Setting up DNSSEC
Refer to the Knowledge Base for detailed instructions on enabling DNSSEC for your domains.
What DNSSEC is
DNSSEC stands for DNS Security Extensions. It was designed many years ago as a way to cryptographically sign DNS records so that when a DNSSEC enabled resolver looks up a DNSSEC signed domain, the response is mathematically guaranteed to be valid.
What exactly does DNSSEC protect?
DNSSEC cryptographically guarantees that the response to a DNS query has not been altered or spoofed. This protects clients from various attack vectors such as cache poisoning, DNS spoofing or BGP hijacks/BGP leaks and name server hijacks. When you query a DNSSEC signed domain you know that the result is real and that it originated from the real name servers for a signed domain.
What is the current status of DNSSEC deployment?
The DNS root (“.”) was signed in 2010 and nearly all of the 1500+ deployed TLDs are now signed. The number of unsigned TLDs are a small minority (yet they still exist and are unsupported by us). This means that there is no longer too many technical limitations precluding signing your zones in most of the available TLDs.
All major DNS resolver services are DNSSEC enabled for lookups, this includes:
Quad9
Most major name server daemons support DNSSEC out-of-box and can typically be enabled with a single configuration option such as enable-dnssec yes; (in the case of BIND). Nameserver daemons which support DNSSEC include:
BIND
PowerDNS
NSD
KnotDNS
Is DNSSEC backward compatible with non-DNSSEC enabled name servers?
Yes. If a resolver is not DNSSEC-aware then it simply queries your domains in the usual fashion (it won’t set the “do” flag in the query) and the nameserver will simply reply back with the normal response records and not with the accompanying RRSigs. Everything proceeds normally (unless, of course, the reply has been forged or altered)
Why everybody hates it
In the olden days (before easyDNSSEC), signing one’s zones was not exactly “set-and-forget”. Doing so required several steps:
- Generating a Zone Signing Key (ZSK)
- Generating a Key Signing Key (KSK)
- Signing every RRSet within your zone with the ZSK
- Signing the DNSKEYs with the KSK
- Creating a Delegation Signer (DS) from the KSK
- Getting the DS record into the domain’s parent TLD
Then you would have to re-sign the zone every time any record within it changed.
Further, it was originally recommended (although not as strenuously now), that one rollover their keys every so often, like monthly or annually. The problem here is that key rollovers are non-trivial. You have to take into account that some resolvers may have the old key cached while receiving fresh data signed with the new keys. If you screwed up a key rollover, your zone would go dark to DNSSEC enabled resolvers.
This has happened so often that there is even a website which tracks major outages (like entire TLDs) that have gone offline because of botched key rollovers.
Why you need it
Love it or hate it, DNSSEC is now necessary to protect one’s mission critical domains from the very real spectre of BGP hijacks or BGP leaks. Until recently, DNS cache poisoning was considered by some to be remote or hard to execute because even without DNSSEC, name servers started using mechanisms such as source-port randomization which made poisoning hard.
But starting in early 2018 a novel twist was made on an old attack vector: BGP hijacks (a.k.a BGP leaks) were used to hijack IP address space of target websites, or the name servers for those target websites. In the case of the latter, fake nameservers were stood up sending victims to imposter websites (in one notable case, a crypto-currency wallet site was hijacked in this manner and victims had their wallets drained).
There is no real defense against BGP hijacks as there is no formal, technical mechanism that validates or authenticates who can originate routing updates for a given block of address space. It’s a trust-reliant system that is subject to malicious or negligent actions that can hijack routes and their associated address space at any time.
Now that there have been successful BGP hijacks that have netted attackers actual money, there will be more. Until something happens at the routing level (like RPKI, which is a long way from being ubiquitous and according to some, won’t scale anyway); the main line of defence you can implement to protect your domains right now is to enable DNSSEC.
How DNSSEC works
DNSSEC uses cryptographic keys to sign your DNS zone data and then creates what are called “chains-of-trust” or “trust chains” to prove that these records are authentic (otherwise you could just sign faked records with your own DNSKEYs and prove nothing).
DNSKEYs
These are a DNS RRtype which are used as Zone Signing Keys or Key Signing Keys. Some implementations use a single key called the Combined Signing Key (CSK).
The ZSK signs each RRSet in your zone (MX, NS, A, SOA, etc)
The KSK signs the DNSKEYs themselves, and is used to generate a hash for your Delegation Signer (DS).
RRSigs
RRSet will be signed by the ZSK and generate an RRSig
$ dig +multi +dnssec -tns easydnssec.net @dns1.easydns.com ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> +multi +dnssec -tns easydnssec.net @dns1.easydns.com ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 43897 ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2 ;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags: do; udp: 512 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;easydnssec.net. IN NS ;; ANSWER SECTION: easydnssec.net. 10800 IN NS dns1.easydnssec.com. easydnssec.net. 10800 IN NS dns2.easydnssec.net. easydnssec.net. 10800 IN NS dns3.easydnssec.org. easydnssec.net. 10800 IN RRSIG NS 8 2 10800 20180624203519 ( 20180525193519 7260 easydnssec.net. DXvq9Rb79Gvi/tf9GxLiPkDV1usicuvIsYq53awQ8mpW IjgPS1Cmyt7p3pyUXMC+PS97SxpVl9aW+/hQDj9TyqOe oioJ6IwdQfhNWWSr/YEfU8lvA/Kz45ah+dCj1Zx/rAhg 6FCd4oi/RZPnUvRGE028wpVj/5RdF1+5q0vmnwytxD/1 uB/1ZnjP7GOzuhRe9VIa63p2Pk/qGhvMnKhIxyD/Y2Xp MfZ8xVinMWE79JaKuwpMWBF5ZkEv8DJevMl11tU5NbIi cxxU9B0qiDgNV1jmz4+DYBZ7Vu052SOGmAtfHAUtoHji VKQ7h0GDCgNSP584VuNNj
DS Records
The DS record takes a hash of the KSK and is inserted into the zone’s parent TLD. How does one get the DS key into the parent? Typically you do this via your domain registrar, but not all registrars support doing this, and for those that do in many cases it’s a manual process. Once the DS record goes into the parent, DNSSEC is “live” on your zone. From that moment on, DNSSEC aware resolvers will look for, and authenticate, all responses.
Trust chains
The chain-of-trust is the process of each zone putting their own DS record into the parent zone all the way up to the Internet Root, which is signed with its own KSK. Because of this chain of trust, DNSSEC-aware resolvers can be absolutely certain that the DNSSEC signed responses they are receiving are authentic and unmodified.
How DNSSEC compares to DNSCurve, DNSCrypt and DNS-over-TLS
DNSCurve encrypts the communications channel between a nameserver and a resolver, DNSCrypt and DNS-over-TLS encrypts the channel between you and your resolver. The common feature about all these are that they secure your communications channels against eavesdropping, so for example, your ISP cannot see what hostnames and websites you are looking up.
This is different from DNSSEC, in that they protect a different aspect of your security. These mechanisms protect you from eavesdropping, DNSSEC protects you from fake data.
Think of it as the difference between using TLS (https://example.com) which protects your session from eavesdropping, and using GPG to sign your email, which proves to your recipient that the email they receive from you hasn’t been altered.
SET AND FORGET DNSSEC™
easyDNSSEC™ is our new and improved DNSSEC implementation automates everything outlined above. All you have to do is login to manage your domain and press the button:
It generates your keys, both ZSK and KSK
Then signs your zones with the ZSK
Signs the DNSKEYs with the KSK
Generates the DS record
Automagically uploads the DS to the parent registry
Schedules your rollovers as per your preferences
Maintains the zone with inline signing every time it changes
easyDNSSEC™ means that securing your zones with DNSSEC has never been easier, safer and more accessible. If your domain is mission critical, if it holds up another part of the internet or if your customers, clients and uses rely on it being online at all times, if they could lose money or data if somebody spoofed your domain, then you need to turn this on.
TURN ON DNSSEC
easyDNSSEC™ is included with all service levels
We need to be your registrar for this to work.
SWITCH REGISTRAR
Caveats
As we do with all new features, easyDNSSEC has been deployed in beta mode:
- Start with a non-critical domain