. It also can contain RRsets for hosts outside the firewall. The other file or view should

provide name resolution only for hosts located outside the firewall or in the DMZ, and not for any 

hosts inside the firewall.

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8. Guidelines for Securing DNS Transactions

Section 6 outlines threats, security objectives, and protection approaches for various DNS transactions. 

This section provides the steps involved in implementing those approaches, as well as operational best 

practices that go with those implementations. The protection approaches in Table 6-1 are aggregated,

indexed by type of approach, and elaborated here as follows: 

Restricting Transaction Entities Based on IP Address. In this type of implementation, the

DNS name servers and clients participating in a DNS transaction are restricted to a trusted set of

hosts by specifying their IP addresses in appropriate access control statements provided by the

name server software. The protection provided by these IP-based access control statements can

be circumvented by attacks such as IP spoofing. Hence, this solution is not recommended for

DNS query/response, zone transfer, and dynamic update transactions that have high threat impact. 

However, for the DNS NOTIFY transaction, where the only threat is spurious notification (which

may not even trigger a zone transfer), an access control based on IP address will suffice. 

Although this solution is not recommended generally, a description of the mechanics of access 

control using IP addresses is provided in Section 8.1 because the same statements are used to

identify hosts based on named keys while implementing transaction protection using hash-based

message authentication codes. This approach has been implemented for all DNS transactions.

Transaction Protection through Hash-Based Message Authentication Codes (TSIG

Specification). In this approach, transaction protection is enabled through generation and 

verification of hash-based message authentication codes (HMAC). Because these codes are

embedded within a special RR of RRType TSIG, the specifications that outline protection of

DNS transactions using HMAC are called TSIG in the DNS community. TSIG specifications are

described in RFCs 2845 and 3007. Application of TSIG specifications for protection of zone

transfer and dynamic update transactions is described in Section 8.2. 

Transaction Protection through Asymmetric Digital Signatures (DNSSEC Specification). 

This approach, which goes by the name DNS security extensions (DNSSEC), is described 

through a family of RFCs (4043, 4044, and 4045). The core services provided by DNSSEC are

data origin authentication and integrity protection. DNSSEC is used mainly for securing DNS

information obtained from DNS query/response transactions. The deployment issues in DNSSEC

are described in Section 9.

8.1 Restricting Transaction Entities Based on IP Address 

Some DNS name server implementations, such as BIND 9.x, provide access control statements through

which it is possible to specify hosts that can participate in a given DNS transaction. The hosts can be

identified by their IP addresses or IP subnet references (called IP prefixes) in these statements.

The list containing these IP addresses and/or IP prefixes is called an address match list. (An address

match list can be made up of other things besides IP addresses and IP prefixes, as described in Section 

8.1.1.) The address match list is used as an argument in various access control statements that are

available for use in BIND configuration files. There are separate access control statements for each type

of DNS transaction. The syntax of the various access control statements and the DNS transaction for

which each is used are given in Table 8-1.

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Table 8-1. Access Control Statement Syntax for DNS Transactions 

Access Control Statement Syntax DNS Transaction 

allow-query { address_match_list } DNS Query/Response

allow-recursion { address_match_list } Recursive Query 

allow-transfer { address_match_list } Zone Transfer

allow-update { address_match_list } Dynamic Update

allow-update-forwarding { address_match_list } Dynamic Update

allow-notify { address_match_list } DNS NOTIFY

blackhole { address_match_list } Blacklisted Hosts 

The purpose of each of these access control statements is as follows:

allow-query: specifies the list of hosts allowed to query the name server as a whole or a

particular zone within the name server

allow-recursion: specifies the list of hosts allowed to submit recursive queries to the name server

as a whole or to a particular zone served by the name server

allow-transfer: specifies the list of hosts allowed to initiate zone transfer requests to the name

server as a whole or to a particular zone within the name server. This statement is predominantly

required for configuration of master name servers.

allow-update: specifies the list of hosts allowed to initiate dynamic update requests 

allow-update-forwarding: specifies the list of hosts allowed to forward dynamic update requests 

(regardless of the originator of the requests)

allow-notify: specifies the list of hosts from which to accept DNS NOTIFY messages indicating

changes in the zone file. This list is relevant only for configuration of secondary slave name

servers.

blackhole: specifies the list of hosts that are blacklisted (barred) from initiating any transaction 

with this name server. It is used only in an ìoptionsî server-wide ACL statement.

The foregoing access control statements are, in fact, substatements that can be used in the context of

options and zone statements in the BIND 9.x configuration file (with the exception of blackhole). When

they are used within the zone statement, they specify access control restrictions for the corresponding

DNS transaction for that specific zone. When they are used as part of the options statement, they specify

access control restrictions for the corresponding DNS transaction for the name server as a whole (because

a name server could host multiple zones).

8.1.1 Restricting DNS Query/Response Transaction Entities

An example of the usage of the allow-query substatement (to specify restrictions for the DNS

query/response transaction stating the IP addresses/subnets from which DNS queries are accepted) both at

the server level and at the zone level (for the zone example.com) is given below:

options {

allow-query { 254.10.20.10; 239.10.30.29/25; };

}; 

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zone “example.com.” {

 type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

allow-query { 192.249.249.1; 192.249.249.4; };

}; 

Specifying the list of IP addresses and IP prefixes within the options and zone statements could clutter the

configuration file. Furthermore, the list of IP addresses and IP prefixes could be the same for many of the

access control statements within a name server, and errors could be introduced if any additions or

subtractions are made for that list. To avoid these problems, BIND provides a means to create named

address match lists, which are called access control lists (ACL). These ACLs can be used in place of the

list of IP addresses/IP prefixes (in the address match list argument) in the access control statements.

The ACLs are created by using the acl statement in BIND 9.x. The general syntax of the acl statement

is as follows:

acl acl-list-name { 

 address_match_list 

}; 

The acl-list-name is a user-defined string (e.g., internal_hosts). The address_match_list can be a list of IP

addresses, IP address prefixes (denoting subnets), or cryptographic keys. An example of an acl statement 

that uses an IP address and a subnet reference in address_match_list is given below. In the example,

254.10.20.10 denotes the IP address of a host, and the IP prefix 239.10.30.0/24 denotes a class C subnet.

acl “internal_hosts” {

 254.10.20.10;

 239.10.30.0/24;

}; 

The use of ACL ñ ìinternal_hostsî in place of the list of IP addresses/IP prefix in the options and zone

statement given above is as follows:

options {

allow-query { internal_hosts; };

}; 

zone “example.com.” {

 type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

allow-query { internal_hosts; };

}; 

The address match list parameter in an access control statement can contain any of the following values: 

An IP address or list of IP addresses

An IP prefix or list of IP prefixes

ACLs

A combination of the above three.

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The definition of ACLs forms a critical element in the configuration of DNS transaction restrictions. 

Hence, it is a good operational practice for the DNS administrator to define and create ACLs pertaining to

different DNS transactions.

Checklist item 6: It is recommended that the administrator create a named list of trusted hosts (or

blacklisted hosts) for each of the different types of DNS transactions. In general, the role of the following

categories of hosts should be considered for inclusion in the appropriate ACL:

ñ DMZ hosts defined in any of the zones in the enterprise

ñ All secondary name servers allowed to initiate zone transfers

ñ Internal hosts allowed to perform recursive queries.

In addition to IP address, IP prefix, or ACL, the address match list parameter in the access control 

statements can take on any of the following special values: 

none: matches no hosts 

any: matches all hosts 

localhost: matches all IP addresses of the server on which the name server is running 

localnets: matches all IP addresses and subnet masks of the server on which the name server is

running. 

Following are a few more examples of commands for creating ACLs and the use of ACLs within options

and zone statements:

acl “local_hosts” { 

 254.10.20.10;

 239.10.30.29/25; 

}; 

acl “fake-net” { 

 0.0.0.0/8; 

 1.0.0.0/8; 

}; 

options {

allow-query { any; };

blackhole { fake-net; };

}; 

zone “example.com.” {

 type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

allow-query { local_hosts; };

}; 

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In the named.conf snippet above, two ACLs, local_hosts and fake-net, have been specified. DNS queries

from any hosts are allowed at the server level. No transactions are permitted from the hosts included

under fake-net. Queries to the zone example.com can be initiated only by the hosts included under the

ACL local_hosts because any restriction specified under the zone (zone-specific) statement overrides the

restriction specified under the options (server-wide) statement.

Key material can also be used in ACL statements. This would indicate that only hosts knowing (and

using) the shared key (or key pair) would be able to communicate. How a key is used in an ACL is

discussed in Section 8.2.3.

8.1.1.1 Restricting Recursive Queries (Special Case under DNS Query/Response) 

Authoritative name servers provide name resolution service from their own data and are supposed to

provide this service for any DNS client. Hence, configuring an authoritative name server to accept

queries from a restricted set of hosts does not make sense. The practical security protection for an

authoritative name server is to turn off the query recursion feature so that the authoritative name server

does not poison its cache by querying other (possibly compromised) name servers. A local

resolving/recursive name server can be configured to accept queries only from internal hosts, to protect it

from denial of service attacks as well as cache poisoning. There may be situations, however, in which it

is economically infeasible to dedicate separate servers for authoritative service and resolution service, and

the resolving name server has to perform as authoritative server for one or more zones. In this situation,

the following strategies are possible within the BIND 9.x name server:

Restricting all queries accepted by the server to a specified set of IP addresses of internal clients 

and then overriding this set only for authoritative zones so that any DNS client can obtain 

information for resources in that zone

Restricting recursive queries to a specified set of IP addresses of internal clients through a direct

configuration option 

Serving different responses (data) to different clients by defining views.

Restriction at server level with override for authoritative zones:

In this strategy, the allowable set of internal clients that can submit queries to the name server is specified

through the acl statement as follows:

acl internal_hosts {192.158.43.3; 192.158.43.6; 192.158.44.56;}; 

The server-wide option would be to restrict all queries to the list of clients:

options {

allow_query { internal_hosts; };

}; 

The option can be overridden by specifying zones for which this name server is authoritative (thus

allowing queries to that zone from all clients):

zone “example.com” { 

 type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

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allow_query { any; };

}; 

Restricting all recursive queries to a specified set of IP addresses:

Server-wide restriction: 

options {

allow_recursion { internal_hosts; }; 

}; 

Restricting recursion through views:

The purpose of creating views is to create a logical partition made up of a combination of clients (based

on IP addresses) and zones for which recursive queries will be supported and those for which they will

not be supported. In the following example, the view recursion_view is enabled to define the scope of IP

addresses and zones that are permitted to submit recursive queries; no_recursion_view is meant for

disallowing recursion.

view recursion_view {

match-clients { internal_hosts; };

 recursion yes;

}; 

view no_recursion_view { 

match-clients { any; };

 recursion no;

}; 

8.1.2 Restricting Zone Transfer Transaction Entities

Authoritative name servers (especially primary name servers) should be configured with an allow-transfer

access control substatement designating the list of hosts from which zone transfer requests can be

accepted. These restrictions address the denial of service threat and potential exploits from unrestricted

dissemination of information about internal resources. Based on the need to know, the only name servers 

that need to refresh their zone files periodically are the secondary name servers. Hence, zone transfers 

from primary name servers should be restricted to secondary name servers. Zone transfers should be

completely disabled in the secondary name servers. The address match list argument for the allowtransfer substatement should consist of IP addresses of secondary name servers and stealth secondary 

name servers.

The command to create an ACL ìvalid_secondary_NSî with the IP addresses of three secondary name

servers is as follows:

acl “valid_secondary_NS” {

 224.10.229.5;

 224.10.235.6;

 239.10.245.25; 

}; 

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The allow-transfer substatement can be used in a zone statement and in an options statement. When it is

used in a zone statement, it can restrict zone transfer for that zone; when it is used in an options statement,

it can restrict zone transfer for all zones in the name server. 

The allow-transfer substatement at the server level is as follows:

options {

allow-transfer { “valid_secondary_NS”; };

}; 

The allow-transfer substatement at the zone level is as follows:

zone “example.com” { 

type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

allow-transfer { “valid_secondary_NS”; };

}; 

The foregoing statements apply to primary name servers. In the secondary and stealth secondary name

servers, zone transfers should be disabled as shown below:

zone “example.com” { 

 type slave;

masters { 224.239.5.1; } ;

 file “zonedb_bak.example.com”; 

allow-transfer { none; };

}; 

8.1.3 Restricting Dynamic Update Transaction Entities

Dynamic updates on a zone file can be directed only to the copy of the zone file that resides on the

primary name server for the zone (i.e., where the master zone file resides). By default, dynamic update is

turned off in both BIND 8 and BIND 9. Dynamic updates are enabled or restricted by using one of the

following two statements in BIND:

allow-update

update-policy (available only in BIND 9 versions).

These statements can be specified only at the zone level, not at the server level. Hence, these statements

are substatements within the zone statement. The allow-update substatement enables specification of

dynamic update restrictions based on IP addresses and a shared secret (also called a TSIG key). The use 

of the allow-update statement using IP addresses alone is addressed in this section. The use of the allowupdate statement using TSIG keys is described in Section 8.2.6.

The update-policy statement enables specification of dynamic update restrictions based on TSIG keys

only, but it enables specification of update restrictions at a finer level of granularity. The allow-update

substatement implies update access rights to all records of a zone; the update-policy substatement can be

used to restrict update access rights to one or more designated RRTypes (e.g., A RRs).

To use the allow-update statement, an address match list must be created. The command to create an

ACL DU_Allowed_List with one IP address is as follows:

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acl “DU_Allowed_List” { 

 192.249.12.21; 

}; 

The ACL DU_Allowed_List (consisting of IP addresses of hosts allowed to send dynamic update requests

for updating the contents of the zone example.com) is used within the allow-update substatement of the

zone statement as follows:

zone “example.com” { 

type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

allow-update { “DU_Allowed_List”; };

}; 

Dynamic update requests generally originate from hosts such as DHCP servers that assign IP addresses 

dynamically to hosts. Once they assign an IP address to a new host, they need to store the FQDN-to-IP

address mapping (by creating an A RR) and address-to-FQDN mapping (by creating a PTR RR)

information in the primary authoritative name servers for the zones. Creation of this information occurs

through dynamic updates.

8.1.4 Restricting DNS NOTIFY Transaction Entities

Once zone transfers have been set up between servers, it is a good idea to make sure that secondary name

servers are informed about changes to zone file data through a notification message. By default, a

notification message is sent whenever a primary name server detects a change in the zone file. It sends a

DNS NOTIFY message to every name server listed in the NS RRSet in the zone because they are the

recognized secondary name servers of the zone. DNS administrators should keep notification on because

this configuration will allow updates to be propagated quickly to secondary name servers. If the DNS

administrator wants to turn off the functionality for a specific zone, however, the notify substatement

should be used in the zone statement of that zone:

zone “example.com” { 

 type master; 

 notify no; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

}; 

If there are any additional servers to which the zone administrator wants the DNS NOTIFY message to be

sent (e.g., a stealth slave server), the ìalso-notifyî substatement should be added to the zone statement,

and the IP addresses of the additional servers should be specified as its parameter values, as shown below:

zone “example.com” { 

 type master; 

also-notify { 192.168.25.2; };

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

}; 

The receiver of the DNS NOTIFY message, the secondary name server, allows notify messages only from

the primary name server by default. (Recall that the secondary name server is made aware of its primary

name server through the master substatement in the zone statement.) If the secondary name server wants 

to receive notify messages from additional servers, the ìallow-notifyî substatement in the zone statement 

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must be added, and then the IP addresses of those servers must be specified in that substatement, as

follows:

zone “example.com” { 

 type slave;

allow-notify { 193.168.25.4; };

 file “zonebak.example.com”;

masters { 192.168.25.1; };

}; 

8.2 Transaction Protection through Hash-Based Message Authentication Codes (TSIG)

The process of authenticating the source of a message and its integrity through hash-based message

authentication codes (HMAC) is specified through a set of DNS specifications known collectively as

TSIG. The term HMAC is used to denote both the message authentication code generated by using a

keyed hash function and the hash function itself. HMAC is specified in RFC 2104[14]8

 and generalized 

in the NIST document FIPS 198 [15].

9

An HMAC function uses two parametersóa message input and a secret keyóand produces an output 

called a message authentication code (MAC) or hash. The sender of the message uses the HMAC

function to generate a MAC and sends this MAC along with the message to the receiver. The receiver,

who shares the same secret key, uses the key and HMAC function used by the sender to compute the

MAC on the received message. The receiver then compares the computed MAC with the received MAC; 

if the two values match, it provides assurance that the message has been received correctly and that the

sender belongs to the community of users sharing the same secret key. Thus, message source

authentication and integrity verification are performed in a single process.

The hash algorithm (which forms the primitive for the hash function) generates a fixed-size MAC or hash

from a message of arbitrary size. The HMAC function for TSIG specified in RFC 2845 [12] provided for

only one hash algorithm (MD5) through the algorithm identifier HMAC-MD5. Support for two more

hash algorithms (SHA-1 and SHA-256) has been made a recommendation for implementers in the IETF

draft document for TSIG [13].

Transaction protection through HMAC using a shared secret is not a scalable solution. This is the reason

the TSIG specification is largely used only for zone transfer and dynamic update transactions. These

DNS transactions are either between servers in the same administrative domain or between servers in

domains with previous established interactions.

The MAC or hash value generated by the sender of the DNS message is placed in a new RR called a TSIG

record that is added to the DNS message. The TSIG record, in addition to the generated hash, contains

the following:

Name of hash algorithm 

Key name

Time the hash was generated (timestamp)

 8

 RFC 2104, HMAC: Keyed-Hashing for Message Authentication, is available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2104.txt. 9

 FIPS 198, The Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC), is available at

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips198/fips-198a.pdf. 

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ìFudge factorîóthe time in seconds (usually 5) to use as delta on either side of the time

generated for which the TSIG signature should be considered valid; used to account for possible

clock skew between hosts.

The timestamp field specifies the time at which the MAC was generated. The purpose of this field is to

protect against replay attacks. In a replay attack, the attacker could capture the packet containing the

MAC and send it after a period of time. To ensure that this does not happen, the recipient reads the MAC 

generation time and the current clock time and verifies whether the MAC was generated within an

ìallowable expiry timeî, which is computed using the ìfudge factorî.

The ìfudge factorî field specifies the duration of time after the MAC generation time that the message

can be considered valid. It is computed by applying a ìfudge factorî on the MAC generation time

(adding or subtracting a small number of seconds) to allow for clock skew (mismatch) between the MAC

generator and verifier hosts.

To have a secure transaction based on TSIG, a sender computes the hash of the entire DNS message and

secret key and encodes the result in a TSIG RR at the end of the message. At the recipient end, the TSIG 

record is stripped from the DNS message and processed. The process whereby the recipient uses the 

TSIG record to verify the integrity of the received DNS message is called verification. The verification

process uses the hash algorithm name to identify the hash function and the key name to identify the key to

be used to validate the TSIG record. The number in the fudge factor is used to add to or subtract from the

signing time to allow for the possible mismatch of clocks of the signer and verifier. Thus, the fudge

factor provides the tolerance limit for the MAC validity period computed, based on time of generation.

The purpose of sending the key name in the TSIG record is to enable the verifier (recipient) of the DNS

message to use the right key to verify it. It also enables the recipient to verify that the key name is indeed

one of the keys shared with the sender. The purpose of the ìTime Signedî or timestamp field in the TSIG

record is to inform the message recipient about the time of MAC generation. The recipient compares this

value with the current clock time at the recipient system to ensure that the MAC was generated within the

allowable time specified as part of the TSIG record itself. The purpose of using a timestamp is to prevent 

replay attacks. For correct verification of generation time against current time, it is essential that the

system clocks of the transaction participants be synchronized. Protocols such as the Network Time

Protocol (NTP) are available for this purpose.

The verification process consists of the recipient retrieving the appropriate secret key, generating its own

hash of the received DNS message, and comparing it with the received hash (in the TSIG record). In this

verification process, the receiving name server has performed the following validations:

The message has been verified as coming from an authenticated source (with whom it shares the

secret key)

The message has not been altered in transit (verified by matching of hash values).

Source authentication counters identify spoofing, and data integrity checking helps to counter corruption

and modification of data in transit.

BIND version 8.2 was the first version to introduce TSIG features, and is present in every later version. 

BIND 9.xís support for TSIG includes features to secure zone transfer and dynamic update transactions.

The following operations are needed to set up the environment for enabling DNS transactions to use

TSIG :

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The system clocks of the name servers (primary and secondary) participating in DNS transactions

must be synchronized (e.g., through NTP).

There should be a secret key generation utility that can generate keys of the required length with

sufficient entropy. The key file (the file containing the secret key string) must be securely

communicated to the two servers participating in the transaction.

The key information should be specified in the configuration file through appropriate statements 

(e.g., key statement and server statement in named.conf configuration file of BIND 9.x).

The key generation process is described in Section 8.2.1. The commands needed to define the keys and

instruct the name server to use those keys for all DNS transactions are outlined in Sections 8.2.2 and

8.2.3, respectively. The set of checklists for key file creation and key definition within the name servers

is given in Section 8.2.4. Protection of zone transfer transactions and dynamic update transactions using

HMAC as specified in TSIG are covered in Sections 8.2.5 and 8.2.6, respectively.

8.2.1 Key Generation

To enable zone transfer (requests and responses) through authenticated messages, it is necessary to

generate a key for every pair of name servers. The key also can be used for securing other transactions,

such as dynamic updates, DNS queries, and responses. The binary key string that is generated by most 

key generation utilities used with DNSSEC is base 64-encoded. The program that generates the key in

BIND 9.x is dnssec-keygen. An example of a command that generates a secret key (as opposed to other

types of keys, such as public keys, which this program also can generate) by invoking the dnssec-keygen

program is as follows:

dnssec-keygen -a HMAC-SHA1 –b 128 -n HOST ns1-ns2.example.com.

where the various command options (parameters) denote the following: 

-a option: the name of the hashing algorithm that will use the key (HMAC-SHA1)

-b option: the length of the key (128 bits)

-n option: the type of key (in this case, the HOST)

last parameter: the name of the key (ns1-ns2.example.com).

The dnssec-keygen program generates the following files, each containing the key string: 

Kns1-ns2.example.com.+157+34567.key

Kns1-ns2.example.com.+157+34567.private 

When the program is generating a pair of keys (one public and the other private), the file with the

extension key will contain the public key string, and the file with extension private will contain the private

key. Because in this case only the secret key is being generated, the key strings in both files will be the

same for the TSIG implementation. The key string from any of these files is then copied to a file called

the key file. This file is then referenced using an include statement within the key statement. 

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8.2.2 

8.2.3

8.2.4

Defining the Keys in the Communicating Name Servers 

The key generated by using the dnssec-keygen utility has to be defined within the named.conf

configuration file of the two communicating servers (generally one primary name server and one

secondary name server). This is accomplished by using the key statement of BIND: 

key “ns1-ns2.example.com.” {

 algorithm hmac-sha1;

 include “/var/named/keys/secretkey.conf”;

}; 

where the file secretkey.conf will contain the keyword secret and the actual key string (in this example): 

secret “MhZQKc4TwAPkURM==“ 

Instructing Name Servers to Use Keys in All Transactions

The command to instruct the server to use the key in all transactions (DNS query/response, zone transfer,

dynamic update, etc.) is as follows:

server 192.249.249.1 { 

keys { ns1-ns2.example.com.; }; 

The same statement can be used as an entry in an acl statement as well:

acl key_acl { 

 ns1-ns2.example.com.; };

Checklists for Key File Creation and Key Configuration Process 

Checklist item 7: The TSIG key should be a minimum of 128 bits in length.

Checklist item 8: A unique TSIG key should be generated for each pair of communicating hosts (i.e., a

separate key for each secondary name server to authenticate transactions with the primary name server,

etc.)

Checklist item 9: After the key string is copied to the key file in the name server, the two files generated

by the dnssec-keygen program should either be made accessible only to the server administrator account 

(e.g., root in Unix) or, better still, deleted. The paper copy of these files also should be destroyed.

Checklist item 10: The key file should be securely transmitted across the network to name servers that

will be communicating with the name server that generated the key.

Checklist item 11: The statement in the configuration file (usually found at /etc/named.conf for BIND

running on Unix) that describes a TSIG key (key name [ID], signing algorithm, and key string) should not

directly contain the key string. When the key string is found in the configuration file, the risk of key

compromise is increased in some environments where there is a need to make the configuration file

readable by people other than the zone administrator. Instead, the key string should be defined in a

separate key file and referenced through an include directive in the key statement of the configuration file.

Every TSIG key should have a separate key file.

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Checklist item 12: The key file should be owned by the account under which the name server software is

run. The permission bits should be set so that the key file can be read or modified only by the account 

that runs the name server software. 

Checklist item 13: The TSIG key used to sign messages between a pair of servers should be specified in

the server statement of both transacting servers to point to each other. This is necessary to ensure that

both the request message and the transaction message of a particular transaction are signed and hence

secured.

In each of the configuration files of the pair of servers that share a secret key in a zone, the name of the

key to be used for all communication between them must be specified (via the server statement in BIND

configuration files).

8.2.5

8.2.6

Securing Zone Transfers Using TSIG

The pair of servers participating in zone transfer transactions must be instructed to use the key defined

using the key statement (Section 8.2.2). This pair generally consists of a primary name server and a

secondary name server. The primary name server is configured to accept zone transfer requests only from

secondary name servers that send MACs using the named key along with a zone transfer request message. 

The configuration is accomplished by using the allow-transfer substatement of the zone statement. A

sample allow-transfer substatement that specifies that the primary name server should only allow zone

transfer requests for the example.com zone from name servers that use the ns1-ns2.example.com key is as

follows:

zone “example.com” { 

 type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

allow-transfer { key {ns1-ns2.example.com.}; };

}; 

The secondary name server is instructed to use the key ns1-ns2.example.com in the zone transfer request

to the primary name server (with IP address 192.249.249.1) using the server statement shown in Section

8.2.3.

Securing Dynamic Updates Using TSIG or SIG(0)

Dynamic update restrictions based on TSIG keys can be specified in BIND 8.2 and later versions by using

the allow-update substatement of the zone statement. The arguments to this statement are the keyword

key followed by the name of the TSIG key. (See Section 8.2.2 for details on how to enter in the key

statement in a BIND name server configuration file.) Once the key statement has been entered, the

following substatement can be added to the zone statement to make use of the secret key for dynamic

updates:

zone “example.com” { 

type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

allow-update { key dhcp-server.example.com.; };

}; 

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Note that although the string dhcp-server.example.com. looks like a FQDN, it actually denotes the name

of the TSIG key. The implication of the configuration statement example is that any hosts that possess 

the key named dhcp-server.example.com. can submit dynamic update requests (adding, deleting, or

modifying RRs) to the zone file (for the zone example.com) that resides in the primary authoritative name

server.

To use SIG(0) to authenticate dynamic update messages, the key used must first have its public

component stored in the DNS, so a validating client can obtain it.

10 See Section 9.5 on publishing keys. 

The previous steps above need to be performed to control access (if desired). After that is done, the

updating name server should be able to obtain the key and process the dynamic update request (if the

name server supports SIG(0) with dynamic update).

8.2.7

8.2.8

 

Configuring Dynamic Update Forwarding Restrictions Using TSIG Keys

Dynamic updates are allowed on the copy of the zone file in the primary authoritative name server only

because that is the only ìwritableî copy. This does not automatically imply that the primary authoritative

name server is the only one allowed to accept dynamic update requests. In fact, BIND 9.1.0 and later

versions allow secondary name servers to accept dynamic update requests and forward them to the

primary authoritative name server. In this scenario, if there are no restrictions on the basis of the identity

of hosts from whom the secondary name server can forward such dynamic update requests, it is

equivalent to circumventing the dynamic update restrictions specified in the primary name server because

the request can literally originate from any host to the secondary name server and be forwarded to the

primary name server. To counter this problem, a new substatement, allow-update-forwarding, is now

available in BIND versions that have the dynamic update forwarding feature. An example of this allowupdate-forwarding statement using TSIG keys is given below:

zone “example.com” { 

 type slave;

 file “backupdb.example.com”; 

 allow-update-forwarding { key dhcpserver.example.com.; };

}; 

Configuring Fine-Grained Dynamic Update Restrictions Using TSIG/SIG(0) Keys

The allow-update substatement specifies dynamic update restrictions based on the originators of dynamic

update requests (a specific set of hosts identified by IP address or holding a TSIG key) but not the

contents of the zone records. To specify dynamic update access (grant or deny) restrictions based on a

combination of domain/subdomain names and RR types (A, MX, NS, etc.), BIND 9 and later versions

provide the update-policy substatement within the zone statement. The update-policy substatement bases 

these restrictions on the TSIG key. In other words, the update-policy statement specifies which TSIG

keys (or holders of keys) are allowed to perform dynamic updates on which domains/subdomains and RR

types within that domain/subdomain.

The general form of the update-policy statement is as follows:

update-policy {

(grant | deny) TSIGkey nametype name [type] 

}; 

10 For more information, see the note from the dynamic update howto: http://ops.ietf.org/dns/dynupd/secure-ddns-howto.html. 

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where the semantics of each of the statement components are as follows:

grant/denyóallow/disallow dynamic update for the combination that follows

TSIGkeyóthe name of the TSIG key used to authenticate the update request 

nametypeócan be one of the following with the associated semantics:

nameórestriction applies to the domain name specified in the following name field

subdomainórestriction applies to subdomains of the domain specified in the following

name field 

wildcardórestriction applies to the set of domains specified using the wildcard syntax

(i.e., *) in the following name field

selfórestriction applies to the domain whose name is the same as that in the TSIGkey

field (i.e., the domain name whose records are to be updated has the same name as the

key used to authenticate the dynamic update request). In this usage, the contents of the

name field become redundant but still should be used in the statement (i.e., the name field

cannot be left blank)

nameóused to specify the name of the domain. The syntax used and the domains it covers are

based on the value used in the nametype field (e.g., if subdomain is the value of the nametype

field, then all subdomains of the domain name used are being covered under this statement).

typeóan optional field that can contain any valid RRType (except the NSEC type) or the

wildcard type ëANYí (ANY stands for all RR types except the NSEC type). If it is missing, it

denotes all RRTypes except SOA, NS, RRSIG, and NSEC. It is also possible to put in multiple

RRTypes separated by a space (e.g., A NS).

Examples of update-policy statements and their associated semantics are given below.

Suppose there is a domain sales.example.com within example.com and that name server uses a TSIG key

that has the same name as its own domain name (i.e., sales.example.com). All dynamic updates from

sales.example.com could be restricted to all resource records of that domain within the zone file as

follows:

zone “example.com” { 

type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

update-policy { grant sales.example.com. self

sales.example.com.; };

}; 

All dynamic updates from sales.example.com could be restricted to only A and MX RR types of that

domain as follows:

zone “example.com” { 

type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

update-policy { 

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 grant sales.example.com. self sales.example.com. A MX; };

}; 

To allow clients with the TSIG key sales.example.com to update all records pertaining to subdomains of

NEsales.example.com except the name server records (RR Type NS):

zone “example.com” { 

type master; 

 file “zonedb.example.com”; 

 update-policy {

 deny sales.example.com. subdomain NE

sales.example.com. NS; 

 grant sales.example.com. subdomain NE

sales.example.com. ANY; };

}; 

8.3 Recommendations Summary

The following items provide a summary of the major recommendations from this section:

Checklist item 6: It is recommended that the administrator create a named list of trusted hosts (or

blacklisted hosts) for each of the different types of DNS transactions. In general, the role of the

following categories of hosts should be considered for inclusion in the appropriate ACL:

ñ DMZ hosts defined in any of the zones in the enterprise

ñ All secondary name servers allowed to initiate zone transfers

ñ Internal hosts allowed to perform recursive queries.

Checklist item 7: The TSIG key should be a minimum of 128 bits in length.

Checklist item 8: A unique TSIG key should be generated for each pair of communicating hosts

(i.e., a separate key for each secondary name server to authenticate transactions with the primary

name server, etc.)

Checklist item 9: After the key string is copied to the key file in the name server, the two files 

generated by the dnssec-keygen program should either be made accessible only to the server

administrator account (e.g., root in Unix) or, better still, deleted. The paper copy of these files

also should be destroyed.

Checklist item 10: The key file should be securely transmitted across the network to name

servers that will be communicating with the name server that generated the key.

Checklist item 11: The statement in the configuration file (usually found at /etc/named.conf for

BIND running on Unix) that describes a TSIG key (key name [ID], signing algorithm, and key

string) should not directly contain the key string. When the key string is found in the

configuration file, the risk of key compromise is increased in some environments where there is a

need to make the configuration file readable by people other than the zone administrator. Instead,

the key string should be defined in a separate key file and referenced through an include directive

in the key statement of the configuration file. Every TSIG key should have a separate key file.

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Checklist item 12: The key file should be owned by the account under which the name server

software is run. The permission bits should be set so that the key file can be read or modified

only by the account that runs the name server software.

Checklist item 13: The TSIG key used to sign messages between a pair of servers should be

specified in the server statement of both transacting servers to point to each other. This is

necessary to ensure that both the request message and the transaction message of a particular

transaction are signed and hence secured.

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9. Guidelines for Securing DNS Query/Response 

Section 6.1.4 describes the DNSSEC approach for protection of DNS query/response transactions through 

data origin authentication, data integrity verification, and authenticated denial of existence capabilities. 

This section describes the mechanisms involved in the DNSSEC approach, the operations those

mechanisms involve, and a secure way of performing those operations by using checklists. In other

words, this section provides guidelines for secure deployment of DNSSEC features through DNSSEC

operations that are supported in name server software. These guidelines are covered in Sections 9.3 

through 9.7.

To ensure end-to-end protection of DNS query/response transactions, additional protection measures

(apart from what DNSSEC specification provides)ósuch as securing the communication path between

local DNSSEC-aware caching/resolving name servers and stub resolversóare needed. These measures

are discussed in Section 9.8.

Zone administrators need to have an understanding of the logic of dynamic updates in the presence of

additional RRsets (especially the NSEC RRSet) introduced into the zone file by the DNSSEC 

specification. This logic is explained in Section 9.9.

9.1 Enabling DNSSEC Processing in BIND

Before a DNSSEC signed zone can be deployed, a name server must be configured to enable DNSSEC

processing. In BIND, it is done by adding the following line to the options statement in the named

configuration file (named.conf)

options {

 dnssec-enable yes;

 }; 

After restart, the name server will now perform DNSSEC processing for DNS query/response

transactions. 

Checklist item 14: Name servers that deploy DNSSEC signed zones or query signed zones should be

configured to perform DNSSEC processing.

9.2 DNSSEC Mechanisms and Operations

DNSSEC mechanisms involve two main processes: sign and serve, and verify signature. These processes

are described below.

9.2.1 Sign and Serve

The first task in this process is to generate digital signatures associated with every RR in the zone file. 

Instead of generating a signature for every RR, DNSSEC specifies generation of a signature for an RRSet

(a set of RRs with the same owner name, class, and RRType). The digital signature and its associated

information (ID of the key used, start and expiry dates for the signature, etc.) are encapsulated in a special 

RR of RRType Resource Record Signature (RRSIG). The actual key string and associated information

about the public key that is to be used to verify the signature (in RRSIG) are given in a special RRType

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DNSKEY. Another RRType, Next Secure (NSEC), is used to list RRTypes (in canonical order

11) 

available for a given domain (owner name), and a signature (RRSIG RR) for that RRType is generated to

provide authenticated proof of nonexistence to queries for any nonexisting RRType in that domain. In

addition, there is an optional RRType Delegation Signer (DS) in case a zone wants to vouchsafe the

authenticity of the public key of its child zone. In other words, the DS RR carries the signature for the

RR that contains the (hash) public key of the child zone. The detailed syntax for each of these additional

RRTypes introduced by the DNSSEC specification is specified in RFC 4034. The most important of

these is the RRSIG RR because it contains the actual signature string.

The RRSIG RR, like any other RR, contains the owner name, TTL, class, RRType, and RDATA fields. 

The digital signature and all its associated information are contained within the RDATA field. The layout

of the RDATA field in the RRSIG RR, with all subfields, is shown in Figure 9-1. A brief description of

each subfield follows.

RRType Covered Algorithm Code Labels

Original TTL

Signature Expiration 

Signature Inception 

Key Tag Signerís Name

Encoded Signature

Figure 9-1. RRSIG RRís RDATA Field Layout

 

The ìRRType Coveredî field is the type of RRSet for which this RRSIG holds the signature. The

ìAlgorithm Codeî field is a code integer assigned to represent a given cryptographic algorithm used to

generate the signature. The ìLabelsî and ìOriginal TTLî fields are the number of labels (number of

labels in the FQDN) and the TTL value of the RRSet this signature covers. The ìSignature Expirationî 

and ìSignature Inceptionî values are absolute time values that span the signature validity periodóthe

time period for which this RRSIG is considered valid for the zone. The ìKey Tagî and ìSignerís Nameî

fields are the hash and FQDN of the DNSKEY RR that the client needs to validate the signature, and the

final field is the encoded signature itself.

A zone that contains the additional RRs along with the regular RRs is called a signed zone. A name

server that hosts these signed zones and includes the appropriate signatures (i.e., the corresponding

RRSIGs) along with requested RRs in its response is called a DNSSEC-aware name server. 

9.2.2

 

Verify Signature

The response coming from a signed zone is called a signed response. A resolver that has the capability to

verify signatures in a signed response is called a DNSSEC-aware validating resolver. Before a resolver

can verify the signature associated with RRsets (in the response) of a zone using the public key of the

zone (sent along with the response), it has to establish trust in that public key. In DNSSEC this

requirement is addressed by having the resolver go through a subprocess called building a trusted chain. 

In this subprocess, the resolver starts from a known list of trusted public keys (called trust anchors) and 

11 See Section 6 of RFC 4034, Resource Records for the DNS Security Extensions, available at

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4034.txt for a discussion of canonical form of DNS data.

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establishes trust in the public key of the zone in a given response by traversing through a chain of public

keys, building the chain by using the DNS name space hierarchy. The trust anchors in a resolver ideally

consist of the root public keys (if root servers are DNSSEC-aware) or public keys of zones lower in the

hierarchy. The trust anchor list in a resolver is not built through a DNS transaction; it uses an out-of-band 

mechanism.

The DNSSEC processes described above involve several name server operations and a few resolver

operations. The name server operations are as follows: 

DNSSEC-OP1: Generation of public key-private key pair

DNSSEC-OP2: Secure storage of private keys

DNSSEC-OP3: Public key distribution 

DNSSEC-OP4: Zone signing

DNSSEC-OP5: Key rollover (changing of keys)

DNSSEC-OP6: Zone re-signing.

The resolver operations are as follows:

DNSSEC-OP7: Trust anchorsí configuration

DNSSEC-OP8: Establishing trusted chain and signature verification.

Name server operations DNSSEC-OP1 through DNSSEC-OP4 and resolver operations DNSSEC-OP7 

and DNSSEC-OP8 are performed either prior to DNSSEC deployment or for secure operation (serving

signed responses and verification of signatures) and hence are covered in this section. The remaining 

name server operations (key rollovers and zone re-signing ñ DNSSEC-OP5 and DNSSEC-OP6 

respectively) are performed on a periodic basis after a fully operational DNSSEC deployment and hence

are covered in Section 11.

9.3 Generation of Public Key-Private Key Pair (DNSSEC-OP1)

DNSSEC specifies generation and verification of digital signatures using asymmetric keys. This requires

generation of a public key-private key pair. Although the DNSSEC specification does not call for

different keys (just one key pair), experience from pilot implementations suggests that for easier routine

security administration operations such as key rollover (changing of keys) and zone re-signing, at least

two different types of keys are needed. One key type is called the key signing key (KSK). This key

(specifically, the private part of the key pair, called KSK-private) will be used only for signing the key set 

(i.e., DNSKEY RRSet) in the zone file. The other key type is called the zone signing key (ZSK) (whose

private part is called ZSK-private) and will be used to sign all RRsets in the zone (including DNSKEY

RRSet). An administrative distinction is made between the KSK and ZSK keys by setting the Secure

Entry Point (SEP) flag bit in the DNSKEY RR that represents the public part of those keys (in this case, it

would be called KSK-public).

The logic behind creation of two types of key pairs is to provide separate set of functions for each key

type and thus reduce the overall complexity of tasks involved in key rollovers and zone re-signing. 

Accordingly, the KSK (KSK-private) is used to sign the key set (i.e., DNSKEY RRSet) and is the key

type (public component ñ KSK-public) that is sent to the parent to be used for authenticated delegation. 

This is done by generating a DS RR, using the hash of the childís KSK-public key and generating a

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corresponding signature (RRSIG RR) using the parentís own ZSK. The KSK (KSK-public) may also be

used as a trust anchor (SEP keys) in validating resolvers to establish trust chains for verification of

signatures.

The ZSK (ZSK-private) is to be used for signing the entire zone file (all RRsets). The public portion of

this key (ZSK-public) will not be sent to the parent and will always remain in the zone.

The decision parameters involved in KSK and ZSK key pair generation are as follows:

Choice of digital signature algorithm

Choice of key sizes 

Choice of crypto period (duration for which the key will be used).

The choice of digital signature algorithm will be based on recommended algorithms in well-known

standards. NISTís Digital Signature Standard (DSS) (FIPS 186-2) provides three algorithm choices:

Digital Signature Algorithm (DSA)

RSA

Elliptic Curve DSA (ECDSA).

Of these three algorithms, RSA and DSA are more widely available and hence are considered the 

candidates of choice for DNSSEC. In terms of performance, both RSA and DSA have comparable

signature generation speeds, but DSA is much slower for signature verification. Hence, RSA is the

recommended algorithm as far as this guideline is concerned. RSA with SHA-1 is the only cryptographic

algorithm mandated to be implemented with DNSSEC. It can be expected that name servers and clients

will be able to use the RSA algorithm at the minimum. It is suggested that at least one ZSK for a zone

use the RSA algorithm.

NISTís Secure Hash Standard (SHS) (FIPS 180-2) specifies SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, and

SHA-512 as approved hash algorithms to be used as part of the algorithm suite for generating digital

signatures using the digital signature algorithms in the NISTís DSS.

12 Considering ease of

implementation and availability, SHA-1 is recommended as a good candidate, in spite of a recent reported

hash collision attack that took away about 11 bits from its theoretical bit strength.

The choice of key size is a tradeoff between the risk of key compromise and performance. The

performance variables are signature generation and verification times. The size of the DNS response

packet also is a factor because DNSKEY RRs may be sent in the additional section of the DNS response. 

Because the KSK is used only for signing the key set (DNSKEY RRSet), performance is not much of an

issue. Compromise of a KSK could have a great impact, however, because the KSK is the entry point key

for a zone. Rollover of a KSK in the event of a compromise involves potential update of trust anchors in

many validating resolvers. Hence, a large key size is recommended for the KSK. A large key size

decreases the chances of the key compromise and avoids the need for frequent rollovers as each rollover 

requires administrative monitoring and follow-up action.

As far as the choice of key size for the ZSK is concerned, performance certainly will be a factor because

the ZSK is used for signing all RRsets in the zone. In terms of impact, however, it is restricted to just a 

 12 FIPS 180-2, Secure Hash Standard (SHS), is available at http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips180-2/fips180-

2withchangenotice.pdf. 

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single zone because the ZSKís usage is limited to signing RRsets only for that zone but not for providing

authenticated delegation for a child zone. Hence, a key size smaller than that for the KSK can be used for

the ZSK.

The choice of crypto period (rollover period) is dictated by the risk of key exposure. In the case of the

KSK, the volume of signature sets generated is not large (because the KSK signs only the DNSKEY

RRSet and the frequency of change of this RRSet also is small). The minimal key exposure (small

volume of data available to guess KSK-private) combined with the large size of the key implies that the

crypto period for the KSK can be long (usually a year or two).

In the case of ZSK, the risk of key guessing is higher because of larger key exposure. The larger key

exposure is a result of the fact that the number of signature sets generated is very large (because the ZSK

signs all RRsets in a zone and other RRsets change much more frequently than DNSKEY RRsets, so the

number of fresh signatures generated is high). This factor, combined with the relatively smaller size of

the key, implies that ZSKs must be rolled over more frequently than KSKs (usually a month or two).

Checklist item 15: The key size for the KSK should be sufficiently large because of the greater impact on

DNS due to KSK key compromise. 

In terms of the number of keys of each type (KSK and ZSK) to be generated, a good practice is to

generate an extra ZSK in addition to the one that will be used for signing. Hence, the zone administrator

should use the key generation program to generate one KSK and two ZSKs during initial deployment of

DNSSEC. One ZSK is treated as the active key, and its private part (ZSK-private) will be used for

signature generation. The other ZSK (ZSK-public) will be made part of DNSKEY RRSet, but its 

associated private part (ZSK-private) will not be used for signing RRsets. This additional ZSK will

provide a readily available ZSK for immediate rollover in emergency situations such as key compromise

and a form of advance notification to validating resolvers that this key is to be the one into which the zone

is going to roll over after the current crypto period expires. The mere presence of the key in the

DNSKEY RRSet enables validating resolvers to cache and establish trust in the new key so that they can

immediately use the key for signature verification as soon as rollover occurs.

The recommended digital signature algorithm suite, key sizes, and crypto periods for the KSK and ZSK 

keys are given in Table 9-1.

Table 9-1. Digital Signature Algorithms, Key Sizes, and Crypto Periods 

Key Type Digital Signature

Algorithm Suite 

Key Size Crypto Period

(Rollover Period) 

Key-Signing Key (KSK) RSA-SHA1 2048 bits 12 months (1 year)

Zone-Signing Key (ZSK) RSA-SHA1 1024 bits 1 month (30 days)

9.3.1 Key Pair GenerationóIllustrative Example

Every DNSSEC-aware name server implementation should provide a utility program for generating

asymmetric key pairs (public-private key pairs). The use of one such program, dnssec-keygen (provided

by BIND 9.3.x), is illustrated below:

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dnssec-keygen –a algorithm – b bits –n type [options] name

where algorithm (under ña parameter) can be one of the following:

RSASHA1

DSA

bits (key size) for the ñb parameter has the following ranges:

[512..4096] for RSASHA1 

[512..1024] for DSA (must be divisible by 64)

type for the ñn parameter can be one of ZONE | HOST 

name is the owner of the key (usually the domain name in the zone apex).

This command generates two filesóone containing the public key and the other the associated private

key. The generic names for these files are as follows:

K<domain_name>+algorithm_id+Key_id.key 

K<domain_name>+algorithm_id+Key_id.private

The domain_name is the value of the name parameter specified on the command line. The algorithm IDs 

are: 

3 ñ DSA

5 ñ RSASHA1 

The key_id is the unique identifier for the key generated by the program.

For example, to generate a ZSK keyset of length 1024 bits that uses the RSASHA1 algorithm suite for

signing the zone example.com, the following command would be issued:

dnssec-keygen –a RSASHA1 –b 1024 –n ZONE example.com

For this command, the following files containing the private and public keys, respectively, are generated:

Kexample.com.+005+28345.private

Kexample.com.+005+28345.key 

In these file names, 005 stands for the algorithm_id and 28345 is the unique key ID.

In the *.key file, the public key information is expressed in the same syntax as that of a zone file RR. The

content of the file Kexample.com.+005+28345.key will be:

example.com IN DNSKEY 256 3 5 BQFG+KGJ7.......... (Base64 encoded 

key string) 

Hence, the contents of the file containing the public key can be readily added to the zone file

(zonedb.example.com) contents by using the following command:

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cat *.key >> /var/named/zonedb.example.com

After the DNSKEY RR containing the public key is added to the zone file, the zoneís serial number in the

SOA RR must be increased prior to actually signing the zone.

9.4 Secure Storage of Private Keys (DNSSEC-OP2)

The private keys in the KSK and ZSK key pairs should be protected from unauthorized access. If

possible, the private keys should be stored offline (with respect to the DNSSEC-aware name server) in a

physically secure, non-network-accessible machine along with the zone file master copy. The signatures

generated by using the private keys should be transferred to the primary authoritative name servers 

through a load process, using a dynamically established network connection (rather than a permanent

network link).

This strategy is not feasible in situations in which the DNSSEC-aware name server has to support

dynamic updates. To support dynamic update transactions, the DNSSEC-aware name server (which

usually is a primary authoritative name server) has to have both the zone file master copy and the private

key corresponding to the zone-signing key (ZSK-private) online to immediately update the signatures for

the updated RRsets. The private key corresponding to the key-signing key (KSK-private) can still be kept 

offline. In this scenario, the following measures must be taken to protect ZSK-private:

The shell from which the key generation program/utility is invoked should not be accessible

except by authorized zone administrators/operators.

The directory in which the private key files are stored (usually a subdirectory under a directory

with the same name as the zone, with the file names in that directory having the name structure

K<zonename>.+AlgorithmID+<keytag>.private in BIND) should not be accessible/visible except 

to authorized zone administrators/operators.

Sufficient fault tolerance should be provided for the contents of the directory containing the

private key files, either by having a mirrored disk or through periodic backups on tape,

CD/DVDs, or optical media. The backup media also should be protected against disclosure,

tampering, or theft.

Another strategy is to store the private keys in an encrypted file system.

Checklist item 16: The private keys corresponding to both the ZSK and the KSK should not be kept on

the DNSSEC-aware primary authoritative name server when the name server does not support dynamic

updates. If dynamic update is supported, the private key corresponding to the ZSK alone should be kept 

on the name server, with appropriate directory/file-level access control list-based or cryptography-based 

protections.

9.5 Publishing the Public Key (DNSSEC-OP3) and Setting Up Trust Anchors (DNSSECOP7)

The operation of verifying the zone data of a particular zone by a DNSSEC-aware resolver begins with

that resolver knowing and trusting the public key of that zone (the one whose data is to be verified) or any

of its ancestors (parent and zones above the parent in the DNS tree). If the zone to be verified (e.g., 

example.com) is secure and its parent (.com) is not, the point of trust begins with the zone itself. If the

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parent (i.e., the .com zone) is secure (i.e., DNSSEC-aware) and the parent of the parent (i.e., a root zone)

is not secure, the starting point of trust is the parent (i.e., .com zone). If a root zone is secure, of course

that becomes the origin of trust.

Whatever the starting point of the chain of trust (enterprise level, TLD, or root zone), the public key of

that starting point should be made known by the associated name server to the DNSSEC-aware resolvers 

of interest. These public keys known to DNSSEC-aware resolvers are called trust anchors. Because

there is no feature within DNS for third-party authentication of public keys (like X.509 public key

infrastructure), the public key has to be distributed through an out-of-band (relative to DNS) process. 

This distribution may be accomplished through channels such as Web sites or e-mails.

The entries in the trust anchor list of a DNSSEC-aware resolver determine whether a signed response

from a zone will be categorized as secure or insecure. As mentioned in Section 9.2.2, the resolver has to

establish trust in the public key of the zone that has sent the response before it performs signature

verification. If that trust cannot be established due to not being able to build a trusted chain using any of

the entries in the trust anchor list, the response will be tagged as insecure. The reason for not being able

to build a trusted chain is due to the fact that the DNS namespace contains islands of signed zones as

opposed to unbroken hierarchical sequence of signed zones. The effect of each trust anchor in labeling 

responses for a given mapping of islands of signed zones (Figure 9-2) is given in Table 9-2.

 

gov org

nist.gov

root ì.î

com

example.com example.org

Figure 9-2. A Mapping of Islands of Security

Table 9-2. Impact of Trust Anchor in Labeling Responses 

Trust anchor installed DNSSEC Response Status for Queries Addressed to

on DNSSEC-aware

resolver

www.nist.gov www.example.com www.example.org

none insecure insecure insecure 

root secure insecure insecure 

.com insecure secure insecure 

example.org insecure insecure secure

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9.6 Zone Signing (DNSSEC-OP4)

The following sequence of actions takes place when a zone file is signed:

The zone file is sorted in canonical order of domain names.

An NSEC RR is generated for every owner name in the zone. 

The KSK (i.e., KSK-private) is used to sign the DNSKEY RRSet. The KSK is identified by

using the SEP flag in the RDATA portion of the DNSKEY RRType.

The ZSK (i.e., ZSK-private) is used to sign all RRsets in the zone (including DNSKEY RRsets

and NSEC RRsets).

Checklist item 17: Signature generation using the KSK should be done offline, using the KSK-private

stored offline; then the DNSKEY RRSet, along with its RRSIG RR, can be loaded into the primary

authoritative name server.

Use of a zone signer program (dnssec-signzone provided by BIND 9.3.x) to sign the zone is illustrated

below:

dnssec-signzone -o <name of the zone> -k <name of the file

containing KSK> <location of zone file> <name of file containing

ZSK> 

To sign the data for the zone example.com with the KSK located in the file

Kexample.com.+005+76425.key and the ZSK generated earlier, the command would be as follows:

dnssec-signzone -o example.com -k Kexample.com.+005+76425.key \ 

/var/named/zonedb.example.com Kexample.com.+005+28345.key

The process of signing a zone file consists of generating a hash for each RRSet (RRs with the same owner

name, class, and RRType), generating a signature for the RRSet (using the private key ZSK-private), and 

then capturing this signature information in a new RR of type RRSIG RR. The KSK signs just the

DNSKEY RRSet, whereas a ZSK signs all RRsets in the zone file. The entity whose private key is used

to sign the zone data is called the signer or signing authority. In most cases, the signer is the domain

associated with the zone. In response to a DNS query, a DNSSEC-aware authoritative name server serves

the relevant zone data along with the digital signature of the data. The recipient decrypts the digital

signature associated with the received zone data, using the public key of the signer (after establishing trust 

in that public key). This decryption provides the hash of the original stored zone data. The recipient also

generates a hash (using the same hash function algorithm used by the signer) of the received zone data.

This computed hash is then compared with the hash retrieved from the digital signature. If the hashes

match, then the digital signature in the response is said to be verified.

9.7 Establishing Trust Chain and Signature Verification (DNSSEC-OP8)

Until all zones become signed zones, there could be a situation in which a zone is signed but its parent is

not signed. The only point of trust (assurance) for the DNSSEC-aware resolver in this scenario is the

preconfigured public key of the zone data signer. In the absence of any other source vouching for the

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authenticity of the public key of the signer, the only source the resolver can trust is the zone signer itself,

assuming that the public key is configured to be trusted. On the other hand, if there is a DNS zone X that

will vouch for the authenticity of the public key of zone signer child-of-X, the resolver can establish trust 

in zone signer child-of-X through X. The sequence of zones in the DNS tree through which a resolver

establishes trust in the public key of the signer serving signed zone data is called the chain of trust. 

In the example, the chain of trust starts (originates) with DNS site X and ends with the zone data from site

Y. Usually DNS site X will be the zone that is the immediate parent of zone Y (called the parent zone) in

the global DNS zone tree. The parent zone vouches for the authenticity of the child zone by digitally

signing the hash of the public key of the child zone. This hash is stored in a DNS RR called the

Delegation Signer (DS) RR. The parent zone also must be a signed zone because a nonsigned zone will

not possess the private key (of a private key/public key pair) to sign the hash of the public key of the child

zone. Depending on the absence or presence of the chain of trust, a signed zone can be one of the

following:

Island of securityóa zone that is self-signed. The reason it is self-signed is that the zoneís

parent is not a signed zone or is unwilling to set up secure delegations and hence cannot vouch for

the authenticity of the public key of the child zone. In this instance, there really is no chain of

trust.

Chained secure zoneóthe zoneís parent and possibly one or more of the ancestors up the DNS

zone tree that are signed. In this hierarchy of signed zones and the associated hierarchy of

configured keys, the resolver usually will choose the key at the zone that is highest in this

hierarchy of signed zones as the origin of the chain of trust. The public key of the zone at the

origin of the chain of trust is called the trust anchor. In fact, there may be more than one key that

is a trust anchor. In other words, the trust anchors refers to the group of keys that are initially

trusted by a resolver, which can then be used to build the chain of trust that leads all the way to

the public key of the zone whose signatures the resolver wants to verify. If the chain of trust 

leads all the way up the DNS tree to the root zone, the zone in question is said to be ìglobally

secureî.

Zone data protection through digital signature service for an island-of-security zone consists of the

following basic tasks:

Public key/private key pair generation

Secure storage (if necessary, offline from the name server) of the private key

Publication of the public key by incorporation of the DNSKEY RR in the zone file

Generation of digital signatures for zone data (zone signing).

Additional tasks are involved for a chained secure zone. To be part of the chain of trust, the zone has to

inform its parent of its public key (KSK-public) securely (through out-of-DNS channel means). The

parent then creates a hash of the public key of its child and stores it in the parent zone in a new RR called

a DS RR. It also signs this DS RR by generating a RRSIG RR. Practical conditions dictate, however,

that the keys periodically have to be changed because any key can be broken with sufficient computing

power, aided by the volume of signature data generated. In a chained secure zone, whenever a zone

changes its KSK, its parent has to be notified of the new key. The parent then has to generate a new DS

RR and sign it again. To reduce the administrative burden involved, a common strategy is to use another

key pair, the KSK. The KSK is used for signing only the DNSKEY RRSet; all of the other authoritative

RRsets in the zone file are signed with the ZSK. The KSK is the key that is published to the parent. The 

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parent will generate the DS RR and a RRSIG RR using the parentís own ZSK. The KSK is made

sufficiently long (e.g., 2048 bits) compared to the ZSK (e.g., 1024 bits) and hence needs to be changed

less frequently. There may be situations, however, in which either because of the manageable frequency 

of key rollovers (key change) or the criticality of DNS information served by the zone, administrators will

not use two distinct key pairs for the ZSK and KSK. 

In summary, the additional tasks that take place in a chained secure zone are as follows:

Secure transmission of the KSK by a secure zone to its parent. This transmission is accomplished

out of band and may not involve any DNS transactions.

The parent stores the childís KSK in a special keyset file directory, generates a hash of the key,

and stores the hash in a DS RR. The parent also generates the digital signature (RRSIG RR) for

this DS RR and includes it with the other delegation information. 

The zone whose signed response needs to be verified (i.e., the target zone) is the leaf node of the chain of

trust. The pre-requisite for this operation is to establish trust in the ZSK of the zone. The trust in a zoneís 

ZSK is established through the following operations: 

Authenticated referral from the parent

Authenticating the KSK of the child zone.

To understand authenticated referral from the parent, it is necessary to look at the normal DNS referral

process. In the normal DNS query, a zone that does not have authoritative information pertaining to a

query for a domain name in a child zone provides a hint or referral by providing the NS RRSet and

associated additional information (RRs that contain the IP addresses for servers provided in the NS

RRSet). In normal DNS query processing, following this referral is an acceptable processing step. This

process is insufficient, however, from the point of view of establishing a chain of trust; the information

about the NS RRSet and associated glue RRs (or any other additional information) cannot be considered

authentic because they are not signed with the public key of the authoritative source (i.e., the child zone). 

To enable authentication of this referral information, the parent provides the cryptographic hint through 

the DS RR. 

Consider an example of how a DNSSEC-aware resolver validates a DNS response from the signed zone

example.com. The resolver, following its chain of trust starting from its trust anchor, has authenticated

the public key for .com zone and trusts it. Hence, it trusts the NS RRs and DS RR served by the .com

zone. From the NS RR and its associated glue RRs, the resolver has determined that the authoritative

name server for example.com is ns.example.com and also knows its IP address. Using this information, it

goes to ns.example.com and retrieves the KSK of example.com from its DNSKEY RRSet. It hashes this

key and compares it with the hash in the DS RR of its parent zone .com. A match of these two hashes

authenticates the referral from the .com zone to the example.com zone, as well as the KSK of the 

example.com zone. Because the ZSK is signed by the KSK of example.com, the resolver can obtain the 

ZSK of example.com in an authenticated way. Because the ZSK has signed all the RRsets in

example.com, any signed response from that zone can be validated by using the now-trusted ZSK. 

As the description of the process indicates, the delegation information from a parent in the case of a

chained secured zone consists of the following:

The NS RRs for the child zone. Because the authoritative source for these NS records is the 

child zone, the NS RRs provided are called the hints or referral.

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The glue RRs. They provide the location of the servers specified in the NS RRs (IP addresses of

referred name servers). 

The DS RR. It provides the hash of the KSK or ZSK of the child zone.

The RRSIG RR. It covers the DS RR (signature of the DS RR). 

9.7.1 Recording and Communicating Results of Signature Verification 

Some name servers can be authoritative for some zones and not authoritative for others. For zones for 

which they are not authoritative, they perform the function of caching RRsets from previous queries 

pertaining to those zones. A DNSSEC-aware caching/resolving name server has additional tasks in its

caching function. These additional tasks pertain to classifying the security state of the response RRsets 

and caching them accordingly. The three possible states of RRsets are as follows:

Secure. A DNSSEC-aware caching name server (or resolver) will categorize an RRSet as secure

if verification of its associated RRSIG was successful. This means a valid chain of trust can be

formed from the RRSet to a trust anchor. The RRSet would then be placed in the cache and be

purged when the data is deemed no longer up to date (according to the TTL) or no longer

verifiable (according to the RRSIG validity period).

Insecure. A DNSSEC-aware cache categorizes an RRSet as insecure if it is provably insecure. 

That means that no DNSSEC security RRs were in the response, and the recipient knew not to

expect them. This happens when a delegation to an unsigned zone (a delegation that does not 

have a DS RR found in the referral response) is received. Insecure RRsets are handled the same

way as secure RRsets, but local policy on the end system may dictate not to trust insecure

delegations or data in a response.

Bogus. The DNSSEC-aware cache categorizes a response as bogus when verification of the

signatures (RRSIG RRs) fails or contains incorrect fields (e.g., RRSIG has expired). The cache

policy determines how to deal with these RRsets. They can either be dropped or put into a

special BAD cache containing only RRsets that are found to be bogus.

When a DNSSEC-aware caching name server receives a query from a non-security-aware resolver, it

serves either secure or insecure data from its cache. Because this query is non-security aware, DNSSEC

RR types are not included in the response, so only normal DNS processing applies.

DNSSEC-aware resolvers receive either secure or insecure data from the DNSSEC-aware caching server

with a bit set in the header of the DNS response. This header bit is the Authenticated Data (AD) bit,

which signals that the RRsets in the response passed all security checks performed by the caching name

server. Depending on that serverís security posture, the client may choose to accept this response or

perform its own set of security checks.

In some cases, a client may want data that has been deemed bogus by a caching name server. In this case,

the client sends a query with the Checking Disabled (CD) bit set in the DNS message header. This tells

the DNSSEC-aware caching name server to respond with bogus data from the BAD cache, not an error

message. The client system must then perform its own security checks on the response RRsets. In these

types of responses, the server does not set the AD bit, indicating that the response has not passed all

security checks performed by the server.

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9.8 Additional Protection Measures for DNS Query/Response 

DNSSEC specifications for protection of DNS query/response transactions cover the following

communications:

DNS responses from remote authoritative name servers to local (enterprise) resolving name

servers 

DNS responses from remote caching name servers to local resolving name servers.

Because most of the queries in DNS originate from stub resolvers (on behalf of client software requiring 

Internet resource access), however, protection for the DNS response message must be extended to the

stub resolver to the resolving name server path as well. The protection approach for this path (also called

the DNS last hop) is determined by the nature of the stub resolver and how the network is set up.

Stub resolvers can be non-DNSSEC aware, DNSSEC-aware nonvalidating, and DNSSEC-aware

validating. Most of the stub resolvers deployed today are non-DNSSEC aware. In other words, not only

do they not have the capability to verify signatures associated with returned RRSets, they also cannot

make a distinction between an authenticated (signature verified) response and a nonauthenticated

response (passed through by their local resolving name servers). To have complete end-to-end protection

for DNS query/response, the minimal requirement for these types of stub resolvers is that they should

have the capability to perform origin authentication and data integrity for responses coming down the

channel connecting them to the resolving name server providing DNS name resolution service for them. 

This capability can be installed in these types of stub resolvers with the HMAC approach specified in

TSIG (as HMACs are implemented for protecting zone transfer and dynamic update transactions). 

Alternatively, the enterprise can provide this capability through other network security mechanisms, such

as IP Security (IPsec). Whatever mechanism is used for channel security of the last hop (resolving name

server to stub resolver), this capability should be present in DNSSEC-aware nonvalidating stub resolvers 

as well, in addition to non-DNSSEC aware stub resolvers. A DNSSEC-aware nonvalidating stub resolver

can leverage this trusted path to examine the setting of the AD bit in the message header of a response

message it receives. These types of stub resolvers can then use this flag bit as a hint to find out whether

the resolving name server was able to successfully validate the signatures for all of the data in the Answer

and Authority sections of the response.

In some situations, establishing a trusted path between stub resolvers and the resolving name servers that

provide DNS service for them is not feasible. An example is where the resolving name server is not

under the administrative domain of the enterprise but is run by an ISP. In this situation, the end-to-end

protection for DNS query/response can be ensured only by having a DNSSEC-aware stub resolver or a

stub resolver that can use message authentication (TSIG or SIG(0)) to communicate with a trusted

caching server. A DNSSEC-aware stub resolver can indicate to the local resolving name server that it

wants to perform its own signature validation by setting the checking disabled (CD) bit in its query 

messages. Alternatively, a stub resolver must be manually configured to use a specific resolving name

server and use TSIG/SIG(0) to provide message authentication.

9.9 Dynamic Updates in a DNSSEC-Aware Zone

Section 4.3 lists the various logical operations on a zone file during the course of a dynamic update. The

four logical operations can be regarded as consisting of two basic operations: addition of RRs and 

deletion of RRs. Updating an RR can be regarded as a combination of the two basic operations of

addition and deletion. Addition and deletion of RRs involve no further operation on the rest of the RRs in

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the zone file in nonsecure zones. In a secure zone, however, there is one NSEC RR (and a corresponding

RRSIG RR) to cover every gap in the namespace. 

There is one NSEC RR for every unique owner name in the zone. This NSEC RR points to the next 

owner name in the canonical order (ordering obtained by lexicographically sorting the domain names

within a zone). The NSEC RR for the last owner name in canonical order points to the zone apex name

(in other words, the zone name). Hence, conceptually NSEC RRs form a circular link list that traverses

the unique domains names in a zone.

Consider the organization and contents of NSEC RRs for the zone example.com. Suppose the following is

the canonical order of the unique domain names in the zone:

example.com. IN SOA ns.example.com. admin.example.com. (

12985 3600 2700 8000 3600 )

IN RRSIG ( SOA ) 

 IN NS ns.example.com. 

IN RRSIG ( NS )

 IN MX mail.example.com. 

IN RRSIG ( MX )

ns.example.com. IN A 192.253.101.7 

mail.example.com. IN A 192.253.101.8 

marketing.example.com. IN A 192.253.101.9 

IN RRSIG ( A ) 

 IN MX mail.example.com. 

IN RRSIG ( MX )

sales.example.com. IN NS ns.example.com.

IN RRSIG ( NS )

www.example.com. IN A 192.253.101.10

IN RRSIG ( A ) 

The pseudo format (containing only the important fields) of NSEC RRs covering the gaps in the

namespace relating to domain names and RR types found at each name in our zone is as follows: 

example.com. IN NSEC marketing.example.com. (NS SOA MX RRSIG

NSEC)

marketing.example.com. IN NSEC sales.example.com. (A MX RRSIG

NSEC)

sales.example.com. IN NSEC www.example.com. (NS RRSIG NSEC)

www.example.com. IN NSEC example.com. (A RRSIG NSEC) 

Note that there are as many NSEC RRs as the number of unique domain names in the zone. The NSEC

RR whose owner name is example.com points to the next domain in the canonical order (i.e.,

marketing.example.com). The same is true for NSEC RRs pertaining to the domains

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marketing.example.com and sales.example.com. The NSEC RR pertaining to the last domain name (i.e.,

www.example.com) points to the first domain name in the zone (i.e., example.com).

When a query for ìpackage.example.com IN Aî arrives (which does not exist in the zone), the

authoritative server replies with the NSEC RRSet that proves that the name does not exist in the zone. In

this case, the response from the server will consist of the normal DNS reply indicating that the name does 

not exist and:

marketing.example.com. NSEC RR indicating there are no authoritative names between

ìmarketing.example.com.î and ìsales.example.comî

www.example.com. NSEC RR (the last domain in the zone) proving that there are no wildcard

names in the zone that could have been expanded to match the query

13

Accompanying RRSIG RRs for each of the foregoing NSEC records for authentication.

The modifications to the NSEC RRs that are required for the following operations are listed below:

Adding a new RR type to an existing domain

Deleting an RR type from an existing domain

Adding a new domain name to the zone

Deleting a domain name from the zone.

Adding a new RR type to an existing domain:

Suppose a new mail host is added to www.example.com. This change will require addition of an MX RR

to this domain name. Hence, the NSEC RR for www.example.com must be modified to read as follows:

www.example.com. IN NSEC example.com. (A MX RRSIG NSEC) 

Deleting an RR type from an existing domain:

Suppose the enterprise example.com decides that it no longer needs a separate set of e-mails for people in

the marketing department. This change will require removal of the mailserver (RRType = ìMXî) from

the domain marketing.example.com. The modified NSEC RR will now read as follows:

marketing.example.com. IN NSEC sales.example.com. (A RRSIG 

NSEC)

Adding a new domain name to the zone:

To enable customers to order goods online, the enterprise decides to add a separate domain

websales.example.com. A separate name server and a set of new hosts also will be added. This new

domain requires the following changes to the zone file: 

A new NSEC RR for the newly added domain. In this case, a NSEC RR for the domain name

websales.example.com should be added. Its location in the canonical order must be determined. 

This NSEC RR should be set to point to the next domain name in the new canonical order. The

 13 For a discussion on negative responses using NSEC RRs, see RFC 4035 

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presence of the name server and hosts should be reflected in this new RR (through the NS and A 

codes in the RR types list field) as shown below, and the associated RRSIG RR must be

generated. Also note that the new delegation is unsecure, since there is no DS RR indicated in the

RR list. Any client looking in the domain should not expect DNSSEC information in replies.

websales.example.com. IN NSEC www.example.com. (A NS RRSIG 

NSEC)

The NSEC RR pertaining to the domain name just preceding the added domain (in the canonical

order) has to be modified to point to the newly added domain. The NSEC RR should now point 

to the domain websales.example.com. A new RRSIG RR must be generated (signed by the ZSK)

covering the newly generated NSEC RR.

sales.example.com. IN NSEC websales.example.com. (A RRSIG 

NSEC)

Deleting a domain name from the zone:

Suppose the enterprise has decided that all sales will be made through the Web only. Because hosts have

been created to handle this function in the new domain websales.example.com, the hosts in the domain

sales.example.com are no longer needed because usage of the applications that reside on them has been

discontinued. This implies that all RRs belonging to a domain should be removed from the zone. This

change involves the following operations:

The NSEC RR corresponding to the deleted domain should be removed, so the NSEC RR

pertaining to domain sales.example.com has to be deleted.

The NSEC RR pertaining to the domain name just preceding the deleted domain has to be

modified to point to the domain name immediately following the deleted domain (i.e., pointed to

by the deleted NSEC RR). In this case, the NSEC RR for marketing.example.com should point to

the domain websales.example.com as follows: 

marketing.example.com. IN NSEC websales.example.com. (A MX

RRSIG NSEC) 

9.10 Recommendations Summary

The following items provide a summary of the major recommendations from this section:

Checklist item 14: Name servers that deploy DNSSEC signed zones or query signed zones

should be configured to perform DNSSEC processing.

Checklist item 15: The key size for the KSK should be sufficiently large because of the greater

impact on DNS due to KSK key compromise. 

Checklist item 16: The private keys corresponding to both the ZSK and the KSK should not be

kept on the DNSSEC-aware primary authoritative name server when the name server does not 

support dynamic updates. If dynamic update is supported, the private key corresponding to the

ZSK alone should be kept on the name server, with appropriate directory/file-level access control

list-based or cryptography-based protections.

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Checklist item 17: Signature generation using the KSK should be done offline, using the KSKprivate stored offline; then the DNSKEY RRSet, along with its RRSIG RR, can be loaded into the

primary authoritative name server.

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10. Guidelines for Minimizing Information Exposure through DNS Data Content 

Control 

The DNS security extensions provide only origin authentication and data integrity protection. This

protection does not provide confidentiality because of the design decision to keep DNS data public. 

Features such as split DNS provide some means of keeping internal network information from appearing 

on the global Internet, but they are not official parts of the DNS protocol specification.

It is possible that an attacker may learn valuable information about an organizationís network through 

DNS and use that information to launch an attack. For some elements, such as IP addresses of public

servers, this possibility is unavoidable. There are steps a DNS administrator can take in generating a zone

file to keep network exposure to a minimum, however; these steps are given below. This process should

be done prior to signing a zone. Network information that should be kept absolutely private should not be

published in DNS at all.

10.1 Choosing Parameter Values in SOA RR 

The first action a DNS administrator should undertake is to ensure that the values in the SOA resource

record data are correct. The values in this RR regulate the communication between primary and

secondary servers for the zone, such as when secondary servers should periodically perform zone

transfers from the primary server. This data also contains the minimum TTL value field, which gives

client resolvers an indication of how long to cache non-DNSSEC negative responses. Some suggested

values for these fields are as follows:

14

Serial Number. The serial number in the SOA RDATA is used to indicate to secondary name

servers that a change to the zone has occurred and a zone transfer should be performed. It should

always be increased whenever a change is made to the zone data.

Refresh Value. The refresh value tells the secondary servers how many seconds to wait between

zone transfers. For zones that are updated frequently, this number should be small (20 minutes to

2 hours). For zones that are updated infrequently, a larger number can be substituted (2 to 12 

hours). For a signed zone, this value should not be more than the length of the RRSIG validity

period, to ensure that secondary zones do not contain zones with expired RRSIGs. This value

also may depend on bandwidth constraints on the primary server side. Note that if a primary

server issues a NOTIFY message when it is updated, a secondary server will immediately

perform a zone transfer and not wait until the refresh value has timed out.

Retry Value. The retry value is the period a secondary server should wait before attempting to

perform a zone transfer if the previous attempt failed. This value should be a fraction of the

refresh value. If using a Refresh value in the range given above, the possible range of values for

this field would be 5 minutes to 1 hour.

Expire Value. The expire value is the length of time a secondary server should consider the zone

information valid if it can no longer reach the primary server to refresh. This field allows

secondary servers to continue to operate until network disruptions are resolved. This value

depends on the frequency of changes to the zone and the reliability of the connection between

name servers. It should be a multiple of the refresh value and possibly set to as long as 2 to 4 

weeks.

 14 See RFC 1912, Common DNS Operational and Configuration Errors for more information; it is available at

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1912.txt. 

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Minimum TTL. The minimum TTL value is the default value used in negative caching. The

minTTL value depends on how often the information changes in the zone. If the zone is static,

the value could be large; if the zone is dynamic, the value should be small. A minimum value of

5 minutes is advised, with a recommended range of 30 minutes to 5 days.

Checklist item 18: The refresh value in the zone SOA RR should be chosen with the frequency of

updates in mind. If the zone is signed, the refresh value should be less than the RRSIG validity period.

Checklist item 19: The retry value in a zone SOA RR should be 1/10th of the refresh value.

Checklist item 20: The expire value in the zone SOA RR should be 2 to 4 weeks.

Checklist item 21: The minimum TTL value should be between 30 seconds and 24 hours. 

10.2 Information Leakage from Informational RRTypes

There are several types of RRs in the DNS that are meant to convey information to humans and

applications about the network, hosts, or services. These RRs include the Responsible Person (RP)

record, the Host Information (HINFO) record, the Location (LOC) record, and the catch-all text string

resource record (TXT). Although these record types are meant to provide information to users in good

faith, they also allow attackers to gain knowledge about network hosts before attempting to exploit them. 

For example, an attacker may query for HINFO records, looking for hosts that list an OS or platform

known to have exploits. Therefore, great care should be taken before including these record types in a

zone. In fact, they are best left out altogether. 

More careful consideration should be taken with the TXT resource record type. A DNS administrator

will have to decide if the data contained in a TXT RR constitutes an information leak or is a necessary

piece of information. These judgments will have to be made on a case-by-case basis. 

Checklist item 22: A DNS administrator should not include in a zone file HINFO, RP, LOC, or other RR

types that could divulge information that would be useful to an attacker, or the external view of a zone if

using split DNS. 

Checklist item 23: A DNS administrator should review the data contained in any TXT RR for possible

information leakage before adding it to the zone file. 

10.3 Using RRSIG Validity Periods to Minimize Key Compromise 

The best way for a zone administrator to minimize the impact of a key compromise is by limiting the

validity period of RRSIGs in the zone and in the parent zone. This strategy limits the time during which 

an attacker can take advantage of a compromised key to forge responses. An attacker that has

compromised a ZSK can use that key only during the KSKís signature validity interval. An attacker that

has compromised a KSK can use that key for only as long as the signature interval of the RRSIG covering

the DS RR in the delegating parent. Therefore, it makes sense to keep these validity periods short, which 

will require frequent re-signing.

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To minimize the impact of a compromised ZSK, a zone administrator should set a signature validity

period of 1 week for RRSIGs covering the DNSKEY RRSet in the zone (the RRSet that contains the ZSK 

and KSK for the zone). The DNSKEY RRSet can be re-signed without performing a ZSK rollover, but 

scheduled ZSK rollover should still be performed at regular intervals. 

To prevent the impact of a compromised KSK, a delegating parent should set the signature validity period

for RRSIGs covering DS RRs in the range of a few days to 1 week. This re-signing does not require

frequent rollover of the parentís ZSK, but scheduled ZSK rollover should still be performed at regular 

intervals.

Checklist item 24: The validity period for the RRSIGs covering a zoneís DNSKEY RRSet should be in

the range of 2 days to 1 week. This value helps reduce the vulnerability period resulting from a key 

compromise.

Checklist item 25: A zone with delegated children should have a validity period of a few days to 1 week

for RRSIGs covering the DS RR for a delegated child. This value helps reduce the child zoneís

vulnerability period resulting from a KSK compromise.

10.4 Recommendations Summary

The following items provide a summary of the major recommendations from this section:

Checklist item 18: The refresh value in the zone SOA RR should be chosen with the frequency 

of updates in mind. If the zone is signed, the refresh value should be less than the RRSIG validity

period.

Checklist item 19: The retry value in a zone SOA RR should be 1/10th of the refresh value.

Checklist item 20: The expire value in the zone SOA RR should be 2 to 4 weeks.

Checklist item 21: The minimum TTL value should be between 30 seconds and 24 hours.

Checklist item 22: A DNS administrator should not include in a zone file HINFO, RP, LOC, or

other RR types that could divulge information that would be useful to an attacker, or the external

view of a zone if using split DNS. 

Checklist item 23: A DNS administrator should review the data contained in any TXT RR for

possible information leakage before adding it to the zone file. 

Checklist item 24: The validity period for the RRSIGs covering a zoneís DNSKEY RRSet

should be in the range of 2 days to 1 week. This value helps reduce the vulnerability period

resulting from a key compromise.

Checklist item 25: A zone with delegated children should have a validity period of a few days to

1 week for RRSIGs covering the DS RR for a delegated child. This value helps reduce the child

zoneís vulnerability period resulting from a KSK compromise.

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11. Guidelines for DNS Security Administration Operations

Section 9 deals with operations for deployment and usage of DNSSEC features for protection of DNS

query/response transactions. This section deals with periodic security administration operations (and

associated checklists) in a DNSSEC-aware enterprise-level zone and how to perform those operations

securely.

11.1 Scheduled Key Rollovers (Key Lifetimes)

The keys used for zone signing (ZSK) and key signing (KSK) have to be changed because the keys

become vulnerable (liable to be cracked) after a period of usage (generally attributed to Mooreís Lawó

which predicts an exponential increase in computing power over timeóbut also because of other factors 

discussed below). The compromise of a private key means that any site can spoof the zone by signing a

bogus RRSet with the private key, thus defeating the purpose of signing the zone file. Key rollover can

take place as a scheduled event (scheduled rollover), or it may take place as a result of an emergency

(emergency rollover). Emergency rollover occurs for one of the following reasons:

The private key of the zone has been compromised.

The private key of the zone has been lost, and the zone is to be updated before the RRSIGs 

expire.

In scheduled key rollover, the time period (or frequency of change) after which the keys must be changed

is determined by several factors.

The larger the size of the zone file, the larger the data set over which the signatures are generated,

making the process of cracking the private key easier.

The smaller the size of the private key, the easier it is to crack.

Based on these factors, each zone arrives at a desired frequency for key rollovers for ZSKs and KSK.

Recall that the KSK (KSK-private) is used for signing only the DNSKEY RRSet, whereas the ZSK (ZSKprivate) is used for signing the entire zone file. Apart from the volume of data, the ZSK also is used

much more frequently, as in the following situations:

When a new RR is added (e.g., a new mail server is added and hence a new MX RR is added the

zone file)

When an existing RRís RDATA has changed (e.g., the IP address of a server has changed and 

hence the corresponding A RR has to be replaced)

When the signature has expired for an RRSIG RR.

Because of the volume of data handled and the frequency of usage, the size of the ZSK-private key 

becomes a factor in overall CPU cycles consumed by the digital signature generation operations. Hence,

the ZSK used is relatively small.

Checklist item 26: The KSK needs to be rolled over less frequently than the ZSK. The recommended

rollover frequency for the KSK is once a year (with a size of 2048 bits using RSA/SHA1), whereas the

ZSK should be rolled over every month (with a key size of 1024 bits using RSA/SHA1).

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The impact of a key rollover on the rest of DNS depends on whether the secure zone is locally secure or

globally secure (part of a chain of trust). 

For a more detailed discussion of the steps involved in a key rollover, see the IETF document on

DNSSEC operations.

15

11.1.1 Key Rollover in a Locally Secure Zone 

A zone that is only locally secure will have a ZSK, and possibly a KSK that is configured in client

resolvers, as a trusted key. Certain challenges arise when either key is rolled over, although having a

KSK even for a locally signed zone makes rolling over the ZSK easier. When a zone changes its ZSK(s)

and has a KSK that remains unchanged, the only problem that must be addressed is introducing the new 

key when the old key may be in some distant resolverís or name serverís cache.

The solution is to pre-publish the new public key before the rollover. The DNS administrator needs to

publish the new key as a DNSKEY RR in the zone file before it is used to generate signatures. The

process is as follows:

Generate a new key pair.

Add the public key of the new key pair to the zone file (DNSKEY record).

Sign the zone using the private key of the currently active key pair and the KSK (if present).

Wait for a period equal to the TTL of the DNSKEY RRSet or the MinTTL of the zone SOA

record (whichever is greater). 

Delete the retiring DNSKEY RR from the zone key set and the expired RRSIG RRs.

Re-sign the DNSKEY RRSet with the new ZSK.

It might be in the DNS administratorís best interest to perform a ZSK rollover continuously. The

administrator can perform the first three steps and wait indefinitely before deleting the old DNSKEY

from the key set, even continuing to sign the zone with the old DNSKEY when the RRSIGs in the zone

expire. This procedure allows the administrator to perform an emergency key rollover more efficiently

(see below). 

Zones that pre-publish the new public key should observe the following:

Checklist item 27: The secure zone that pre-publishes its public key should do so at least one TTL period

before the time of the key rollover.

Checklist item 28: After removing the old public key, the zone should generate a new signature (RRSIG

RR), based on the remaining keys (DNSKEY RRs) in the zone file.

 15 See the Internet-Draft titled DNSSEC Operational Practices, which is available at http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draftietf-dnsop-dnssec-operational-practices-08.txt. 

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In rolling over the KSK, the secure zone may not know which resolvers have stored the public key as a

trust anchor. If the network administrator has an out-of-band method of contacting resolver

administrators that have stored the public key as a trust anchor (such as e-mail), the network administrator

should send out appropriate warnings and set up a trusted means of disseminating the new trust anchor. 

Otherwise, the DNS administrator can do nothing except pre-publish the new KSK with ample time to

give resolver administrators enough time to learn the new KSK.

11.1.2

11.1.3

11.1.4

Key Rollover in a Chained Secure Zone 

A globally secure zone uses two sets of keys: the ZSK and the KSK. 

ZSK Key Rollover in a Chained Secure Zone 

The operations involved in a ZSK rollover in a globally secure zone are no different from those in a ZSK

key rollover in a locally secure zone. (See Section 11.1.1.)

KSK Key Rollover in a Chained Secure Zone

The KSK (KSK-public) is the key for which the secure parent of a secure zone provides trust. It provides 

this trust by using a new RR type called the DS RR, which contains the hash of the childís KSK. The

delegating parent signs this DS RR with its own ZSK. When a zone changes its KSK, the trust

relationship between itself and its parent will be broken. To maintain this trust relationship, the zone

making the KSK rollover must:

Generate a new KSK and add it to the zone key set 

Sign the zone key set with the new KSK as well as the old KSK (the key about to expire)

Communicate its new KSK to its parent in a way that the parent can authenticate it

In addition, the parent has to generate a new DS RR (which will replace the old DS RR) that

contains the hash of the new KSK and then sign the newly generated DS RR.

To enable the parent to authenticate the new KSK (referred to as KSK2) based on the existing chain of

trust, the zone performing the key rollover (i.e., the child zone) generates a DNSKEY RRSet using the

DNSKEY RRs of the existing key together with a new DNSKEY RR for the KSK2. It then generates two

signatures (two RRSIG RRs)óone using the private key of the existing KSK and the other using the

private key of the new KSK. It then sends the newly generated DNSKEY RRSet together with the

RRSIG RRs (in plural because there are two signatures, corresponding to KSK and KSK2, respectively)

to the parent. The set of RRs sent to the parent is given below in a pseudo format:

example.com DNSKEY <key-id: 43543> /* the new KSK */

example.com DNSKEY <key-id: 78546> /* the existing KSK */

example.com DNSKEY <key-id: 98342> /* ZSK */

example.com RRSIG(DNSKEY) <signer:example.com signing-key:

78546> /* the entire DNSKEY RRSet signed with existing KSK */

example.com RRSIG(DNSKEY) <signer:example.com signing-key:

43543> /* the entire DNSKEY RRSet signed with new KSK */

On receiving this information, the parent performs the following functions:

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It verifies whether the KSK it trusts (i.e., 78456) has indeed signed the newly generated

DNSKEY RRSet that includes the new KSK (KSK2). It does this using the newly generated

DNSKEY RRSet, the first of the RRSIG RRs (the one that says 78456 as the signing key), and its 

own DS RR. 

It also verifies that KSK2 is authentic (the child zone holds the private key of KSK2) by verifying

the second RRSIG RR (the one that says 43543 as the signing key) against the DNSKEY RRSet.

It then generates a new DS RR containing the hash of the new KSK (KSK2).

The parent must then generate a RRSIG covering the new DS RR of the KSK2.

With these tasks performed by the parent, the KSK rollover process from the childís perspective is

essentially complete. The parent zone must then update its zone file with the new DS RR. This is similar

to updating any other RRSet, which includes generating any new RRSIGs, as required.

The parent zone adds the new DS RR (DS2) to the DS RRset in the delegation.

The parent waits for the new DS RR to propagate (min of the TTL of the DS RRset).

The parent can then remove the expiring DS RR from the DS RRset, triggering a re-signing of the

zone.

The delegated child zone should keep the expiring KSK in its key set until it has confirmed that the parent

has performed the appropriate DS update to ensure that the chain of authentication remains intact during

the KSK rollover. After the child zone confirms that the delegating parent has updated the delegation

information for the child, the child zone administrator should remove the old KSK from the keyset and resign the keyset with the ZSK and the new KSK.

11.2 Emergency Key Rollovers

An emergency key rollover occurs when one or more of the keys in the zone (ZSK or KSK) have become

compromised or the private component has been lost and a re-signing needs to occur. These types of

rollovers are not planned, so there is a greater chance of a break in the chain of authentication if the zone

administrator needs to perform this type of rollover.

11.2.1 Emergency ZSK Rollover

A DNS administrator needs to perform multiple steps to perform an emergency ZSK rollover in the event 

one (or more) ZSKís are compromised. This multi-step recovery process is another reason for a zone

administrator to perform a ZSK rollover continuously. If a zone administrator has the new DNSKEY RR

already published in the zone as part of the zone key set (the first three steps in the process listed in

Section 11.1.1), the next step depends on the key that has been compromised.

If the ZSK currently in use has been compromised, the zone administrator can immediately rollover to the

new key. There is no need to wait for the TTL value to expire because the new key has already been

published for a period of time. The administrator can simply strip the old RRSIGs from the zone and resign with the new ZSK earlier than the planned rollover. DNS operation should continue normally after

this re-signing, with no breaks in the authentication chain.

If the new ZSK (the next ZSK to be used) has been compromised, it should be replaced immediately in

the zone key set. This replacement also can be done atomically because the new key was not used to

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produce any RRSIGs; only the zone key set needs to be re-signed. It is also possible simply to remove

the compromised key and replace it with a new ZSK in one update.

There still is a danger of attackers using the compromised ZSK to forge responses coming from the zone. 

This danger exists as long as the current KSK is still active, with the option of initiating a KSK rollover.

Once a ZSK has been compromised, a zone administrator should initiate a rollover of the KSK as soon as

possible.

11.2.2 Emergency KSK Rollover

When a zoneís KSK has been compromised, the only response is to initiate a KSK rollover with the

parent. This rollover, however, is not the same process as a scheduled KSK rollover. There must be a

way to alert the parent zone administrator that the old KSK has been compromised and not to accept any

KSK rollover messages using that key. The replacement key must be transmitted and verified using some

other secure channel to ensure the child zoneís identity and may involve one or more non-DNSSEC

authentication methods. This process could be the same as that used to establish the original KSK of the

child zone.

Checklist item 29: A DNS administrator should have the emergency contact information for the

immediate parent zone to use when an emergency KSK rollover must be performed.

Checklist item 30: A parent zone must have an emergency contact method made available to its 

delegated child subzones in case of emergency child subzone KSK rollover. There also should be a

secure means of obtaining the subzoneís new KSK.

The only way to minimize the exposure period to keep the signature validity period (time between

signature inception and expiration fields in the RRSIG record RDATA) as short as possible, since a 

compromised KSK can only be used by an attacker for as long as the non-compromised parent zone

vouches for its security. The downside to shorter signature validity periods is that it leads to frequent resigning (see below). A zone administrator must consider the resources required for re-signing when

choosing a signature validity period for delegation DS RRset RRSIG(s).

Checklist item 31: To reduce the useful time period for a compromised KSK, the RRSIG validity period

over the DS RRset in the parent zone should be kept as short as possible. A suggested validity period

would be 2 to 4 days, with 7 days maximum. 

11.3 Re-Signing a Zone

The zone file has to be re-signed (new RRSIG RRs generated) in the following situations:

The signatures have expired or are about to expire.

The zone file content has changed (as a result of dynamic updates, for example).

One of the signing keys has been compromised or is scheduled for replacement.

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There are two strategies for re-signing zone data:

Complete Re-Signing. All existing signature records (RRSIG RRs) are deleted, the zone file is

sorted again, all of the NSEC RRs are regenerated, and finally the new signature records are

generated. Complete re-signing is performed under the following scenarios: 

ñ The zone file is generated from a back-end relational database.

ñ The zone administrator has set up a batch job to run at a specific date/time (called a cron job 

in Unix), based on the expiration time set in the signer.

Incremental Re-Signing. NSEC RRs are modified because an existing RRSet has been dropped,

NSEC RRs are added because a new RRSet set has been added to the zone file, and signatures are

generated only for RRsets that have changed. Incremental re-signing is done when changes to

zone file contents have been minimal since the last time of signature generation, as is usually the

case after a dynamic update. 

Checklist item 32: Periodic re-signing should be scheduled before the expiration field of the RRSIG RRs 

found in the zone. This is to reduce the risk of a signed zone being rendered bogus because of expired

signatures.

Checklist item 33: The serial number in the SOA RR must be incremented before re-signing the zone

file. If this operation is not done, secondary name servers may not pick up the new signatures because

they are refreshed purely on the basis of the SOA serial number mismatch. The consequence is that some

security-aware resolvers will be able to verify the signatures (and thus have a secure response) but others

cannot.

11.4 Recommendations Summary

The following items provide a summary of the major recommendations from this section:

Checklist item 26: The KSK needs to be rolled over less frequently than the ZSK. The 

recommended rollover frequency for the KSK is once a year (with a size of 2048 bits using

RSA/SHA1), whereas the ZSK should be rolled over every month (with a key size of 1024 bits 

using RSA/SHA1).

Zones that pre-publish the new public key should observe the following:

ñ Checklist item 27: The secure zone that pre-publishes its public key should do so at least one

TTL period before the time of the key rollover.

ñ Checklist item 28: After removing the old public key, the zone should generate a new

signature (RRSIG RR), based on the remaining keys (DNSKEY RRs) in the zone file.

Checklist item 29: A DNS administrator should have the emergency contact information for the

immediate parent zone to use when an emergency KSK rollover must be performed.

Checklist item 30: A parent zone must have an emergency contact method made available to its 

delegated child subzones in case of emergency child subzone KSK rollover. There also should be

a secure means of obtaining the subzoneís new KSK.

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Checklist item 31: To reduce the useful time period for a compromised KSK, the RRSIG validity

period over the DS RRset in the parent zone should be kept as short as possible. A suggested

validity period would be 2 to 4 days, with 7 days maximum. 

Checklist item 32: Periodic re-signing should be scheduled before the expiration field of the

RRSIG RRs found in the zone. This is to reduce the risk of a signed zone being rendered bogus

because of expired signatures.

Checklist item 33: The serial number in the SOA RR must be incremented before re-signing the

zone file. If this operation is not done, secondary name servers may not pick up the new

signatures because they are refreshed purely on the basis of the SOA serial number mismatch. 

The consequence is that some security-aware resolvers will be able to verify the signatures (and

thus have a secure response) but others cannot.

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Appendix AóDefinitions of Important Terms

Selected terms used in the Secure Domain Name System (DNS) Deployment Guide are defined below. 

The terms come from the DNSSEC specifications [RFCs 4033, 4034, 4035, and 3833], with some

additions for specific terms used in this guide.

Authentication Chain: An alternating sequence of DNS public key (DNSKEY) RRsets and Delegation 

Signer (DS) RRsets forms a chain of signed data, with each link in the chain vouching for the next. A

DNSKEY RR is used to verify the signature covering a DS RR and allows the DS RR to be authenticated. 

The DS RR contains a hash of another DNSKEY RR, and this new DNSKEY RR is authenticated by

matching the hash in the DS RR. This new DNSKEY RR, in turn, authenticates another DNSKEY RRSet

and, in turn, some DNSKEY RR in this set may be used to authenticate another DS RR, and so forth until

the chain finally ends with a DNSKEY RR whose corresponding private key signs the desired DNS data. 

For example, the root DNSKEY RRSet can be used to authenticate the DS RRSet for ìexample.î The

ìexample.î DS RRSet contains a hash that matches some ìexample.î DNSKEY, and this DNSKEYís

corresponding private key signs the ìexample.î DNSKEY RRSet. Private key counterparts of the

ìexample.î DNSKEY RRSet sign data records such as ìwww.example.î as well as DS RRs for 

delegations such as ìsubzone.example.î 

Authentication Key: A public key that a DNSSEC-aware resolver has verified and can therefore use to

authenticate data. A DNSSEC-aware resolver can obtain authentication keys in three ways. First, the

resolver generally is configured to know about at least one public key; this configured data usually is

either the public key itself or a hash of the public key as found in the DS RR (see ìtrust anchorî). 

Second, the resolver may use an authenticated public key to verify a DS RR and the DNSKEY RR to

which the DS RR refers. Third, the resolver may be able to determine that a new public key has been

signed by the private key corresponding to another public key that the resolver has verified. Note that the

resolver must always be guided by local policy in deciding whether to authenticate a new public key,

even if the local policy is simply to authenticate any new public key for which the resolver is able to

verify the signature.

Authoritative RRSet: Within the context of a particular zone, an RRSet (RRs with the same name, class,

and type) is authoritative if and only if the owner name of the RRSet lies within the subset of the name

space that is at or below the zone apex and at or above the cuts that separate the zone from its children, if

any. RRs of type NSEC, RRSIG, and DS are examples of RRSets at a cut that are authoritative at the 

parent side of the zone cut, and not the delegated child side.

Chain of Trust: See ìauthentication chain.î 

Chained Secure Zone: A DNS zone in which there is an authentication chain from the zone to a trust

anchor. 

Delegation Point: The name at the parental side of a zone cut. That is, the delegation point for

ìfoo.exampleî would be the foo.example node in the ìexampleî zone (as opposed to the zone apex of the

ìfoo.exampleî zone). See also ìzone apex.î

DNS Administrator: Used in this document to cover the person (or persons) tasked with updating zone

data and operating an enterpriseís DNS server. This term may actually cover several official roles, but

these roles are covered by one term here.

DNSSEC-Aware Name Server: An entity acting in the role of a name server that understands the DNS

security extensions defined in this document set. In particular, a DNSSEC-aware name server is an entity

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that receives DNS queries, sends DNS responses, supports the EDNS0 ([RFC2671]) message size

extension and the DO bit ([RFC3225]), and supports the RR types and message header bits defined in this

document set.

DNSSEC-Aware Recursive Name Server: An entity that acts in both the DNSSEC-aware name server

and DNSSEC-aware resolver roles. A more cumbersome equivalent phrase would be ìa DNSSEC-aware

name server that offers recursive serviceî. It is sometimes referred to as a ìsecurity-aware caching name

serverî.

DNSSEC-Aware Resolver: An entity acting in the role of a resolver (defined in section 2.4 of

[RFC1034]) that understands the DNS security extensions. In particular, a DNSSEC-aware resolver is an

entity that sends DNS queries, receives DNS responses, and understands the DNSSEC specification, even

if it is incapable of performing validation.

DNSSEC-Aware Stub Resolver: An entity acting in the role of a stub resolver that has an understanding

of the DNS security extensions. DNSSEC-aware stub resolvers may be either ìvalidatingî or

ìnonvalidatingî, depending on whether the stub resolver attempts to verify DNSSEC signatures on its 

own or trusts a friendly DNSSEC-aware name server to do so. See also ìvalidating stub resolverî and 

ìnonvalidating stub resolverî.

Island of Security: A signed, delegated zone that does not have an authentication chain from its

delegating parent. That is, there is no DS RR containing a hash of a DNSKEY RR for the island in its

delegating parent zone. An island of security is served by DNSSEC-aware name servers and may provide

authentication chains to any delegated child zones. Responses from an island of security or its 

descendents can be authenticated only if its authentication keys can be authenticated by some trusted

means out of band from the DNS protocol.

Key Rollover: The process of generating and using a new key (symmetric or asymmetric key pair) to

replace one already in use. Rollover is done because a key has been compromised or is vulnerable to

compromise as a result of use and age.

Key Signing Key (KSK): An authentication key that corresponds to a private key used to sign one or

more other authentication keys for a given zone. Typically, the private key corresponding to a key

signing key will sign a zone signing key, which in turn has a corresponding private key that will sign

other zone data. See also ìzone signing keyî.

Nonvalidating DNSSEC-Aware Stub Resolver: A DNSSEC-aware stub resolver that trusts one or more

DNSSEC-aware recursive name servers to perform most of the tasks discussed in this document set on its 

behalf. In particular, a nonvalidating DNSSEC-aware stub resolver is an entity that sends DNS queries,

receives DNS responses, and is capable of establishing an appropriately secured channel to a DNSSECaware recursive name server that will provide these services on behalf of the DNSSEC-aware stub

resolver. See also ìDNSSEC-aware stub resolverî and ìvalidating DNSSEC-aware stub resolverî.

Nonvalidating Stub Resolver: A less tedious term for a nonvalidating DNSSEC-aware stub resolver.

Signed Zone: A zone whose RRsets are signed and which contains properly constructed DNSKEY,

Resource Record Signature (RRSIG), Next Secure (NSEC), and (optionally) DS records.

Transaction Signature (TSIG) Key: A string used to generate the message authentication hash stored in

a TSIG RR and used to authenticate an entire DNS message. This is not the same as signing a message, 

which involves a cryptographic operation.

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Trust Anchor: A configured DNSKEY RR or DS RR hash of a DNSKEY RR. A validating DNSSECaware resolver uses this public key or hash as a starting point for building the authentication chain to a

signed DNS response. In general, a validating resolver will need to obtain the initial values of its trust

anchors via some secure or trusted means outside the DNS protocol. The presence of a trust anchor also

implies that the resolver should expect the zone to which the trust anchor points to be signed. This is

sometimes referred to as a ìsecure entry pointî.

Unsigned Zone: A zone that is not signed.

Zone Apex: The name at the childís side of a zone cut. See also ìdelegation pointî.

Zone Signing Key (ZSK): An authentication key that corresponds to a private key used to sign a zone. 

Typically a zone signing key will be part of the same DNSKEY RRSet as the key signing key whose

corresponding private key signs this DNSKEY RRSet, but the zone signing key is used for a slightly

different purpose and may differ from the key signing key in other ways, such as validity lifetime. 

Designating an authentication key as a zone signing key is purely an operational issue: DNSSEC

validation does not distinguish between zone signing keys and other DNSSEC authentication keys, and it

is possible to use a single key as both a key signing key and a zone signing key. See also ìkey signing

keyî.

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Appendix BóAcronyms

Selected acronyms used in the Secure Domain Name System (DNS) Deployment Guide are defined below.

A Address 

ACL Access Control List 

AD Authenticated Data

ANSI American National Standards Institute

ARP Address Resolution Protocol

CA Certificate Authority 

ccTLD Country-Code Top-Level Domain

CD Checking Disabled

DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol 

DNS Domain Name System

DNSSEC Domain Name System Security Extensions

DS Delegation Signer

DSA Digital Signature Algorithm

DSS Digital Signature Standard

ECDSA Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm

FIPS Federal Information Processing Standards

FISMA Federal Information Security Management Act

FQDN Fully Qualified Domain Name

gTLD Generic Top-Level Domain

HINFO Host Information

HMAC Hash-Based Message Authentication Code

ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

IETF Internet Engineering Task Force 

IN Internet

IP Internet Protocol 

ISP Internet Service Provider

IT Information Technology

ITL Information Technology Laboratory

KSK Key Signing Key

LAN Local Area Network 

LOC Location

MAC Message Authentication Code

MD Message Digest 

MX Mail Exchanger

NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology

NS Name Server

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NSEC Next Secure

NTP Network Time Protocol 

OMB Office of Management and Budget 

OS Operating System

PKI Public Key Infrastructure

PIR Public Internet Registry

RFC Request for Comments 

RP Responsible Person

RR Resource Record

RRSIG Resource Record Signature

SEP Secure Entry Point 

SHA Secure Hash Algorithm

SHS Secure Hash Standard

SOA Start of Authority 

TCP Transmission Control Protocol

TLD Top-Level Domain

TSIG Transaction Signature

TTL Time to Live

TXT Text 

UDP User Datagram Protocol 

ZSK Zone Signing Key

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Appendix CóBibliography

I. DNS ñ Resource Records and Generic Architecture

[1] D. Atkins and R. Austein, ìThreat Analysis of the Domain Name System (DNS)î, RFC 3833,

August 2004. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3833.txt

[2] R. Elz and R. Bush, ìClarifications to the DNS Specificationî, RFC 2181, July 1997.

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2181.txt

[3] D. Barr, ìCommon DNS Operational and Configuration Errorsî, RFC 1912, February 1996. 

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1912.txt 

[4] P. Mockapetris, ìDomain Names - Concepts and Facilitiesî, STD 13, RFC 1034, November 1987.

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1034.txt 

[5] P. Mockapetris, ìDomain Names - Implementation and Specificationî, STD 13, RFC 1035,

November 1987. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1035.txt 

II. DNSSEC

[6] R. Arends, et al, ìDNS Security Introduction and Requirementsî, RFC 4033, March 2005.

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4033.txt 

[7] R. Arends, et al, ìResource Records for DNS Security Extensionsî, RFC 4034, March 2005.

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4034.txt 

[8] R. Arends, et al, ìProtocol Modifications for the DNS Security Extensionsî, RFC 4035, March

2005. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4035.txt 

[9] O. Kolkman and R. Gieben, ìDNSSEC Operational Practicesî, Internet-Draft draft-ietf-dnsopdnssec-operations-08.txt (Work in Progress), March 2006. http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draftietf-dnsop-dnssec-operational-practices-08.txt 

III. Dynamic Update

[10] B. Wellington, ìSecure Domain Name System (DNS) Dynamic Updateî, RFC 3007, November

2000. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3007.txt 

[11] P. Vixie, et al, ìDynamic Updates in the Domain Name System (DNS UPDATE)î, RFC 2136,

April 1997. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2136.txt 

IV. TSIG

[12] D. Eastlake 3rd, ìDNS Request and Transaction Signatures (SIG(0)s)î, RFC 2931, September

2000. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2931.txt 

[13] P. Vixie, et al, ìSecret Key Transaction Authentication for DNS (TSIG)î, RFC 2845, May 2000. 

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2845.txt 

[14] D. Eastlake 3rd, ìHMAC SHA TSIG Algorithm Identifiersî, Internet-Draft draft-ietf-dnsext-tsigsha-06 (Work in Progress), January 2006. http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-dnsext-tsigsha-06.txt 

V. Cryptographic Standards 

[15] H. Krawczyk, et al, ìHMAC: Keyed-Hashing for Message Authenticationî, RFC 2104, February

1997. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2104.txt. 

[16] NIST, ìThe Keyed-Hash Message Authentication Code (HMAC)î, FIPS PUB 198, March 2002. 

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips198/fips-198a.pdf. 

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[17] NIST, ìSecure Hash Standardî, FIPS PUB 180-2, August 2002.

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/fips/fips180-2/fips180-2withchangenotice.pdf. 

VI. Security Vulnerabilities

[18] CERT®

/CCís Vulnerability Notes Database at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/

[19] NIST NVD metabase at http://nvd.nist.gov/ 

[20] BIND vulnerabilities page at http://www.isc.org/products/BIND/bind-security.html

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Appendix DóIndex

Domain

Child, 2-2 A Enterprise-level, 2-2

Acce Parent, 2-2 ss control, 8-1 

Acce Root, 2-2 ss control list (ACL), 8-3

Address Second-level, 2-2 (A) resource record, 3-1 

Addres Top-level, 2-2 s match list, 8-1 

Add Domain name, 2-2 ress Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing, 5-1

Au Fully qualified (FQDN), 2-2 thentication chain, A-1

Dynamic update, 4-2, 6-4, 6-6, 8-2, 8-7, 8-13, 8-14, 9-7, 9-

13 

Authentication key, A-1

Authoritative, 3-1

Authoritative function, 7-3

Authoritative information, 2-6 E

Authoritative name server, 6-1, See Name server, 

authoritative Expire value, 10-1 

Authoritative RRSet, A-1

Availability, 2-6, 5-2 G

B Glue record, 6-2 

Blacklisted host, 8-2 

Building a trusted chain, 9-2 H

Hash. See Message authentication code (MAC)

C Hash-based message authentication code (HMAC), 8-1, 8-9 

Host information (HINFO) resource record, 5-2, 10-2 

Cache poisoning, 6-1, 8-5 Host platform, 5-1 

Caching, 9-12 Hosting environment, 2-7, 5-1, 7-1 

Certificate, 4-2

Chain of trust, 9-10, A-1 I Chained secure zone, 9-10, A-1 

Chaos (CH) class, 7-2 ID guessing, 6-1 chroot, 7-2 Information exposure, 10-1 

Class, 3-1 Integrity, 2-6, 5-2, 6-2, 6-3, 8-1, 8-9, 9-1 

Client redirection, 6-2 Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers C (ICANN), 2-3 lient resolver. See Resolver, Client

Clock synchronization, 8-10 Internet Protocol (IP) address, 2-1, 8-1 

Components, 2-6 Internet Protocol (IP) prefix, 8-1

Confidentiality, 2-6, 6-3, 10-1 Island of security, 9-10, A-2 

Configuration file, 5-2, 8-12 

K D

Key

Data origin authentication, 6-2, 8-1, 9-1 Distribution, 9-3, 9-8 

Delegation information, 2-5, 5-2 Generation, 8-11, 9-3 

Delegation point, 2-6, A-1 Rollover, 9-3, 11-1, A-2 

Delegation signer (DS) resource record, 9-2, 9-10 Size, 9-4 

Denial of existence, 9-1 Storage, 9-3, 9-7 

Denial of service, 2-6, 5-1, 6-3, 6-4 Transaction signature (TSIG), 8-7, 8-12, A-2 

Digital signature, 9-1, 9-3 Key signing key (KSK), 9-3, 11-1, A-2 

Algorithm, 9-4 

Dispersion, 7-4 

DNS administrator, A-1 L

DNS last hop, 9-13 Location (LOC) resource record, 10-2

DNS NOTIFY, 3-2, 4-3, 6-5, 6-6, 8-2, 8-8 

DNS security administration, 11-1

DNS security extensions (DNSSEC), 2-1, 6-2, 8-1, 9-1 M

DNS software, 5-2, 5-3 Mail exchanger (MX) resource record, 3-1

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Malware, 5-1 Client, 3-2 

Message authentication code (MAC), 8-9 DNSSEC-aware, A-2 

Minimum time to live (TTL) value, 10-2 DNSSEC-aware stub, A-2 

DNSSEC-aware validating, 9-2 

Nonvalidating DNSSEC-aware stub, A-2 N Nonvalidating stub, A-2

Name Operations, 9-3 chaining attack, 6-2

Name Stub, 2-4, 3-2, 4-1, 6-3, 9-13, A-2 resolution, 2-1

Name Resolving function, 7-3 server, 2-2, 2-3, 2-6, 3-1, 4-1, 4-3, 5-3, 8-6 

Authoritative, 3-1, 7-3, 7-4, 7-5, 8-5 Resolving name server. See Name server, Resolving

Cach Resource record (RR), 3-1 ing, 3-1 

Resource record signature (RRSIG) resource record, 6-3, 6-

4, 9-1 

DNSSEC-aware, 9-2, A-1 

DNSSEC-aware recursive, A-2 

Ex Response, 6-1, 6-6, 8-2, 9-1 ternal, 7-5 

Bogus, 6-1 Internal, 7-5 

Ma Forged, 6-1 ster, 3-2 

Opera Signed, 9-2 tions, 9-3 

Pr Truncation, 4-1 imary, 3-2 

Recu Responsible person (RP) resource record, 10-2 rsive, 2-4, 3-2 

Re Retry value, 10-1 solving, 2-4, 3-2, 7-3 

Secondary Root hints file, 2-5 , 3-2 

S Root server, 2-3 lave, 3-2 

So RRSet, 3-1 ftware, 7-1 

Name RRType, 3-1 server (NS) resource record, 3-1

Network Time Protocol (NTP), 8-10

Next secure (NSEC) resource record, 6-3, 9-2 S

Notification, 8-8

Notify operation, 4-3 Security administration, 2-7

Security objectives, 2-6, 5-2

Serial number, 10-1, 11-6 O SIG(0) resource record, 6-4, 8-14 

Owner Signer, 9-9 name, 3-1 

Signing authority, 9-9

Source authentication, 2-6, 6-3, 8-9 P Split DNS, 5-3, 6-3, 7-4, 10-1 

Stub resolver. See Resolver, stub Patches, 7-2 

Q T

Text string (TXT) resource record, 5-2, 7-2, 10-2 Query, 3-1, 4-1, 6-1, 6-6, 8-2, 9-1 

Threats, 5-1, 5-2, 6-1, 6-3 Follow-up, 6-2 

Time to live (TTL), 3-1 Iterative, 4-1 

Transaction, 2-7, 4-1, 6-1, 8-1 Recursive, 4-1, 8-2 

Transaction signature (TSIG), 2-1, 6-4, 8-9 Triggered, 6-2

Resource record, 8-9 Query prediction, 6-1 

Transaction signature (TSIG) key. See Key, Transaction

signature (TSIG) Query/response, 4-1, 6-6, 8-2 

Trust anchor, 6-3, 9-2, 9-8, 9-10, A-3 

R

RData, 3-1 U

Recursion, 7-3, 8-5 

Unauthorized update, 6-4 Referral, 2-5 

Authenticated, 9-11 

Refresh value, 10-1 V

Registrar, 2-3

Registry, 2-3 Validity period, 10-2

Replay Verification, 8-10, 9-7 attack, 8-10 

Re version.bind, 7-2 solution

Domain name, 2-5 

Inverse, 2-5 

Resolver, 2-2, 3-1, 3-2 

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W

Wildcard resource record, 6-2

Z

Zone, 2-4 

Child, 2-5 

Parent, 9-10 

Signed, 9-2, A-2

Unsigned, A-3

Zone apex, A-3 

Zone drift, 5-2 

Zone file, 2-5, 3-1, 4-1, 4-3, 5-2, 5-3, 6-3, 7-4, 8-7, 10-2 

Integrity checker, 5-3, 7-5 

Re-signing, 9-3, 11-5 

Signing, 9-3, 9-9 

Zone signing key (ZSK), 9-3, 11-1, A-3 

Zone thrash, 5-2 

Zone transfer, 3-2, 4-1, 6-3, 6-6, 8-2, 8-6, 8-13 

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