Internet DRAFT - draft-hayatnagarkar-dnsext-validator-api
draft-hayatnagarkar-dnsext-validator-api
DNS Extensions S. Krishnaswamy
Internet-Draft R. Story
Intended status: Standards Track SPARTA, Inc.
Expires: September 13, 2012 A. Hayatnagarkar
March 12, 2012
DNSSEC Validator API
draft-hayatnagarkar-dnsext-validator-api-09
Abstract
The DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) provide origin authentication
and integrity of DNS data. However, the current resolver Application
Programming Interface (API) does not specify how a validating stub
resolver should communicate results of DNSSEC processing back to the
application. This document describes an API between applications and
a validating stub resolver that allows applications to control the
DNSSEC validation process and obtain results of DNSSEC processing.
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on September 13, 2012.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
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include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. High-level DNSSEC Validator API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1. val_gethostbyname, val_gethostbyaddr . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2. val_getaddrinfo, val_freeaddrinfo, val_getnameinfo . . . . 6
3.3. val_res_query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.4. val_get_rrset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4. Low-level DNSSEC Validator API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4.1. val_resolve_and_check, val_free_result_chain . . . . . . . 11
4.2. Authentication Chain Status Codes and p_ac_status() . . . 15
5. Low-level Asynchronous DNSSEC Validator API . . . . . . . . . 18
5.1. Asynchronous Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.1.1. val_async_submit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.1.2. val_async_select_info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5.1.3. val_async_check_wait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.2. Asynchronous Callbacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.3. Asynchronous Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.3.1. Operations on asynchronous status objects . . . . . . 22
6. DNSSEC Validator Context API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
6.1. val_create_context, val_free_context . . . . . . . . . . . 23
6.2. val_context_setqflags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
7. Function Return Codes and p_val_err() . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
8. Evaluating Response Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
8.1. DNSSEC Validation Status Codes and p_val_status() . . . . 25
8.2. High-Level Routines for Evaluating Validity . . . . . . . 27
9. Notes On DNS Data Caching By Appplications . . . . . . . . . . 28
10. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
11. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
12. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
13. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
13.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
13.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Appendix A. Zone-Specific Validator Policy Settings . . . . . . . 31
Appendix B. Global Validator Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Appendix C. Asynchronous API Example Code . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
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1. Introduction
The DNS Security Extensions ([refs.RFC4033], [refs.RFC4034],
[refs.RFC4035]) enable DNS resolvers to test the origin authenticity
and integrity of data returned by the DNS. A DNSSEC validator, or
more formally, a validating stub resolver, is a piece of software
that performs these tests by constructing an authentication chain
[refs.RFC4033] from a locally configured DNSSEC trust anchor
[refs.RFC4033] to a cryptographic signature that covers the DNS
information in question. This document presents an API between an
application and a DNSSEC validator, which enables applications to
control the DNSSEC validation process and enables applications to
obtain DNSSEC validation results upon which to base program behavior.
The API can be broadly divided into three groups: the high-level
DNSSEC validator API, the low-level DNSSEC validator API and the
DNSSEC validator-context API. Section 3, Section 4, and Section 6
describe these groups in greater detail.
The high-level DNSSEC validator API is designed for ease of use and
mirrors existing DNS-related functions. This API is best suited for
existing applications that use legacy DNS functions such as
gethostbyname() and getaddrinfo() [refs.IEEE.1003.1-2004] and have no
requirement for detailed DNSSEC validation status information.
The low-level DNSSEC validator API enables applications to examine
the DNSSEC validation details for each element of the DNSSEC
authentication chain.
The DNSSEC validator-context API enables applications to control the
DNSSEC policies that are used for validating DNS responses.
The range of functions provided in this API supports different
classes of applications, ranging from those that are only interested
in basic DNSSEC results to more sophisticated applications that can
look for specific errors in an authentication chain as a sign of some
abnormality or attack.
2. Terminology
Some of the terms used in this specification are defined below:
Legacy DNS Functions: existing functions, such as gethostbyname()
and getaddrinfo(), which are not capable of returning DNSSEC
validation status codes for DNS responses.
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DNSSEC Validator Policy: a set of configuration parameters for the
DNSSEC validator, which can influence the eventual outcome of the
DNSSEC validation process.
DNSSEC Validator Context: the application's run-time handle to the
DNSSEC validator policy.
3. High-level DNSSEC Validator API
The high-level DNSSEC validator API defines DNSSEC-aware substitutes
for commonly used legacy DNS functions. It provides an easy path for
applications already using legacy DNS functions to transition towards
becoming DNSSEC-aware. This API also defines the val_get_rrset()
function, which enables applications to obtain data for an arbitrary
DNS name, class and type, and inspect the corresponding DNSSEC
validation status value(s).
A number of legacy DNS functions exist; however, some of these
functions (such as gethostbyname_r and gethostbyname2) are only
available on a subset of Operating Systems and are not part of any
official standard. Also, some functions are defined as minor
extensions of other well-known legacy DNS functions. For example,
gethostbyname2 differs from gethostbyname_r only by virtue of having
the extra argument to explictly specify the address family. Further,
some functions differ from others only by virtue of being able to
support a re-entrant and thread-safe implementation. Instead of
providing an exhaustive list of DNSSEC-capable replacement functions
for all known resolver function calls, the high-level DNSSEC
validator API in this document only describes DNSSEC extensions for
the canonical set of function calls specified in
[refs.IEEE.1003.1-2004]. DNSSEC replacement functions for other
legacy DNS functions are expected to mirror, to a large extent, other
functions described in this document.
The ctx parameter in the functions described in this API points to a
DNSSEC validator context object (see Section 6). Applications MUST
either supply a reference to a valid DNSSEC validator context object
created using the functions specified in Section 6 or supply a NULL
value for this parameter. Libraries that implement the DNSSEC
Validator API MUST internally use a default DNSSEC validator context
when the application supplies a NULL value for ctx.
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3.1. val_gethostbyname, val_gethostbyaddr
#include <validator/validator.h>
struct hostent *val_gethostbyname( val_context_t *ctx,
const char *name,
val_status_t *val_status );
struct hostent *val_gethostbyaddr( val_context_t *ctx,
const char *addr,
int len,
int type,
val_status_t *val_status );
The val_gethostbyname() and val_gethostbyaddr() functions are DNSSEC-
aware versions of the gethostbyname() and gethostbyaddr() legacy DNS
functions.
The new functions have an additional parameter, val_status, which
enables applications to check the DNSSEC validation status codes for
the address-to-name and name-to-address translations. The other
arguments to these functions and their return values have identical
semantics to the corresponding legacy DNS functions as described in
[refs.IEEE.1003.1-2004]. The val_gethostbyname() and
val_gethostbyaddr() functions SHOULD only be used when retrofitting
DNSSEC in existing applications that use the gethostbyname() and
gethostbyaddr() functions. For new applications that need to perform
these translations, the functions described in Section 3.2 and
Section 3.4 SHOULD be used instead.
The DNSSEC validation status is returned in the val_status parameter.
When evaluating the validity of a DNS response, applications SHOULD
use the functions described in Section 8.2 instead of directly
inspecting the DNSSEC validation status code returned in val_status.
The status code returned in val_status is determined by the following
rules.
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_OOB_ANSWER MUST be returned if
the complete answer is returned using some out-of-band mechanism
(for example, from a local configuration store such as /etc/hosts
or its equivalent) without any DNSSEC validation being performed.
However, if local DNSSEC validator policy defines out-of-band
answers to be trustworthy, a DNSSEC validation status of
VAL_TRUSTED_ANSWER SHOULD be returned instead.
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_VALIDATED_ANSWER MUST be
returned if all addresses and canonical names within the hostent
structure are validated successfully.
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o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_TRUSTED_ANSWER MUST be returned
if at least one address or canonical name within the hostent
structure is not validated by the DNSSEC validation process, but
all answers are still considered trustworthy (see Section 6) by
way of the configured local DNSSEC validator policy.
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_UNTRUSTED_ANSWER MUST be
returned if at least one address or canonical name within the
hostent structure is neither validated through the DNSSEC
validation process nor considered to be trusted according to the
configured local DNSSEC validator policy.
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME or
VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE MUST be returned if the DNSSEC validation
process is able to prove non-existence for the name or type being
queried for. A DNSSEC validation status of
VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME_NOCHAIN or VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE_NOCHAIN MUST
be returned if a DNS response with an RCODE reflecting type or
name non-existence is returned, and local DNSSEC validator policy
is configured to treat such answers as trustworthy. If the
previous two conditions for non-existence are not satisfied,
val_status MUST be set to VAL_UNTRUSTED_ANSWER.
3.2. val_getaddrinfo, val_freeaddrinfo, val_getnameinfo
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_getaddrinfo( val_context_t *ctx,
const char *nodename,
const char *servname,
const struct addrinfo *hints,
struct addrinfo **res ,
val_status_t *val_status);
void val_freeaddrinfo( struct addrinfo *res);
int val_getnameinfo( val_context_t *ctx,
const struct sockaddr *sa,
socklen_t salen,
char *host,
size_t hostlen,
char *serv,
size_t servlen,
int flags,
val_status_t *val_status );
These functions are DNSSEC-aware versions of the getaddrinfo(),
freeaddrinfo() and getnameinfo() legacy DNS functions
([refs.RFC3493]) respectively.
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The val_getaddrinfo() function returns the address and service
information for the specified domain name and service. The
val_freaddrinfo() function releases the memory used by the struct
addrinfo returned in the res parameter when calling val_getaddrinfo.
The val_getnameinfo() function performs an address-to-name
translation in a protocol independent manner.
The value of res MUST point to a valid addrinfo structure
([refs.RFC3493]) on a successful return from the val_getaddrinfo()
function or NULL in case of error. Sufficient memory MUST be
internally allocated to hold the linked list pointed to by res. This
memory MUST be released when applications invoke the freeaddrinfo()
function. ([refs.RFC3493]).
The DNSSEC validation status is returned in the val_status parameter.
When evaluating the validity of a DNS response, applications SHOULD
use the functions described in Section 8.2 instead of directly
inspecting the DNSSEC validation status code returned in val_status.
The syntax and semantics of other parameters in val_getaddrinfo() and
val_getnameinfo() and their return values are identical to those
specified for getaddrinfo() and getnameinfo() in [refs.RFC3493].
The status code returned in val_status is determined by the following
rules.
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_OOB_ANSWER MUST be returned in
val_status if the complete answer is returned using some out-of-
band mechanism (for example, from a local configuration store such
as /etc/hosts or its equivalent) without any DNSSEC validation
being performed. However, if local DNSSEC validator policy
defines out-of-band answers to be trustworthy, a DNSSEC validation
status of VAL_TRUSTED_ANSWER SHOULD be returned instead.
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_VALIDATED_ANSWER MUST be
returned in val_status if the hostname returned by
val_getnameinfo(), or all addresses and canonical names returned
by val_getaddrinfo(), are validated through the DNSSEC process.
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_TRUSTED_ANSWER MUST be returned
in val_status if the hostname returned by val_getnameinfo(), or at
least one address or canonical name returned by val_getaddrinfo(),
is not validated by the DNSSEC validation process but all answers
are still considered to be trustworthy through the local DNSSEC
validator policy (see Section 6).
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_UNTRUSTED_ANSWER MUST be
returned if at least one address or canonical name returned by
val_getaddrinfo() within the addrinfo structure, or the returned
hostname in val_getnameinfo(), is neither validated through the
DNSSEC process nor considered to be trustworthy according to the
local DNSSEC validator policy.
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o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME or
VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE MUST be returned in val_status if the DNSSEC
validation process is able to prove non-existence for the name or
type being queried for. A DNSSEC validation status of
VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME_NOCHAIN or VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE_NOCHAIN MUST
be returned if a DNS response with an RCODE reflecting type or
name non-existence is returned, and local DNSSEC validator policy
is configured to treat such answers as trustworthy (Section 6).
If the previous two conditions for non-existence are not
satisfied, val_status MUST be set to VAL_UNTRUSTED_ANSWER.
3.3. val_res_query
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_res_query(val_context_t *ctx,
const char *domain_name,
int class,
int type,
unsigned char *answer,
int anslen,
val_status_t *val_status);
The val_res_query() function is a DNSSEC-aware replacement for the
res_query() function (currently not documented in any standard
reference).
The val_res_query() function queries the DNS for the data associated
with the given domain name, class and type, and returns the resulting
resource record sets in a DNS-style response.
The val_res_query() function MUST return the actual size of the
response packet on success and -1 on failure. On success, the
response from the DNS MUST be copied to the user-allocated buffer in
answer and MUST NOT exceed the buffer size specified in anslen.
The DNSSEC validation status is returned in the val_status parameter.
When evaluating the validity of a DNS response, applications SHOULD
use the functions described in Section 8.2 instead of directly
inspecting the DNSSEC validation status code returned in val_status.
The status code returned in val_status is determined by the following
rules.
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_VALIDATED_ANSWER MUST be
returned if all resource record sets returned in the answer are
validated by the DNSSEC validation process.
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o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_TRUSTED_ANSWER MUST be returned
if at least one resource record set returned in the answer is not
validated by the DNSSEC validation process, but all resource
record sets are still considered to be trustworthy according to
the configured local DNSSEC validator policy (see Section 6).
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_UNTRUSTED_ANSWER MUST be
returned if at least one resource record set in the answer is
neither validated through the DNSSEC validation process nor
considered to be trustworthy according to the local DNSSEC
validator policy.
o A DNSSEC validation status of VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME or
VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE MUST be returned if the DNSSEC validation
process is able to prove non-existence for the name or type being
queried for. A DNSSEC validation status of
VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME_NOCHAIN or VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE_NOCHAIN MUST
be returned if a DNS response with an RCODE reflecting type or
name non-existence is returned, and local DNSSEC validator policy
is configured to treat such answers as trustworthy. If the
previous two conditions for non-existence are not satisfied,
val_status MUST be set to VAL_UNTRUSTED_ANSWER.
3.4. val_get_rrset
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_get_rrset(val_context_t *ctx,
const char *name,
int class,
int type,
unsigned int flags,
struct val_answer_chain **answers);
void val_free_answer_chain(struct val_answer_chain *answers);
The val_get_rrset() function queries the DNS for the data associated
with the given domain name, class and type. The flags argument
specifies a list of options to the validation process, logically OR'd
to each other. This possible flags are defined in Section 4.1.
val_get_rrset() MUST return 0 on success and an error code from
Section 7 on failure.
val_get_rrset() MUST return its results in the val_answer_chain
structure after allocating sufficient memory for this structure.
Applications MUST release this memory after use by invoking the
val_free_answer_chain() function.
The val_answer_chain structure is defined below.
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struct val_answer_chain {
val_status_t val_ans_status;
char *val_ans_name;
int val_ans_class;
int val_ans_type;
struct rr_rec *val_ans;
struct val_answer_chain *val_ans_next;
};
struct rr_rec {
size_t rr_length;
unsigned char *rr_data;
struct rr_rec *rr_next;
};
val_ans_name MUST be set to the DNS name of the actual resource
record set returned. This value may differ from the name argument in
val_get_rrset() if the resource record is returned after following a
CNAME ([refs.RFC1034]) or DNAME ([refs.RFC2672]) alias. val_ans_class
and val_ans_type MUST be set to the actual class and type for the
returned resource record. These values may differ from the class and
type arguments in val_get_rrset() if the query type or class has the
value 255 (ANY). The resource record sets MUST be returned in
val_ans as a linked list of rr_rec structures, with each element
containing the rr_length and rr_data tuple for a resource record in
the resource record set. val_ans MUST be set to NULL if no answer was
returned for the given query or if a proof of non-existence was
returned.
The DNSSEC validation status code is returned in the val_ans_status
field. Since validation status codes returned by val_get_rrset() are
available per resource record set, the set of possible values for
val_ans_status is more granular than that possible for the val_status
field in other high-level API functions. The list of possible codes
for val_ans_status are listed in Section 8.1. When evaluating the
validity of a DNS response, applications SHOULD use the functions
described in Section 8.2 instead of directly inspecting the DNSSEC
validation status code returned in val_ans_status.
4. Low-level DNSSEC Validator API
The low-level DNSSEC validator API provides applications with greater
control and visibility into the DNSSEC validation process. The
functions and data structures defined in the low-level DNSSEC
validator API are summarized below.
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4.1. val_resolve_and_check, val_free_result_chain
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_resolve_and_check( val_context_t *ctx,
const char *domain_name,
int class,
int type,
unsigned int flags,
struct val_result_chain **results);
void val_free_result_chain(struct val_result_chain *results);
The val_resolve_and_check() function queries the DNS for the
<domain_name, class, type> tuple and then performs the DNSSEC
validation operation for the responses received. The
val_free_result_chain() function releases the resources allocated for
the returned result.
The flags argument specifies a list of options to the validation
process, logically OR'd to each other. The following flags are
defined; their values are implementation-specific:
VAL_QUERY_AC_DETAIL: If this flag is specified, the complete
authentication chain MUST be returned for each answer within the
val_result_chain structure. If this flag is not set then only the
rrset information corresponding to the answer or proof of non-
existence for the queried name, domain_name SHOULD be returned
within the val_result_chain structure.
VAL_QUERY_DONT_VALIDATE: If this flag is specified, validation
processing MUST be ignored for the given name. Any resulting
answer will have a validation status value of
VAL_IGNORE_VALIDATION.
VAL_QUERY_IGNORE_SKEW: If this flag is specified, signature
inception and expiration times MUST be ignored for RRSIGs in the
authentication chain.
VAL_QUERY_NO_DLV: If this flag is specified, Dynamic Look-aside
Validation (DLV) [refs.DLV] processing for this name MUST NOT be
performed.
VAL_QUERY_ASYNC: If this flag is specified, this name MUST be
resolved through the asynchronous lookup process (see Section 5).
VAL_QUERY_RECURSE: If this flag is specified, the name MUST be
looked up by directly querying the authoritative name server for
that name (which may involve iteratively querying various name
servers in the delegation hierarchy) instead of requesting this
information from any caching name server that may be specified as
configuration data.
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VAL_QUERY_NO_EDNS0_FALLBACK: If this flag is specified, re-trying
the query with smaller EDNS0 advertised window sizes MUST NOT be
attempted as a fallback strategy.
VAL_QUERY_SKIP_RESOLVER: If this flag is specified, only the cache
should be consulted while looking up a name. New queries MUST NOT
be sent on the wire as part of looking up and validating the
cached answer.
VAL_QUERY_SKIP_CACHE: If this flag is specified, any locally cached
information for the name being looked up MUST be ignored.
val_resolve_and_check() MUST return 0 on success and an error code
from Section 7 on failure. Answers to the query MUST be returned in
results, which is a linked list of val_result_chain structures, as
defined below. val_resolve_and_check() MUST allocate sufficient
memory to hold the contents of results. This memory MUST be released
when applications invoke the val_free_result_chain() function.
#define MAX_PROOFS 4
struct val_result_chain {
val_status_t val_rc_status;
char *val_rc_alias;
struct val_rrset_rec *val_rc_rrset;
struct val_authentication_chain *val_rc_answer;
int val_rc_proof_count;
struct val_authentication_chain *val_rc_proofs[MAX_PROOFS];
struct val_result_chain *val_rc_next;
};
Each element in the val_result_chain linked list MUST point to a
distinct resource record set returned in the response. Multiple
resource record sets can be returned in a response when the query is
for the type code of 255 (ANY) or 46 (RRSIG). The val_rc_next field
enables an application to iterate through the list of all results
returned by the DNSSEC validator. For all val_result_chain elements
that represent a name alias, val_rc_alias MUST point to the target
name referenced by that alias.
val_rc_answer SHOULD point to a resource record in the answer
portion; all associated proofs of non-existence (either in support of
the answer in val_rc_answer or to prove the non-existence of a
record) SHOULD be returned in val_rc_proofs. val_rc_proof_count MUST
be set to the number of proof elements that are available.
val_rc_answer and val_rc_proofs SHOULD be NULL if the
VAL_QUERY_AC_DETAIL flag is not specified in the flags argument for
val_resolve_and_check().
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val_rc_rrset MUST point to resource record set information for the
current element in the val_result_chain linked list. If no answers
are returned (or a proof of non-existence is returned) in response to
the query, val_rc_rrset MUST be set to NULL.
The DNSSEC validation status code is returned in the val_rc_status
field. Since validation status codes are available per resource
record set, it is possible to have a highly granular set of values
for val_rc_status. Possible codes for val_rc_status are listed in
Section 8.1. When evaluating the validity of a DNS response,
applications SHOULD use the functions described in Section 8.2
instead of directly inspecting the DNSSEC validation status code
returned in val_rc_status.
The val_authentication_chain structure represents a linked list whose
elements comprise the DNSSEC authentication chain for an answer or
proof of non-existence resource record set.
struct val_authentication_chain {
val_astatus_t val_ac_status;
struct val_rrset_rec *val_ac_rrset;
struct val_authentication_chain *val_ac_trust;
};
The DNSSEC validation status for the specified resource record set
MUST be set in the val_ac_status field. Possible codes for this
field are defined in Section 4.2. The val_ac_trust field MUST point
to the next element in the authentication chain proceeding from the
signed record towards a DNSSEC trust anchor. For an element with
type DNSKEY, the next element MUST correspond to a DS record in the
parent zone and for a DS record the next element MUST correspond to
the DNSKEY in the same zone as the DS record. The value of
val_ac_trust MUST be set to NULL if either the current element in the
linked list points to a valid DNSSEC trust anchor or if an error
condition is encountered. The validation status code stored in the
val_ac_status field can be used to differentiate between different
error conditions.
The val_ac_rrset field in the val_authentication_chain structure MUST
point to a val_rrset_rec structure holding the actual resource record
set fields ([refs.RFC1034]) as described below.
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struct val_rrset_rec {
int val_rrset_rcode;
char *val_rrset_name;
int val_rrset_class;
int val_rrset_type;
long val_rrset_ttl;
int val_rrset_section;
struct sockaddr *val_rrset_server;
struct val_rr_rec *val_rrset_data;
struct val_rr_rec *val_rrset_sig;
};
The information stored in the val_rrset_rec structure includes the
DNS response error code in the val_rrset_rcode field, and the DNS
response "envelope" comprising of the name, class, type and time-to-
live tuple in the val_rrset_name, val_rrset_class, val_rrset_type and
val_rrset_ttl fields respectively. Additionally, the name server
from where this resource record set was received MUST be stored in
the sockaddr data structure ([refs.IEEE.1003.1-2004]) pointed to by
the val_rrset_server field. The section where the resource record
set appeared in the DNS response MUST be saved in the
val_rrset_section field within the val_rrset_rec structure, and MUST
be set to one of the following values:
#define VAL_FROM_ANSWER 1 /* if the resource record set was present
in the answer section of the DNS response. */
#define VAL_FROM_AUTHORITY 2 /* if the resource record set was
present in the authority section of the DNS response. */
#define VAL_FROM_ADDITIONAL 3 /* if the resource record set was
present in the additional section of the DNS response. */
The data returned for the resource record set MUST be queued to
val_rrset_data. Any associated RRSIGs MUST be queued to
val_rrset_sig. Both of these variables MUST point to lists of struct
val_rr_rec elements, which specify the resource record data and the
DNSSEC validation status for each resource-record within the resource
record set as defined below.
struct val_rr_rec {
size_t rr_rdata_length;
unsigned char *rr_rdata;
struct val_rr_rec *rr_next;
val_astatus_t rr_status;
};
The rr_status member in val_rr_rec is only relevant for the
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signatures present in val_rrset_sig or when val_rrset_data points to
DNSKEY or DS resource records. In other cases the value of this
field MUST be set to VAL_AC_UNSET. The rr_status field takes on a
subset of all status codes possible for the val_astatus_t type and is
further described in Section 4.2.
4.2. Authentication Chain Status Codes and p_ac_status()
For each authentication chain element in the val_authentication_chain
structure, the val_ac_status field MUST contain one of the following
codes:
VAL_AC_UNSET: The DNSSEC validation status for the resource record
set could not be determined.
VAL_AC_IGNORE_VALIDATION: DNSSEC validation for the given resource
record set was ignored on the basis of some configured DNSSEC
validator policy.
VAL_AC_UNTRUSTED_ZONE: The resource record set belonged to a zone
that the DNSSEC validator considered to be un-trusted, with no
further DNSSEC validation being deemed necessary.
VAL_AC_PINSECURE: The resource record set belonged to a zone for
which the DS record was provably absent.
VAL_AC_BARE_RRSIG: The resource record set contained only RRSIGs (in
response to a query of type RRSIG). RRSIGs contain the
cryptographic signatures for other DNS data and cannot themselves
be validated.
VAL_AC_NO_LINK: No DNSSEC trust anchor was configured at or above
the level of the authentication chain could be found above this
point, therefore no validation could be performed.
VAL_AC_TRUST: At least one of the signatures covering the given
resource record set was directly verified using a key that was
configured as a DNSSEC trust anchor.
VAL_AC_RRSIG_MISSING: RRSIG data for the given resource record set
could not be located.
VAL_AC_DNSKEY_MISSING: The DNSKEY data that generated signatures for
the given resource record set could not be located.
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VAL_AC_DS_MISSING: The DS data for the DNSKEY resource record set in
question could not be located.
VAL_AC_DATA_MISSING: The returned resource record set was empty.
VAL_AC_DNS_ERROR: A DNS error was encountered during the query
resolution process.
VAL_AC_NOT_VERIFIED: None of the RRSIGs covering the given resource
record set could be verified.
VAL_AC_VERIFIED: At least one RRSIG covering the resource record set
verified successfully.
For each signature val_rr_rec member within an authentication chain
pointed to by val_ac_rrset, the DNSSEC validation status stored in
the variable rr_status MUST be set to one of the following codes:
VAL_AC_UNSET: No DNSSEC validation status information could be
obtained for the given signature.
VAL_AC_RRSIG_VERIFIED: The RRSIG verified successfully.
VAL_AC_WCARD_VERIFIED: The RRSIG covering a resource record proved
that the record was wildcard expanded.
VAL_AC_RRSIG_VERIFIED_SKEW: The RRSIG verified successfully only
after clock skew was taken into consideration.
VAL_AC_WCARD_VERIFIED_SKEW: The RRSIG covering a resource record
proved that the record was wildcard expanded, but only after clock
skew was taken into consideration.
VAL_AC_WRONG_LABEL_COUNT: The number of labels on the signature was
greater than the count given in the RRSIG resource record data.
VAL_AC_INVALID_RRSIG: The RRSIG could not be parsed.
VAL_AC_RRSIG_NOTYETACTIVE: The RRSIG's inception time was in the
future.
VAL_AC_RRSIG_EXPIRED: The RRSIG's expiration time was in the past.
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VAL_AC_ALGORITHM_NOT_SUPPORTED: The RRSIG algorithm was not
supported.
VAL_AC_RRSIG_VERIFY_FAILED: The RRSIG could not be verified.
VAL_AC_RRSIG_ALGORITHM_MISMATCH: The keytag referenced in the RRSIG
matched a DNSKEY but the algorithms were different.
VAL_AC_DNSKEY_NOMATCH: The DNSKEY that created the given signature
could not be found in the zone DNSKEY resource record set.
For each val_rr_rec member of type DNSKEY (or DS where indicated)
within an authentication chain structure pointed to by val_ac_rrset,
the DNSSEC validation status stored in the variable rr_status MUST be
set to one of the following codes:
VAL_AC_UNSET: No DNSSEC validation status information could be
obtained for the given DNSKEY or DS record.
VAL_AC_TRUST_POINT: The given DNSKEY or DS record was configured as
a DNSSEC trust anchor.
VAL_AC_SIGNING_KEY: The given DNSKEY was used for generating an
RRSIG for a resource record in the authentication chain.
VAL_AC_VERIFIED_LINK: The given DNSKEY or DS resource record
provided the link in the authentication chain from a DNSSEC trust
anchor to the signed record.
VAL_AC_UNKNOWN_ALGORITHM_LINK: The DNSKEY chained up to a DS record
but the DNSKEY algorithm was unknown.
VAL_AC_UNKNOWN_DNSKEY_PROTOCOL: The DNSKEY protocol number was
unknown.
VAL_AC_ALGORITHM_NOT_SUPPORTED: The DNSKEY or DS algorithm was not
supported.
VAL_AC_DS_NOMATCH: The given DNSKEY did not chain up to any DS
record in the parent zone.
VAL_AC_INVALID_KEY: The given DNSKEY was invalid.
VAL_AC_INVALID_DS: The given DS was invalid.
The numerical values for the codes listed above are implementation-
specific. The p_ac_status() function is used to convert the DNSSEC
validation status code stored in struct val_authentication_chain to a
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string representation.
#include <validator/validator.h>
const char *p_ac_status(val_astatus_t status);
The value returned MAY be the string conversion for the corresponding
val_astatus_t identifier. For example, the return value from
p_ac_status(VAL_AC_VERIFIED) MAY be "VAL_AC_VERIFIED".
5. Low-level Asynchronous DNSSEC Validator API
The low-level Asynchronous DNSSEC validator API allows an application
to submit multiple requests which can be processed in parallel. In
most cases, this will result in validation completing much sooner
than a series of synchronous requests.
When submitting an asynchronous request, an application may specify a
callback function to be called when the request completes.
Since DNSSEC validation of a domain name involves multiple queries,
applications must periodically give time to the API for processing
responses and sending additional queries. (See
val_async_check_wait() in Section 5.1.3.)
The functions and data structures defined in the low-level
Asynchronous DNSSEC validator API are summarized below.
5.1. Asynchronous Requests
5.1.1. val_async_submit
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_async_submit(val_context_t *ctx, const char *domain_name,
int class, int type, unsigned int flags,
val_async_event_cb *callback,
void *user_context,
val_async_status **async_status);
The val_async_submit() function submits a request for asynchronous
processing of DNS queries for the data associated with the given
domain name, class and type.
If specified, the given callback function will be called when results
become available. Some flags, defined below, can affect when and how
often the callback is called.
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The specified user context will also be passed to the callback
function. More information on the callback function and user_context
can be found in Section 5.2.
The val_async_submit() function MUST return VAL_NO_ERROR on success
and return a pointer to a newly allocated async_status object via the
async_status parameter. More information on async_status objects can
be found in Section 5.3.
On failure, the return code will be one of VAL_RESOURCE_UNAVAILABLE,
VAL_BAD_ARGUMENT or VAL_INTERNAL_ERROR. The function MUST release
any allocated data, and MUST NOT return a value via the async_status
parameter. An implementation MAY set async_status to NULL.
The following flags may be set for the request. The numerical values
for the flags are implementation-specific.
VAL_AS_IGNORE_CACHE: Don't use any internal cache for answers to
this query. Answers MUST be from fresh responses to all queries.
These new answers MAY be stored in the internal cache for use with
future queries.
VAL_AS_NO_NEW_QUERIES: Don't send any new queries. Answers MUST
come from the internal cache.
VAL_AS_NO_ANSWERS: Caller doesn't care about the answer results.
This can be used for priming the cache.
VAL_AS_NO_CALLBACKS: Don't call any callbacks.
VAL_AS_NO_CANCEL_CALLBACKS: Call callbacks with results, but don't
call any callbacks when the reques is canceled.
VAL_AS_INTERIM_CALLBACKS: Call the callback function with interim
results. If this flag is not specified, the callback function
will only be called when all validation results are ready.
5.1.2. val_async_select_info
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_async_select_info(val_context_t *context,
fd_set *fds, int *max_fd,
struct timeval *timeout);
The val_async_select_info() function examines all outstanding
asynchronous requests for the given context and sets the appropriate
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file descriptors, timeout value and maximum file descriptor value in
preparation for a call to select().
The file descriptor for each socket awating a response MUST be set in
the fds parameter. The function MUST NOT initialize the fd_set, as
the application may have already set its own file descriptors.
The integer value pointed to by max_fd MUST be set to the highest
file descriptor number of any pending asynchronous request, unless
that value is less than the current vaule of max_fd. In that case,
the max_fd value MUST NOT be changed.
The timeout structure MUST be set to the lowest timeout value of any
pending asynchronous query timeout which is less than the current
value in timeout.
After the application call select, val_async_check_wait() (see
Section 5.1.3) should be called with the fd_set and number of ready
file descriptors returned by select. Example code is provided in
Appendix C.
5.1.3. val_async_check_wait
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_async_check_wait(val_context_t *ctx, fd_set *fds,
int *nfds, struct timeval *timeout,
unsigned int flags);
The val_async_check_wait() function handles timeouts or processes DNS
responses to outstanding queries. It may also call callbacks for
completed requests.
The function provides two modes of operation. The first is for use
with an application that has its own select() loop. The applications
sets its own file descriptors, calls val_async_select_info() to set
file descriptors for pending queries and calls select(). The fds and
nfds parameters from select are passed in to val_async_check_wait and
the timeout value is ignored. If the implementation processes
responses for a file descriptor, the implementation SHOULD clear the
appropriate file descriptor in fds and decrement nfds.
In the second mode of operation, the fds and nfds parameters are set
to NULL and a timeout value is specified. The function will call
val_async_select_info() and select() internally, and process any
responses received before the timeout value expires.
Example code is provided in Appendix C.
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5.2. Asynchronous Callbacks
#include <validator/validator.h>
typedef struct val_cb_params_s {
val_status_t val_status;
char *name;
int class_h;
int type_h;
int retval;
struct val_result_chain *results;
struct val_answer_chain *answers;
} val_cb_params_t;
typedef int (*val_async_event_cb)(val_async_status *as, int event,
val_context_t *ctx, void *user_ctx,
val_cb_params_t *callback_params);
When an asynchronous request is submitted, a callback function and
user context may be provided by the caller. This callback function
is called when validation results are available. The user_ctx
parameter MUST be the value given by the caller when the request was
submitted.
The callback params structure contains the orginal query parameters
(name, class and type), the 'return value' for the operation,
pointers to the result and answer chains, and the final validation
status. This structure will be released when the callback is
completed. The application can assume responsibility for any of the
pointer values by copying them and setting the pointers in the
callback param structure to NULL. The application then becomes
responsible for releasing the memory with val_free_result_chain (see
Section 4.1) and/or val_free_answer_chain (see Section 3.4), as
appropriate.
The following event types are defined:
VAL_AS_EVENT_COMPLETED: The request completed.
VAL_AS_EVENT_INTERIM: The request is still being processed, but some
interim results are available.
VAL_AS_EVENT_CANCELED: The request was canceled. The val_status,
results and answers members of the callback parameter structure
are undefined.
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Possible codes for val_status are listed in Section 8.1. When
evaluating the validity of a DNS response, applications SHOULD use
the functions described in Section 8.2 instead of directly inspecting
the DNSSEC validation status code returned in val_status.
After the callback function has completed, the implementation SHOULD
release all resources allocated for the request.
5.3. Asynchronous Status
An application which submits asynchronous requests needs a way to
refer to each request for future operations. This asynchronous
status object is an implementation specific opaque object which an
uniquely identifies a particular request.
When an asynchronous request is submitted, the implementation MUST
create an asynchronous status object to return to the caller. The
size of the object SHOULD be at least as large as the native pointer
type.
5.3.1. Operations on asynchronous status objects
The API supports the following operations to manipulate asynchronous
requests:
5.3.1.1. val_async_cancel
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_async_cancel( val_context_t *context,
val_async_status *async_status,
unsigned int flags);
This function will cancel an outstanding asynchronous request. All
resources used for the request SHOULD be released.
The following flags may be set for the request. The numerical values
for the flags are implementation-specific.
VAL_AS_CANCEL_NO_CALLBACKS: Do not call completed or cancelled
callbacks.
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6. DNSSEC Validator Context API
DNSSEC validator policy can be used to influence the DNSSEC
validation outcome. Examples of DNSSEC validator policy include
DNSSEC trust anchors for different zones and acceptable clock-skew
values for checking inception and expiration times on signatures from
different zones.
DNSSEC validator policy is stored in the local system configuration
(for example, the configuration file /etc/dnsval.conf) and could be
configured differently for different applications and operating
scenarios. Policies are identified by simple text strings called
labels, which MUST be unique within the system configuration. As an
example, "browser" could be used as the label that defines the DNSSEC
validator policy for all web-browsers in a system. The manner of
supplying the validation policy label to an application is
implementation-specific, but the label MAY also be supplied during
application-startup through the environment variable,
VAL_CONTEXT_LABEL.
All DNSSEC validator policy definitions in the system configuration
are implementation-specific.
6.1. val_create_context, val_free_context
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_create_context( char *label,
val_context_t **newctx );
void val_free_context( val_context_t *ctx );
These function create and release, respectively, validator context
objects.
An application maintains a run-time handle to its validator policy
through the validator context. val_create_context() creates a new
DNSSEC validator context. The label parameter identifies the DNSSEC
validator policy to be used by the application for DNSSEC validation.
The manner in which the label argument is used within the system
configuration to identify specific validator policy settings is
implementation-specific. However, all libraries that implement this
API MUST internally create a DNSSEC validator context with a (system-
defined) default DNSSEC validator policy if label is NULL.
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The val_create_context() function MUST return 0 on success, and an
error code from Section 7 on failure. Memory for the newly created
DNSSEC validator context MUST be returned in the newctx field. This
memory MUST be released when applications invoke the
val_free_context() function. newctx MUST be set to NULL if an error
is encountered.
6.2. val_context_setqflags
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_context_setqflags(val_context_t *context,
unsigned char action,
unsigned int flags);
This function allows an application to set or reset default query
flags for a given context. This enables the application to alter the
DNSSEC validator processing, while still having most of the granular
default configuration specified in its configuration file.
The application may specify one of the following action types, where
their numeric values are implementation-specific.
VAL_CTX_FLAG_SET: Set the given flag as one of the default query
flags for the context.
VAL_CTX_FLAG_RESET: Reset the given flag if it was set as one of the
default query flags for the context.
7. Function Return Codes and p_val_err()
The return values from functions defined in the low-level API, the
DNSSEC validator-context API, and the val_get_rrset() function MUST
be from the list below. Other high-level API functions mirror
existing legacy DNS functions, so the return codes from these
functions are identical to their predecessors. The numerical values
for the return codes listed below are implementation-specific.
VAL_NO_ERROR: The function call was successful.
VAL_NOT_IMPLEMENTED: The implementation did not support a particular
feature.
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VAL_RESOURCE_UNAVAILABLE: Some resource necessary for an operation
(such as memory) was unavailable.
VAL_BAD_ARGUMENT: An unexpected value was passed as an argument to a
function.
VAL_INTERNAL_ERROR: An internal error was encountered by the DNSSEC
validator.
VAL_CONF_PARSE_ERROR: The DNSSEC validator configuration was
improperly specified in the system configuration.
VAL_CONF_NOT_FOUND: The DNSSEC validator configuration could not be
located in the system configuration.
VAL_NO_POLICY: The DNSSEC validator policy identifier being
referenced was invalid.
The p_val_err() function is used to convert an error code from the
list above to a string representation.
#include <validator/validator.h>
const char *p_val_err(int err);
The returned value from p_val_err() MAY be the string conversion for
the corresponding error code identifier. For example, the return
value from p_val_err(VAL_NO_ERROR) MAY be "VAL_NO_ERROR".
8. Evaluating Response Validity
The result of DNSSEC validation for a resource record set, based on
the individual status code of each element in an authentication
chain, is returned in a variable of type val_status_t. val_status_t
can contain one of the possible codes listed in Section 8.1. The
functions provided in Section 8.2 simplify the task of evaluating
validity of an answer by wrapping around the different status codes
possible for each type of answer.
8.1. DNSSEC Validation Status Codes and p_val_status()
A variable of type val_status_t MUST contain one of the following
codes (the numerical values for these codes are implementation-
specific):
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VAL_VALIDATED_ANSWER: Returned if the combined DNSSEC validation
status for a set of resource record set responses represents a
validated state.
VAL_TRUSTED_ANSWER: Returned if the combined DNSSEC validation
status for a set of resource record set responses represents a
trusted (but non-validated) state.
VAL_UNTRUSTED_ANSWER: Returned if the combined DNSSEC validation
status for a set of resource record set responses represents an
untrusted state.
VAL_SUCCESS: The response for the given resource record set was
successfully validated through the DNSSEC validation process.
VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME: The proof for denial of existence for a domain
name validated successfully.
VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE: The proof for denial of existence for the
resource record type for the given name was validated
successfully.
VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME_NOCHAIN: The proof for non-existence of a
domain name was considered valid through local DNSSEC validator
configuration; the authentication chain(s) for the different
components of the proof were not validated.
VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE_NOCHAIN: The proof for non-existence of the
resource record type for the name queried was considered valid
through local DNSSEC validator configuration; the authentication
chain(s) for the different components of the proof were not
validated.
VAL_PINSECURE: The record or some ancestor of the record in the
authentication chain towards a DNSSEC trust anchor was known to be
provably insecure and DNSSEC validator policy is configured to
trust provably insecure answers.
VAL_PINSECURE_UNTRUSTED: The record or some ancestor of the record
in the authentication chain towards a DNSSEC trust anchor was
known to be provably insecure, but DNSSEC validator policy is
configured to not trust provably insecure answers.
VAL_BARE_RRSIG: The response was for a query of type RRSIG. RRSIGs
contain the cryptographic signatures for other DNS data and cannot
themselves be validated.
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VAL_IGNORE_VALIDATION: DNSSEC validator policy was configured to
ignore DNSSEC validation for the zone from where this data was
received.
VAL_UNTRUSTED_ZONE: DNSSEC validator policy was configured to not
trust any response from the zone that this data was received from.
VAL_OOB_ANSWER: The response was obtained using some out-of-band
mechanism (for example, from a local configuration store such as
/etc/hosts).
VAL_BOGUS: The response could not be validated due to signature
verification failures or the inability to verify proofs of non-
existence for one or more components in the authentication chain.
VAL_DNS_ERROR: Returned if a DNS error was encountered during the
query resolution process.
VAL_NOTRUST: The authentication chain does not lead up to a
configured DNSSEC trust anchor.
The p_val_status() function is used to convert the DNSSEC validation
status code stored in a variable of type val_status_t to a string
representation.
#include <validator/validator.h>
const char *p_val_status(val_status_t status);
The value returned MAY be the string conversion for the corresponding
val_status_t identifier. For example, the return value from
p_val_status(VAL_SUCCESS) MAY be "VAL_SUCCESS".
8.2. High-Level Routines for Evaluating Validity
#include <validator/validator.h>
int val_istrusted(val_status_t status);
int val_isvalidated(val_status_t status);
int val_does_not_exist(val_status_t status);
These functions return a boolean value indicating whether or not the
given val_status_t object is trusted, validated or does not exist
(respectively).
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Most applications will only be interested in a single value that
represents the validity of DNS data. In some instances, an
application may also need to distinguish between cases where the
answer was cryptographically validated and cases where the answer was
locally trusted. The val_istrusted() and val_isvalidated() functions
allow an application to evaluate, at a high level, the validity of a
response without having to inspect the exact status code returned.
The val_istrusted() function returns a single integer value
representing the validity of information returned by the DNSSEC
validator. The return value MUST be greater than 0 if status is one
of VAL_SUCCESS, VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME, VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE,
VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME_NOCHAIN, VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE_NOCHAIN,
VAL_PINSECURE, VAL_IGNORE_VALIDATION, VAL_TRUSTED_ANSWER, or
VAL_VALIDATED_ANSWER and MUST be equal to 0 for other status codes.
The val_isvalidated() function returns a single integer value that
indicates if the answer cryptographically chains down from a
configured DNSSEC trust anchor. The return value MUST be greater
than 0 if status is one of VAL_SUCCESS, VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME,
VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE, or VAL_VALIDATED_ANSWER and MUST be equal to 0
for other status codes.
The val_does_not_exist() function allows an application to determine
from the DNSSEC validation status value if the answer was provably
non-existent. In combination with the val_istrusted() and
val_isvalidated() functions, it can give an indication about the
manner in which validity was determined (cryptographically verified
or trusted through local DNSSEC validator policy). The return value
from val_does_not_exist() MUST be greater than 0 if status is one of
VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE, VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME,
VAL_NONEXISTENT_NAME_NOCHAIN, or VAL_NONEXISTENT_TYPE_NOCHAIN and
MUST be equal to 0 for other status codes.
9. Notes On DNS Data Caching By Appplications
Certain applications are known to cache DNS data for an application-
specific length of time, independent of the TTL limits placed on the
relevant DNS resource records. Since DNS data is ephemeral by
design, any caching performed independently by applications may
conflict with zone publishers' needs to change such DNS records
frequently. An extension to this problem is the scenario where an
application caches DNS data for an application-specific length of
time during which period a zone operator may revoke a DNSSEC key,
thus rendering that particular cached data as untrustworthy.
It is recommended that applications MUST NOT cache DNS data in a
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manner that would violate the TTL limits placed on DNS records.
Applications must, instead delegate the function of caching DNS data
to a stub resolver or a local recursive resolver library, and to only
use DNS API functions to request answers whenever necessary. The
stub or recursive resolver libraries should, in turn, determine from
the resource record TTLs if a cached answer is available or if a
fresh DNS query needs to be issued.
10. IANA Considerations
This document has no actions for IANA.
11. Security Considerations
In certain cases DNS responses may be returned from the local system
configuration (for example, from the /etc/hosts file on some
systems). The application cannot assume that these answers are
valid, unless the application is certain that the local configuration
store contains valid data. If this information is modified during a
DHCP lookup, for example, the client system should ensure that the
DHCP server is a trusted source, and that the communication path
between the DHCP server and the client system is secured. If these
conditions are not satisfied and if the application chooses to trust
a locally available answer, an attacker may be able to poison the
system configuration and cause an application to use invalid answers.
If applications are to treat out-of-band answers as trusted, this
choice SHOULD be made explicit through a validator policy
configuration knob.
Applications can similarly choose to trust data from provably
insecure zones. Not performing DNSSEC validation for a zone that has
DNSSEC intentionally turned off is no worse than the current
situation of DNSSEC-unaware applications not being able to detect the
integrity of DNS data for such zones.
The DNS search path may affect the result of DNSSEC validation,
especially in the current Internet environment where not all DNS name
servers are expected to be DNSSEC-aware. If the name server pointed
to by the system configuration is not DNSSEC-aware (i.e. it does not
return DNSSEC records), DNSSEC validation will not work as expected,
unless the validator has certain fallback mechanims in place to try
and route around such broken behavior.
The DNSSEC validator configuration information needs to be protected
so that it cannot be overwritten by unauthorized users or processes.
The system administrator must ensure that the list of DNSSEC trust
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anchors is kept accurate and up-to-date. If the DNSSEC trust anchors
are outdated (in the event of key-rollovers), the DNSSEC validator
may either falsely mark zones as bogus or may operate with the false
belief of having validated a response when the response should really
have been flagged as bogus. Any subversion of the DNSSEC policy
configuration (including definition of new trust anchors) can
similarly completely undermine the value provided by DNSSEC.
12. Acknowledgements
A number of individuals have provided valuable feedback and
suggestions for improving this document including the following:
Lindy Foster, Wayne Morrison, Russ Mundy, Bill Sommerfeld, Wes
Hardaker, Giovanni Marzot and Alfred Hoenes. The list of
authentication status codes in Section 4.2 was generated through
multiple brainstorming sessions at various IETF meetings; this draft
draws on the results from that effort.
13. References
13.1. Normative References
[refs.DLV]
Weiler, S., "DNSSEC Lookaside Validation (DLV)", RFC 5074,
November 2007.
[refs.IEEE.1003.1-2004]
IEEE and The Open Group, http://www.opengroup.org, "IEEE
Std 1003.1-2004 Standard for Information Technology --
Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX). Open Group
Technical Standard: Base Specifications, Issue 6", ISO/
IEC 9945:2003, February 2004.
[refs.RFC3493]
Gilligan, R., Thomson, S., Bound, J., McCann, J., and W.
Stevens, "Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6",
RFC 3493, February 2003.
[refs.RFC4034]
Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
Rose, "Resource Records for the DNS Security Extensions",
RFC 4034, March 2005.
[refs.RFC4035]
Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
Rose, "Protocol Modifications for the DNS Security
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Extensions", RFC 4035, March 2005.
13.2. Informative References
[refs.RFC1034]
Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities",
RFC 1034, November 1987.
[refs.RFC2672]
Crawford, M., "Non-Terminal DNS Name Redirection",
RFC 2672, August 1999.
[refs.RFC4033]
Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
Rose, "DNS Security Introduction and Requirements",
RFC 4033, March 2005.
Appendix A. Zone-Specific Validator Policy Settings
Zone-specific validator policy settings may have the following
structure.
<label> <attribute> <additional-data>;
Sample values for <attribute> are "trust-anchor", "zone-security-
expectation", "provably-insecure-status", "clock-skew". The value
for <additional-data> would depend on the type of attribute
specified.
o For the "trust-anchor" attribute additional-data could be a
sequence of ordered pairs, each consisting of the zone name and a
string containing the resource record data for the trust anchor's
DNSKEY or DS record. An example is given below.
browser trust-anchor
. DS 19036 8 2 \
49AAC11D7B6F6446702E54A1607371607A1A41855200FD2CE\
1CDDE32F24E8FB5
example.org DNSKEY 257 3 5 AQO8XS4y9r77X 9SHBmrx MoJf\
1Pf9AT9Mr/L5BBGtO9/e9f/zl4FFgM2l B6M2 XEm6mp6 mit\
4tzpB/sAEQw1McYz6bJdKkTiqtuWTCfDmgQhI6 /Ha0 Ef GP\
NSqnY 99FmbSeWNIRaa4fgSCVFhvbrYq1nXkNVy QPeEVHk o\
DNCA lr qOA3lw==
;
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o For the "zone-security-expectation" attribute additional-data
could be a sequence of <domain name,value> tuples representing the
security expectation for names in that domain, where value could
be one of the following:
ignore: Ignore DNSSEC validation for names under this domain.
validate: Perform DNSSEC validation of answers received for names
under this domain.
untrusted: Reject all answers received for names under this
domain.
This zone-security-expectation DNSSEC validator policy construct
makes it possible to define various islands of trust for DNSSEC-
enabled zones and to ignore or trust data from selected zones.
The default zone security expectation for a domain should be
"validate". In the following example, for DNSSEC validator
contexts created with a DNSSEC validator policy label of
"browser", DNSSEC validation would only be performed for names
under the example.com domain; names under the somebogusdomain.org
domain would always considered to be untrusted and DNSSEC
validation for all other domain names would be ignored.
browser zone-security-expectation
example.com validate
somebogusdomain.org untrusted
. ignore
;
o For the "provably-insecure-status" attribute additional-data could
be a sequence of <domain name,value> tuples representing the
validity of the provably insecure condition, where value could be
one of the following:
trusted: Treat the provably insecure condition as valid.
untrusted: Treat the provably insecure condition as invalid.
The default value for the provably insecure status for a domain
should be "trusted". In the following example, for DNSSEC
validator contexts created with the default label, the provably
insecure condition would be treated as trustworthy for all domains
except the net domain, where this condition would be treated as
invalid.
: provably-insecure-status
. trusted
net untrusted
;
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o For the "clock-skew" attribute additional-data could be a sequence
of the domain name and the number of seconds of clock-skew
acceptable for signatures on names in that domain. A clock skew
value of -1 could have the effect of turning off inception and
expiration time checks on signatures from that domain. The
default clock skew should be 0. In the following example, for
DNSSEC validator contexts created with the "mta" label, signature
inception and expiration checks would be disabled for all names
under the example.com domain.
mta clock-skew
example.com -1
;
Appendix B. Global Validator Policy
Global policy options guide validator behavior across multiple zones.
Global policy options for the DNSSEC validator could be defined under
a separate section within the validator system configuration. Some
of the possible configuration knobs for global validator policy
include the following.
o trust-oob-answers <yes/no>: policy on whether or not the validator
should trust answers received out-of-band.
o edns0-size <default-edns0-size>: the default EDNS0 size to be
advertized in queries sent out by the validator.
Appendix C. Asynchronous API Example Code
The general flow for asynchronous request processing can be described
with the following pseudo-code:
#include <validator/validator.h>
int done = 0;
int my_callback(val_async_status *async_status, int event,
val_context_t *ctx, void *user_ctx,
val_cb_params_t *cbp) {
if (event == VAL_AS_EVENT_CANCELED) {
fprint("canceled: %s", (char*)user_ctx);
return;
}
fprintf("final status for %s: %d\n", (char*)user_ctx,
val_async_status(async_status));
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done = 1;
return 0;
}
main() {
val_async_status *async_status;
struct timeval tv;
fd_set fds;
int nfds, ready;
val_context *ctx = NULL;
char *domain = "www.example.com";
/* submit request */
rc = val_async_submit(ctx, domain, ns_c_in, ns_t_a, 0,
my_callback, (void*)domain, &async_status);
while (!done) {
tv.usec = 0;
tv.sec = 10; /* maximum timeout 10 sec */
#ifdef NO_APPLICATION_FDS
val_async_check_wait(ctx, NULL, NULL, &tv, 0);
#else /* HAVE_OUR_OWN_FDS_TO_WATCH */
FD_ZERO(&fds); /* clear fd_set */
nfds = 0; /* no FDs yet */
/* set FDs for pending requests. application should also set
* its own FDs, if any, before calling select */
val_async_select_info(&ctx, &fds, &numfds, &tv);
ready = select(numfds+1, &fds, NULL, NULL, &tv);
if ( ready < 0 ) {
break; /* or continue... */
} else if ( ready == 0 ) {
/* application timeout processing */
} else {
/* application FD processing */
}
/* handle async FDs/timeouts */
val_async_check(&ctx, &fds, &numfds, flags);
#endif
}
}
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Authors' Addresses
Suresh Krishnaswamy
SPARTA, Inc.
7110 Samuel Morse Dr.
Columbia, MD 21046
US
Email: suresh AT sparta.com
Robert Story
SPARTA, Inc.
Email: rstory AT sparta.com
Abhijit Hayatnagarkar
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