dns-blackhole 0.12
A generic DNS black hole zone generator
License: MIT
Keywords: DNS blackhole

dns-blackhole
=============

| Most of code comes from here:
  http://git.mauras.ch/Various/powerdns\_recursor\_ads\_blocking
| Check it for history.

| This script helps you create a blackhole zone for your DNS server,
  using some well known ads/tracking/malware lists.
| As long as your DNS server allows to include a file containing one
  domain per line with its config syntax it should work.
| Right now known to work and tested:

-  `Unbound <https://www.unbound.net/>`__
-  `PowerDNS recursor <https://www.powerdns.com/recursor.html>`__
-  `Dnsmasq <http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html>`__

Generating an agregated host file is also possible.

Features
--------

-  Not bound to a specific DNS server, generates a file format of your
   choice
-  Supports 3 different list format

   -  Host file
   -  `Easylist <https://easylist.to/>`__
   -  `Disconnect <https://disconnect.me/>`__

-  Lets you whitelist/blacklist domains
-  YAML configuration file

Installation
------------

The script requires ``PyYAML`` and ``requests`` modules.

.. code:: bash

    pip install [--upgrade] dns-blackhole

Unbound
^^^^^^^

| Requires unbound >= ``1.6``, using the default zone file with unbound
  ``1.5`` will certainly make it eat all your ram and swap before
  getting killed.
| Add ``include: "/etc/unbound/blackhole.zone"`` right after your
  ``server:`` block.
| Use the following ``zone_data`` in your ``dns-blackhole.yml``
  (default):

.. code:: yaml

    zone_data: 'local-zone: "{domain}" always_nxdomain'

``{domain}`` wil be replaced by the blackholed domains

PowerDNS Recursor
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

| Add ``forward-zones-file=/etc/pdns/blackhole.zone`` in your recursor
  configuration.
| Use the following ``zone_data`` in your ``dns-blackhole.yml``:

.. code:: yaml

    zone_data: '{domain}='

``{domain}`` wil be replaced by the blackholed domains

Dnsmasq
^^^^^^^

| Add ``conf-dir=/etc/dnsmasq.d`` in your dnsmasq config and point your
  ``zone_file`` option to ``/etc/dnsmasq.d/blackhole.conf``
| Use the following ``zone_data`` in your ``dns-blackhole.yml``:

.. code:: yaml

    zone_data: 'server=/{domain}/'

``{domain}`` wil be replaced by the blackholed domains

Host file
^^^^^^^^^

Use the following ``zone_data`` in your ``dns-blackhole.yml``:

.. code:: yaml

    zone_data: '127.0.0.1 {domain}'

| Once you're happy with your configuration Just run ``dns-blackhole``.
| The default lists in ``dns-blackhole.yml`` will generate a zone
  containing ~698000 entries.

Configuration
-------------

As the configuration file is in YAML, you can use YAML anchors

.. code:: yaml

    dns-blackhole:
      general:
        cache: /var/cache/dns-blackhole
        log: /var/log/dns-blackhole/dns-blackhole.log
        whitelist: /etc/dns-blackhole/whitelist
        blacklist: /etc/dns-blackhole/blacklist
        blackhole_lists:
          hosts:
            - http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/hosts
            - https://hosts-file.net/download/hosts.txt
            - http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt
            - http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/hosts.txt
            - https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?hostformat=hosts;showintro=0
          easylist: &bh_easy
            - https://easylist.to/easylist/easylist.txt
            - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/paulgb/BarbBlock/master/BarbBlock.txt
          disconnect: &bh_disconnect
            url: https://services.disconnect.me/disconnect-plaintext.json
            categories: # Advertising, Analytics, Disconnect, Social
              - Advertising
              - Analytics
      config:
        zone_file: /etc/unbound/blackhole.zone
        # {domain} will be replaced by the blackholed domain, do not change it here
        zone_data: 'local-zone: "{domain}" always_nxdomain'
        blackhole_lists:
          hosts:
            - http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt
          easylist: *bh_easy
          disconnect: *bh_disconnect

In this example you would keep ``easylist`` and ``disconnect`` lists,
but would remove all host file lists except mvps.

FAQ
---

What's the advantage of having the DNS server returning NX instead of 127.0.0.1
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

| Host lists are usually returning ``127.0.0.1`` or ``0.0.0.0``.
| Depending of the system and/or browser you use, you can end up having
  timeout/slowness issues as it retries to connect several times before
  considering the remote resource down.

Having your DNS server return NXDOMAIN - Non existant domain - on the
other side makes your client behave faster as there's nothing to retry
when the domain doesn't exist.

Why using forward-zones-file option instead of auth-zones in PowerDNS recursor?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

| Syntax of the ``auth-zones`` is like this:
  ``auth-zones=dom1=<zone>,dom2=<zone>,dom3=<zone>,etc``
| While this may work for 5000 black holed domains, for almost 700 000
  the speed of generation is so slow that it takes several tens of
  minutes to complete. Even worse, with such a list, pdns-recursor is
  not even able to start and will crash.
| By using the ``forward-zones-file`` pdns-recursor takes around 5 more
  seconds to process the zone file.

Which DNS server is the best?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It's really a matter of preferences and what you have available. Use the
one you're the most comfortable with.

TODO
----

-  Cache is not implemented yet
-  Log is not implemented yet