Internet DRAFT - draft-ietf-dprive-unilateral-probing

draft-ietf-dprive-unilateral-probing







dprive                                                D. K. Gillmor, Ed.
Internet-Draft                                                      ACLU
Intended status: Experimental                            J. Salazar, Ed.
Expires: 25 April 2024                                                  
                                                         P. Hoffman, Ed.
                                                                   ICANN
                                                         23 October 2023


     Unilateral Opportunistic Deployment of Encrypted Recursive-to-
                           Authoritative DNS
                draft-ietf-dprive-unilateral-probing-13

Abstract

   This document sets out steps that DNS servers (recursive resolvers
   and authoritative servers) can take unilaterally (without any
   coordination with other peers) to defend DNS query privacy against a
   passive network monitor.  The steps in this document can be defeated
   by an active attacker, but should be simpler and less risky to deploy
   than more powerful defenses.

   The goal of this document is to simplify and speed deployment of
   opportunistic encrypted transport in the recursive-to-authoritative
   hop of the DNS ecosystem.  Wider easy deployment of the underlying
   encrypted transport on an opportunistic basis may facilitate the
   future specification of stronger cryptographic protections against
   more powerful attacks.

About This Document

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   The latest revision of this draft can be found at
   https://dkg.gitlab.io/dprive-unilateral-probing/.  Status information
   for this document may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/
   draft-ietf-dprive-unilateral-probing/.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the DPRIVE Working Group
   mailing list (mailto:dns-privacy@ietf.org), which is archived at
   https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/dns-privacy/.  Subscribe at
   https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/dns-privacy/.

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://gitlab.com/dkg/dprive-unilateral-probing.






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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
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 25 April 2024.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2023 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 (https://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 include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     1.2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   2.  Priorities  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     2.1.  Minimizing Negative Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
     2.2.  Protocol Choices  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  Guidance for Authoritative Servers  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.1.  Pooled Authoritative Servers Behind a Load Balancer . . .   6
     3.2.  Authentication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     3.3.  Server Name Indication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.4.  Resource Exhaustion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     3.5.  Pad Responses to Mitigate Traffic Analysis  . . . . . . .   8
   4.  Guidance for Recursive Resolvers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.1.  High-level Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     4.2.  Maintaining Authoritative State by IP Address . . . . . .   9



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     4.3.  Overall Recursive Resolver Settings . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     4.4.  Recursive Resolver Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     4.5.  Authoritative Server Encrypted Transport Connection
           State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
     4.6.  Probing Policy  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
       4.6.1.  Sending a Query over Do53 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
       4.6.2.  Receiving a Response over Do53  . . . . . . . . . . .  15
       4.6.3.  Initiating a Connection over Encrypted Transport  . .  16
       4.6.4.  Establishing an Encrypted Transport Connection  . . .  18
       4.6.5.  Failing to Establish an Encrypted Transport
               Connection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
       4.6.6.  Encrypted Transport Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19
       4.6.7.  Handling Clean Shutdown of an Encrypted Transport
               Connection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
       4.6.8.  Sending a Query over Encrypted Transport  . . . . . .  20
       4.6.9.  Receiving a Response over Encrypted Transport . . . .  21
       4.6.10. Resource Exhaustion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
       4.6.11. Maintaining Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22
       4.6.12. Additional Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
   6.  Privacy Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
     6.1.  Server Name Indication  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  23
     6.2.  Modelling the Probability of Encryption . . . . . . . . .  24
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
   8.  Operational Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
   9.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  26
   Appendix A.  Early Implementations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
   Appendix B.  Assessing the Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  28
   Appendix C.  Defense Against Active Attackers . . . . . . . . . .  29
     C.1.  Signaling Mechanism Properties  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  29
     C.2.  Authentication of Authoritative Server  . . . . . . . . .  30
     C.3.  Combining Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
   Appendix D.  Document Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  30
     D.1.  Document History  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  31
       D.1.1.  Substantive Changes from -12 to -13 . . . . . . . . .  31
       D.1.2.  Substantive Changes from -11 to -12 . . . . . . . . .  31
       D.1.3.  Substantive Changes from -10 to -11 . . . . . . . . .  31
       D.1.4.  Substantive Changes from -09 to -10 . . . . . . . . .  31
       D.1.5.  Substantive Changes from -08 to -09 . . . . . . . . .  31
       D.1.6.  Substantive Changes from -07 to -08 . . . . . . . . .  31
       D.1.7.  Substantive Changes from -06 to -07 . . . . . . . . .  31
       D.1.8.  Substantive Changes from -05 to -06 . . . . . . . . .  31
       D.1.9.  Substantive Changes from -03 to -04 . . . . . . . . .  32
       D.1.10. Substantive Changes from -02 to -03 . . . . . . . . .  32
       D.1.11. Substantive Changes from -01 to -02 . . . . . . . . .  32



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       D.1.12. Substantive Changes from -00 to -01 . . . . . . . . .  33
       D.1.13. Substantive Changes from -01 to -02 (now
               draft-ietf-dprive-unilateral-probing-00)  . . . . . .  33
       D.1.14. draft-dkgjsal-dprive-unilateral-probing Substantive
               Changes from -00 to -01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  33

1.  Introduction

   This document aims to provide guidance to DNS implementers and
   operators who want to simply enable protection against passive
   network observers.

   In particular, it focuses on mechanisms that can be adopted
   unilaterally by recursive resolvers and authoritative servers,
   without any explicit coordination with the other parties.  This
   guidance provides opportunistic security (see [RFC7435]) --
   encrypting things that would otherwise be in the clear, without
   interfering with or weakening stronger forms of security.

   The document also briefly introduces (but does not try to specify)
   how a future protocol might permit defense against an active attacker
   in Appendix C.

   The protocol described here offers three concrete advantages to the
   DNS ecosystem:

   *  Protection from passive attackers of DNS queries in transit
      between recursive and authoritative servers.

   *  A roadmap for gaining real-world experience at scale with
      encrypted protections of this traffic.

   *  A bridge to some possible future protection against a more
      powerful attacker.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
   BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

1.2.  Terminology

   Unilateral:  capable of opportunistic probing without external
      coordination with any of the other parties



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   Do53:  traditional cleartext DNS over port 53 ([RFC1035])

   DoQ:  DNS-over-QUIC ([RFC9250])

   DoT:  DNS-over-TLS ([RFC7858])

   Encrypted transports:  DoQ and DoT collectively

2.  Priorities

   This document aims to mitigate potential impacts of the described
   protocol and to aid implementors in selecting between possible DNS
   protocol choices.

2.1.  Minimizing Negative Impacts

   The protocol described in this document aims to minimize potentially
   negative impacts caused by the probing of encrypted transports for
   the systems that adopt these guidelines, for the parties that they
   communicate with, and for uninvolved third parties.  The negative
   impacts that this protocol specifically tries to minimize are:

   *  excessive bandwidth use

   *  excessive use of computational resources (CPU and memory in
      particular)

   *  the potential for amplification attacks (where DNS resolution
      infrastructure is wielded as part of a DoS attack)

2.2.  Protocol Choices

   Although this document focuses specifically on strategies used by DNS
   servers, it does not go into detail on the specific protocols used
   because those protocols, in particular DoT and DoQ, are described in
   other documents.  The DoT specification ([RFC7858]) says that it:

      focuses on securing stub-to-recursive traffic, as per the charter
      of the DPRIVE Working Group.  It does not prevent future
      applications of the protocol to recursive-to-authoritative
      traffic.

   It further says:

      It might work equally between recursive clients and authoritative
      servers.

   The DoQ specification ([RFC9250]) says:



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      For the recursive to authoritative scenario, authentication
      requirements are unspecified at the time of writing and are the
      subject of ongoing work in the DPRIVE WG.

   The protocol described in this document specifies the use of DoT and
   DoQ without authentication of the server.

   This document does not pursue the use of DNS-over-HTTPS, commonly
   called DoH ([RFC8484]), in this context because a DoH client needs to
   know the path part of a DoH endpoint URL, and there are currently no
   mechanisms for a DNS recursive resolver to predict the path on its
   own, in an opportunistic or unilateral fashion, without incurring an
   excessive use of resources.  If such mechanisms are later defined,
   the protocol in this document can be updated to accommodate them.

3.  Guidance for Authoritative Servers

   The protocol described in this document is OPTIONAL for authoritative
   servers.  An authoritative server choosing to implement the protocol
   described in this document MUST implement at least one of DoT or DoQ
   on port 853.

   An authoritative server choosing to implement the protocol described
   in this document MAY require clients to use ALPN (Application-Layer
   Protocol Negotiation, [RFC7301]).  The ALPN strings the client will
   use are given in Section 4.4.

   An authoritative server implementing DoT or DoQ MUST populate the
   response from the same authoritative zone data as the unencryped DNS
   transports.  Encrypted transports have their own characteristic
   response size that might be different from the unencrypted DNS
   transports, so response sizes and related options (e.g., EDNS0) and
   flags (e.g., TC bit) might vary based on the transport.  In other
   words, the content of the responses to a particular query MUST be the
   same regardless of the type of transport.

3.1.  Pooled Authoritative Servers Behind a Load Balancer

   Some authoritative DNS servers are structured as a pool of
   authoritatives standing behind a load-balancer that runs on a single
   IP address, forwarding queries to members of the pool.  In such a
   deployment, individual members of the pool typically get updated
   independently from each other.








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   A recursive resolver following the guidance in Section 4 and
   interacting with such a pool likely does not know that it is a pool.
   If some members of the pool follow the protocol specified in this
   document while others do not, the recursive client might see the pool
   as a single authoritative server that sometimes offers and sometimes
   refuses encrypted transport.

   To avoid incurring additional minor timeouts for such a recursive
   resolver, the pool operator SHOULD:

   *  ensure that all members of the pool enable the same encrypted
      transport(s) within the span of a few seconds (such as within 30
      seconds), or

   *  ensure that the load balancer maps client requests to pool members
      based on client IP addresses, or

   *  use a load-balancer that forwards queries/connections on encrypted
      transports to only those members of the pool known (e.g., via
      monitoring) to support the given encrypted transport.

   Similar concerns apply to authoritative servers responding from an
   anycast IP address.  As long as the pool of servers is in a
   heterogeneous state, any flapping route that switches a given client
   IP address to a different responder risks incurring an additional
   timeout.  Frequent changes of routing for anycast listening IP
   addresses are also likely to cause problems for TLS, TCP, or QUIC
   connection state as well, so stable routes are important to ensure
   that the service remains available and responsive.  The servers in a
   pool can share session information to increase the likelihood of
   successful resumptions.

3.2.  Authentication

   For unilateral deployment, an authoritative server does not need to
   offer any particular form of authentication.

   One simple deployment approach would just be to provide a self-
   issued, regularly-updated X.509 certificate.  Whether the
   certificates used are short-lived or long-lived is up to the
   deployment.  This mechanism is supported by many TLS and QUIC
   clients, and will be acceptable for any opportunistic connection.
   The server could provide a normal PKI-based certificate, but there is
   no advantage to doing so at this time.







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3.3.  Server Name Indication

   An authoritative DNS server that wants to handle unilateral queries
   MAY rely on Server Name Indication (SNI) to select alternate server
   credentials.  However, such a server MUST NOT serve resource records
   that differ based on SNI (or on the lack of SNI) provided by the
   client, because a probing recursive resolver that offers SNI might or
   might not have used the right server name to get the records it is
   looking for.

3.4.  Resource Exhaustion

   A well-behaved recursive resolver may keep an encrypted connection
   open to an authoritative server, to amortize the costs of connection
   setup for both parties.

   However, some authoritative servers may have insufficient resources
   available to keep many connections open concurrently.

   To keep resources under control, authoritative servers should
   proactively manage their encrypted connections.  Section 5.5 of
   [RFC9250] ("Connection Handling") offers useful guidance for servers
   managing DoQ connections.  Section 3.4 of [RFC7858] offers useful
   guidance for servers managing DoT connections.

   An authoritative server facing unforeseen resource exhaustion SHOULD
   cleanly close open connections from recursive resolvers based on the
   authoritative's preferred prioritization.

   In the case of unanticipated resource exhaustion, close connections
   until resources are back in control.  A reasonable prioritization
   scheme would be to close connections with no outstanding queries,
   ordered by idle time (longest idle time gets closed first), then
   close connections with outstanding queries, ordered by age of
   outstanding query (oldest outstanding query gets closed first).

   When resources are especially tight, the authoritative server may
   also decline to accept new connections over encrypted transport.

3.5.  Pad Responses to Mitigate Traffic Analysis

   To increase the anonymity set for each response, the authoritative
   server SHOULD use a sensible padding mechanism for all responses it
   sends when possible.  The ability for the authoritative server to add
   padding might be limited, such as by not receiving an EDNS(0) option
   in the query.  Specifically, a DoT server SHOULD use EDNS(0) padding
   [RFC7830] if possible, and a DoQ server SHOULD follow the guidance in
   Section 5.4 of [RFC9250].  How much to pad is out of scope of this



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   document, but a reasonable suggestion can be found in [RFC8467].

4.  Guidance for Recursive Resolvers

   The protocol described in this document is OPTIONAL for recursive
   resolvers.  This section outlines a probing policy suitable for
   unilateral adoption by any recursive resolver.  Following this policy
   should not result in failed resolutions or significant delays.

4.1.  High-level Overview

   In addition to querying on Do53, the recursive resolver will try
   either or both of DoT and DoQ concurrently.  The recursive resolver
   remembers what opportunistic encrypted transport protocols have
   worked recently based on a (clientIP, serverIP, protocol) tuple.

   If a query needs to go to a given authoritative server, and the
   recursive resolver remembers a recent successful encrypted transport
   to that server, then it doesn't send the query over Do53 at all.
   Rather, it only sends the query using the encrypted transport
   protocol that was recently shown to be good.

   If the encrypted transport protocol fails, the recursive resolver
   falls back to Do53 for that serverIP.  When any encrypted transport
   fails, the recursive resolver remembers that failure for a reasonable
   amount of time to avoid flooding a non-compatible server with
   requests that it cannot accept.  The description of how an encrypted
   transport protocol fails is in Section 4.6.4 and the sections
   following that.

   See the subsections below for a more detailed description of this
   protocol.

4.2.  Maintaining Authoritative State by IP Address

   In designing a probing strategy, the recursive resolver could record
   its knowledge about any given authoritative server with different
   strategies, including at least:

   *  the authoritative server's IP address,

   *  the authoritative server's name (the NS record used), or

   *  the zone that contains the record being looked up.

   This document encourages the first strategy, to minimize timeouts or
   accidental delays, and does not describe the other two strategies.




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   A timeout (accidental delay) is most likely to happen when the
   recursive client believes that the authoritative server offers
   encrypted transport, but the actual server reached declines encrypted
   transport (or worse, filters the incoming traffic and does not even
   respond with an ICMP destination port unreachable message, such as
   during rate limiting).

   By associating the state with the authoritative IP address, the
   client can minimize the number of accidental delays introduced (see
   also Section 3.1 and Section 4.5).

   For example, consider an authoritative server named ns0.example.com
   that is served by two installations, one at 2001:db8::7 that follows
   this guidance, and one at 2001:db8::8 that is a legacy (cleartext
   port 53-only) deployment.  A recursive client who associates state
   with the NS name and reaches 2001:db8::7 first will "learn" that
   ns0.example.com supports encrypted transport.  A subsequent query
   over encrypted transport dispatched to 2001:db8::8 would fail,
   potentially delaying the response.

4.3.  Overall Recursive Resolver Settings

   A recursive resolver implementing the protocol in this document needs
   to set system-wide values for some default parameters.  These
   parameters may be set independently for each supported encrypted
   transport, though a simple implementation may keep the parameters
   constant across encrypted transports.

      +=============+===================================+===========+
      | Name        | Description                       | Suggested |
      |             |                                   | Default   |
      +=============+===================================+===========+
      | persistence | How long should the recursive     | 3 days    |
      |             | resolver remember successful      | (259200   |
      |             | encrypted transport connections?  | seconds)  |
      +-------------+-----------------------------------+-----------+
      | damping     | How long should the recursive     | 1 day     |
      |             | resolver remember unsuccessful    | (86400    |
      |             | encrypted transport connections?  | seconds)  |
      +-------------+-----------------------------------+-----------+
      | timeout     | How long should the recursive     | 4 seconds |
      |             | resolver wait for an initiated    |           |
      |             | encrypted connection to complete? |           |
      +-------------+-----------------------------------+-----------+

        Table 1: Recursive resolver system parameters per encrypted
                                 transport




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   This document uses the notation <transport>-foo to refer to the foo
   parameter for the encrypted transport <transport>.  For example, DoT-
   persistence would indicate the length of time that the recursive
   resolver will remember that an authoritative server had a successful
   connection over DoT.  Additionally, when describing an arbitrary
   encrypted transport, we use E in place of <transport> to generically
   mean whatever encrypted transport is in use.  For example, when
   handling a query sent over encrypted transport E, a reference to
   E-timeout should be understood to mean DoT-timeout if the query is
   sent over DoT, and to mean DoQ-timeout if the query is sent over DoQ.

   This document also assumes that the recursive resolver maintains a
   list of outstanding cleartext queries destined for the authoritative
   server's IP address X.  This list is referred to as Do53-queries[X].
   This document does not attempt to describe the specific operation of
   sending and receiving cleartext DNS queries (Do53) for a recursive
   resolver.  Instead it describes a "bolt-on" mechanism that extends
   the recursive resolver's operation on a few simple hooks into the
   recursive resolver's existing handling of Do53.

   Implementers or deployers of DNS recursive resolvers that follow the
   strategies in this document are encouraged to publish their preferred
   values of these parameters.

4.4.  Recursive Resolver Requirements

   To follow this guidance, a recursive resolver MUST implement at least
   one of either DoT or DoQ in its capacity as a client of authoritative
   nameservers.  A recursive resolver SHOULD implement the client side
   of DoT.  A recursive resolver SHOULD implement the client side of
   DoQ.

   DoT queries from the recursive resolver MUST target TCP port 853,
   using an ALPN of "dot".  DoQ queries from the recursive resolver MUST
   target UDP port 853, using an ALPN of "doq".

   While this document focuses on the recursive-to-authoritative hop, a
   recursive resolver implementing these strategies SHOULD also accept
   queries from its clients over some encrypted transport unless it only
   accepts queries from localhost.

4.5.  Authoritative Server Encrypted Transport Connection State

   The recursive resolver SHOULD keep a record of the state for each
   authoritative server it contacts, indexed by the IP address of the
   authoritative server and the encrypted transports supported by the
   recursive resolver.




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   Note that the recursive resolver might record this per-authoritative-
   IP state for each source IP address it uses as it sends its queries.
   For example, if a recursive resolver can send a packet to
   authoritative servers from IP addresses 2001:db8::100 and
   2001:db8::200, it could keep two distinct sets of per-authoritative-
   IP state, one for each source address it uses, if the recursive
   resolver knows the addresses in use.  Keeping these state tables
   distinct for each source address makes it possible for a pooled
   authoritative server behind a load balancer to do a partial rollout
   while minimizing accidental timeouts (see Section 3.1).

   In addition to tracking the state of connection attempts and
   outcomes, a recursive resolver SHOULD record the state of established
   sessions for encrypted protocols.  The details of how sessions are
   identified is dependent on the transport protocol implementation
   (such as TLS session ticket or TLS session ID, QUIC connection ID,
   and so on).  The use of session resumption as recommended here is
   limited somewhat because the tickets are only stored within the
   context defined by the (clientIP, serverIP, protocols) tuples used to
   track client-server interaction by the recursive resolver in a table
   like the one below.  However, session resumption still offers the
   ability to optimize the handshake in some circumstances.

   Each record should contain the following fields for each supported
   encrypted transport, each of which would initially be null:


























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    +===============+======================================+=========+
    | Name          | Description                          | Retain  |
    |               |                                      | Across  |
    |               |                                      | Restart |
    +===============+======================================+=========+
    | session       | The associated state of any          | no      |
    |               | existing, established session (the   |         |
    |               | structure of this value is dependent |         |
    |               | on the encrypted transport           |         |
    |               | implementation).  If session is not  |         |
    |               | null, it may be in one of two        |         |
    |               | states: pending or established       |         |
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+---------+
    | initiated     | Timestamp of most recent connection  | yes     |
    |               | attempt                              |         |
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+---------+
    | completed     | Timestamp of most recent completed   | yes     |
    |               | handshake (which can include one     |         |
    |               | where an existing session is         |         |
    |               | resumed)                             |         |
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+---------+
    | status        | Enumerated value of success or fail  | yes     |
    |               | or timeout, associated with the      |         |
    |               | completed handshake                  |         |
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+---------+
    | last-response | A timestamp of the most recent       | yes     |
    |               | response received on the connection  |         |
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+---------+
    | resumptions   | A stack of resumption tickets (and   | yes     |
    |               | associated parameters) that could be |         |
    |               | used to resume a prior successful    |         |
    |               | session                              |         |
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+---------+
    | queries       | A queue of queries intended for this | no      |
    |               | authoritative server, each of which  |         |
    |               | has additional status early, unsent, |         |
    |               | or sent                              |         |
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+---------+
    | last-activity | A timestamp of the most recent       | no      |
    |               | activity on the connection           |         |
    +---------------+--------------------------------------+---------+

       Table 2: Recursive resolver state per authoritative IP, per
                           encrypted transport

   Note that the session fields in aggregate constitute a pool of open
   connections to different servers.




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   With the exception of the session, queries, and last-activity fields,
   this cache information should be kept across restart of the server
   unless explicitly cleared by administrative action.

   This document uses the notation E-foo[X] to indicate the value of
   field foo for encrypted transport E to IP address X.

   For example, DoT-initiated[192.0.2.4] represents the timestamp when
   the most recent DoT connection packet was sent to IP address
   192.0.2.4.

   This document uses the notation any-E-queries to indicate any query
   on an encrypted transport.

4.6.  Probing Policy

   When a recursive resolver discovers the need for an authoritative
   lookup to an authoritative DNS server using that servers's IP address
   X, it retrieves the connection state records described in Section 4.5
   associated with X from its cache.

   The subsections that follow offer pseudocode that corresponds roughly
   to an asynchronous programming model for a recursive resolver's
   interactions with authoritative servers.  The following subsections
   also presume that the time of the discovery of the need for lookup is
   time T0.

   If any of the records discussed here are absent, they are treated as
   null.

   The recursive resolver must decide whether to initially send a query
   over Do53, or over any of the supported encrypted transports (DoT or
   DoQ).

   Note that a recursive resolver might initiate this query via any or
   all of the known transports.  When multiple queries are sent, the
   initial packets for each connection can be sent concurrently, similar
   to "Happy Eyeballs" ([RFC8305]).  However, unlike Happy Eyeballs,
   when one transport succeeds, the other connections do not need to be
   terminated, but can instead be continued to establish whether the IP
   address X is capable of communicating on the relevant transport.

4.6.1.  Sending a Query over Do53

   For any of the supported encrypted transports E, if either of the
   following holds true, the recursive resolver SHOULD NOT send a query
   to X over Do53:




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   *  E-session[X] is in the established state, or

   *  E-status[X] is success, and (T0 - E-last-response[X]) <
      persistence

   This indicates that one successful connection to a server that the
   client then closed cleanly would result in the client not sending the
   next query over Do53.

   Otherwise, if there is no outstanding session for any encrypted
   transport, and the last successful encrypted transport connection was
   long ago, the recursive resolver sends a query to X over Do53.  When
   it does so, it inserts a handle for the query in Do53-queries[X].

4.6.2.  Receiving a Response over Do53

   When any response R (a well-formed DNS response, asynchronous
   timeout, asynchronous destination port unreachable, etc) for query Q
   arrives at the recursive resolver in cleartext sent over Do53 from
   authoritative server with IP address X, the recursive resolver
   should:

   If Q is not in Do53-queries[X]:

   *  Process R no further (do not respond to a cleartext response to a
      query that is not outstanding)

   Otherwise, if Q was marked as already processed:

   *  Remove Q from Do53-queries[X]

   *  Discard any content from the response and process R no further

   If R is a well-formed DNS response:

   *  Remove Q from Do53-queries[X]

   *  R is further processed by the recursive resolver

   *  For each supported encrypted transport E:

      -  If Q is in E-queries[X]:

         o  Mark Q as already processed

   But if R is malformed, or a failure (e.g., a timeout or destination
   port unreachable):




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   *  if Q is not in any of any-E-queries[X]:

      -  Treat this as a failed query (i.e., follow the resolver's
         policy for unresponsive or non-compliant authoritatives, such
         as falling back to another authoritative server, returning
         SERVFAIL to the requesting client, and so on)

4.6.3.  Initiating a Connection over Encrypted Transport

   If any E-session[X] is in the established state, the recursive
   resolver SHOULD NOT initiate a new or resume a previous connection to
   X over Do53 or E, but should instead send queries to X through the
   existing session (see Section 4.6.8).

   If the recursive resolver prefers one encrypted transport over
   another, but only the unpreferred encrypted transport is in the
   established state, it MAY also initiate a new connection to X over
   its preferred encrypted transport while concurrently sending the
   query over the established encrypted transport E.

   Before considering whether to initiate a new connection over an
   encrypted transport, the timer should be examined, and its state
   possibly refreshed, for encrypted transport E to authoritative IP
   address X:

   *  if E-session[X] is in state pending, and

   *  T0 - E-initiated[X] > E-timeout, then

      -  set E-session[X] to null and

      -  set E-status[X] to timeout

   When resources are available to attempt a new encrypted transport,
   the recursive resolver should only initiate a new connection to X
   over E as long as one of the following holds true:

   *  E-status[X] is success, or

   *  E-status[X] is either fail or timeout, and (T0 - E-completed[X]) >
      damping, or

   *  E-status[X] is null and E-initiated[X] is null

   When initiating a session to X over encrypted transport E, if
   E-resumptions[X] is not empty, one ticket should be popped off the
   stack and used to try to resume a previous session.  Otherwise, the
   initial Client Hello handshake should not try to resume any session.



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   When initiating a connection, the recursive resolver should take the
   following steps:

   *  set E-initiated[X] to T0

   *  store a handle for the new session (which should have pending
      state) in E-session[X]

   *  insert a handle for the query that prompted this connection in
      E-queries[X], with status unsent or early, as appropriate (see
      below).

4.6.3.1.  Early Data

   Modern encrypted transports like TLS 1.3 offer the chance to send
   "early data" from the client in the initial Client Hello in some
   contexts.  A recursive resolver that initiates a connection over an
   encrypted transport according to this guidance in a context where
   early data is possible SHOULD send the DNS query that prompted the
   connection in the early data, according to the sending guidance in
   Section 4.6.8.

   If it does so, the status of Q in E-queries[X] should be set to early
   instead of unsent.

4.6.3.2.  Resumption Tickets

   When initiating a new connection (whether by resuming an old session
   or not), the recursive resolver SHOULD request a session resumption
   ticket from the authoritative server.  If the authoritative server
   supplies a resumption ticket, the recursive resolver pushes it into
   the stack at E-resumptions[X].

4.6.3.3.  Server Name Indication

   For modern encrypted transports like TLS 1.3, most client
   implementations expect to send a Server Name Indication (SNI) in the
   Client Hello.

   There are two complications with selecting or sending SNI in this
   unilateral probing:

   *  Some authoritative servers are known by more than one name;
      selecting a single name to use for a given connection may be
      difficult or impossible.






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   *  In most configurations, the contents of the SNI field is exposed
      on the wire to a passive adversary.  This potentially reveals
      additional information about which query is being made, based on
      the NS of the query itself.

   To avoid additional leakage and complexity, a recursive resolver
   following this guidance SHOULD NOT send SNI to the authoritative when
   attempting encrypted transport.

   If the recursive resolver needs to send SNI to the authoritative for
   some reason not found in this document, using Encrypted Client Hello
   ([I-D.ietf-tls-esni]) would reduce leakage.

4.6.3.4.  Authoritative Server Authentication

   Because this probing policy is unilateral and opportunistic, the
   client connecting under this policy MUST accept any certificate
   presented by the server.  If the client cannot verify the server's
   identity, it MAY use that information for reporting, logging, or
   other analysis purposes.  But it MUST NOT reject the connection due
   to the authentication failure, as the result would be falling back to
   cleartext, which would leak the content of the session to a passive
   network monitor.

4.6.4.  Establishing an Encrypted Transport Connection

   When an encrypted transport connection actually completes (e.g., the
   TLS handshake completes) at time T1, the recursive resolver sets
   E-completed[X] to T1 and does the following:

   If the handshake completed successfully:

   *  update E-session[X] so that it is in state established

   *  set E-status[X] to success

   *  set E-last-response[X] to T1

   *  set E-completed[X] to T1

   *  for each query Q in E-queries[X]:

      -  if early data was accepted and Q is early,

         o  set the status of Q to sent

      -  otherwise:




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         o  send Q through the session (see Section 4.6.8), and set the
            status of Q to sent

4.6.5.  Failing to Establish an Encrypted Transport Connection

   If, at time T2 an encrypted transport handshake completes with a
   failure (e.g., a TLS alert),

   *  set E-session[X] to null

   *  set E-status[X] to fail

   *  set E-completed[X] to T2

   *  for each query Q in E-queries[X]:

      -  if Q is not present in any other any-E-queries[X] or in
         Do53-queries[X], add Q to Do53-queries[X] and send query Q to X
         over Do53.

   Note that this failure will trigger the recursive resolver to fall
   back to cleartext queries to the authoritative server at IP address
   X.  It will retry encrypted transport to X once the damping timer has
   elapsed.

4.6.6.  Encrypted Transport Failure

   Once established, an encrypted transport might fail for a number of
   reasons (e.g., decryption failure, or improper protocol sequence).

   If this happens:

   *  set E-session[X] to null

   *  set E-status[X] to fail

   *  for each query Q in E-queries[X]:

      -  if Q is not present in any other any-E-queries[X] or in
         Do53-queries[X], add Q to Do53-queries[X] and send query Q to X
         over Do53.

   Note that this failure will trigger the recursive resolver to fall
   back to cleartext queries to the authoritative server at IP address
   X.  It will retry encrypted transport to X once the damping timer has
   elapsed.





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4.6.7.  Handling Clean Shutdown of an Encrypted Transport Connection

   At time T3, the recursive resolver may find that authoritative server
   X cleanly closes an existing outstanding connection (most likely due
   to resource exhaustion, see Section 3.4).

   When this happens:

   *  set E-session[X] to null

   *  for each query Q in E-queries[X]:

      -  if Q is not present in any other any-E-queries[X] or in
         Do53-queries[X], add Q to Do53-queries[X] and send query Q to X
         over Do53.

   Note that this premature shutdown will trigger the recursive resolver
   to fall back to cleartext queries to the authoritative server at IP
   address X.  Any subsequent query to X will retry the encrypted
   connection promptly.

4.6.8.  Sending a Query over Encrypted Transport

   When sending a query to an authoritative server over encrypted
   transport at time T4, the recursive resolver should take a few
   reasonable steps to ensure privacy and efficiency.

   After sending query Q, the recursive resolver should ensure that Q's
   state in E-queries[X] is set to sent.

   The recursive resolver also sets E-last-activity[X] to T4.

   In addition, the recursive resolver should consider the guidance in
   the following sections.

4.6.8.1.  Pad Queries to Mitigate Traffic Analysis

   To increase the anonymity set for each query, the recursive resolver
   SHOULD use a sensible padding mechanism for all queries it sends.
   Specifically, a DoT client SHOULD use EDNS(0) padding [RFC7830], and
   a DoQ client SHOULD follow the guidance in Section 5.4 of [RFC9250].
   How much to pad is out of scope of this document, but a reasonable
   suggestion can be found in [RFC8467].








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4.6.8.2.  Send Queries in Separate Channels

   When multiple queries are multiplexed on a single encrypted transport
   to a single authoritative server, the recursive resolver SHOULD
   pipeline queries and MUST be capable of receiving responses out of
   order.  For guidance on how to best achieve this on a given encrypted
   transport, see Section 6.2.1.1 of [RFC7766] (for DoT) and Section 5.6
   of [RFC9250] (for DoQ).

4.6.9.  Receiving a Response over Encrypted Transport

   Even though session-level events on encrypted transports like clean
   shutdown (see Section 4.6.7) or encrypted transport failure (see
   Section 4.6.6) can happen, some events happen on encrypted transport
   that are specific to a query, not session-wide.  This subsection
   describes how the recursive resolver deals with events related to a
   specific query.

   When a query-specific response R (a well-formed DNS response or an
   asynchronous timeout) associated with query Q arrives at the
   recursive resolver over encrypted transport E from authoritative
   server with IP address X at time T5, the recursive resolver should:

   If Q is not in E-queries[X]:

   *  Discard the response and process R no further (do not respond to
      an encrypted response to a query that is not outstanding)

   Otherwise:

   *  Remove Q from E-queries[X]

   *  Set E-last-activity[X] to T5

   *  Set E-last-response[X] to T5

   If Q was marked as already processed:

   *  Discard the response and process the response no further

   If R is a well-formed DNS response:

   *  R is further processed by the recursive resolver

   *  For each supported encrypted transport N other than E:

      -  If Q is in N-queries[X]:




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         o  Mark Q as already processed

   *  If Q is in Do53-queries[X]:

      -  Mark Q as already processed

   But if R is malformed, or a failure (e.g., timeout):

   *  If Q is not in Do53-queries[X] or in any of any-E-queries[X]:

      -  Treat this as a failed query (i.e., follow the resolver's
         policy for unresponsive or non-compliant authoritatives, such
         as falling back to another authoritative server, returning
         SERVFAIL to the requesting client, and so on)

4.6.10.  Resource Exhaustion

   To keep resources under control, a recursive resolver should
   proactively manage outstanding encrypted connections.  Section 5.5 of
   [RFC9250] offers useful guidance for clients managing DoQ
   connections.  Section 3.4 of [RFC7858] offers useful guidance for
   clients managing DoT connections.

   Even with sensible connection management, a recursive resolver doing
   unilateral probing may find resources unexpectedly scarce, and may
   need to close some outstanding connections.

   In such a situation, the recursive resolver SHOULD use a reasonable
   prioritization scheme to close outstanding connections.

   One reasonable prioritization scheme would be:

   *  close outstanding established sessions based on E-last-activity[X]
      (oldest timestamp gets closed first)

   Note that when resources are limited, a recursive resolver following
   this guidance may also choose not to initiate new connections for
   encrypted transport.

4.6.11.  Maintaining Connections

   Some recursive resolvers looking to amortize connection costs and to
   minimize latency MAY choose to synthesize queries to a particular
   authoritative server to keep an encrypted transport session active.







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   A recursive resolver that adopts this approach should try to align
   the synthesized queries with other optimizations.  For example, a
   recursive resolver that "pre-fetches" a particular resource record to
   keep its cache "hot" can send that query over an established
   encrypted transport session.

4.6.12.  Additional Tuning

   A recursive resolver's state table for an authoritative server can
   contain additional information beyond what is described above.  The
   recursive resolver might use that additional state to change the way
   it interacts with the authoritative server in the future.  Some
   examples of additional state include:

   *  Whether the server accepts "early data" over a transport such as
      DoQ;

   *  Whether the server fails to respond to queries after the handshake
      succeeds;

   *  Tracking the round trip time of queries to the server;

   *  Tracking the number of timeouts (compared to the number of
      successful queries).

5.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA considerations.

6.  Privacy Considerations

6.1.  Server Name Indication

   A recursive resolver querying an authoritative server over DoT or DoQ
   that sends Server Name Indication (SNI) in the clear in the
   cryptographic handshake leaks information about the intended query to
   a passive network observer.

   In particular, if two different zones refer to the same nameserver IP
   addresses via differently-named NS records, a passive network
   observer can distinguish the queries to one zone from the queries to
   the other.

   Omitting SNI entirely, or using Encrypted Client Hello to hide the
   intended SNI, avoids this additional leakage.  However, a series of
   queries that leak this information is still an improvement over
   cleartext.




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6.2.  Modelling the Probability of Encryption

   Given that there are many parameter choices that can be made by
   recursive resolvers and authoritative servers, it is reasonable to
   consider the probability that queries would be encrypted.  Such a
   measurement would also certainly be affected by the types of queries
   being sent by the recursive resolver, which in turn is also related
   to the types of queries that are sent to the recursive resolver by
   the stub resolvers and forwarders downstream.  Doing this type of
   research would be valuable to the DNS community after initial
   implementation by a variety of recursive resolvers and authoritative
   servers because it would help assess the overall DNS privacy value of
   implementing the protocol.  Thus, it would be useful if recursive
   resolvers and authoritative servers reported percentages of queries
   sent and received over the different transports.

7.  Security Considerations

   The guidance in this document provides defense against passive
   network monitors for most queries.  It does not defend against active
   attackers.  It can also leak some queries and their responses due to
   "happy eyeballs" optimizations when the recursive resolver's cache is
   cold.

   Implementation of the guidance in this document should increase
   deployment of opportunistic encrypted DNS transport between recursive
   resolvers and authoritative servers at little operational risk.

   However, implementers cannot rely on the guidance in this document
   for robust defense against active attackers, but should treat it as a
   stepping stone en route to stronger defense.

   In particular, a recursive resolver following this guidance can
   easily be forced by an active attacker to fall back to cleartext DNS
   queries.  Or, an active attacker could position itself as a machine-
   in-the-middle, which the recursive resolver would not defend against
   or detect due to lack of server authentication.  Defending against
   these attacks without risking additional unexpected protocol failures
   would require signaling and coordination that are out of scope for
   this document.

   This guidance is only one part of operating a privacy-preserving DNS
   ecosystem.  A privacy-preserving recursive resolver should adopt
   other practices as well, such as QNAME minimization ([RFC9156]),
   local root zone ([RFC8806]), etc, to reduce the overall leakage of
   query information that could infringe on the client's privacy.





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8.  Operational Considerations

   As recursive resolvers implement this protocol, authoritative servers
   will see more probing on port 853 of IP addresses that are associated
   with NS records.  Such probing of an authoritative server should
   generally not cause any significant problems: if the authoritative
   server is not supporting this protocol, it will not respond on port
   853, and if it is supporting this protocol, it will act accordingly.

   However, a system that is a public recursive resolver that supports
   DoT and/or DoQ may also have an IP address that is associated with NS
   records.  This could be accidental (such as a glue record with the
   wrong target address) or intentional.  In such a case, a recursive
   resolver following this protocol will look for authoritative answers
   to ports 53 and 853 on that IP address, and DNS server answering on
   port 853 would need to be able to differentiate queries for recursive
   answers from queries for authoritative answers, for example by having
   the authoritative server handle all queries that have the Recursion
   Desired (RD) flag unset.

   As discussed in Section 7, the protocol described in this document
   provides no defense against active attackers.  On a network where a
   captive portal is operating, some communications may be actively
   intercepted, e.g., when the network tries to redirect a user to
   complete an interaction with a captive portal server.  A recursive
   resolver operating on a node that performs captive portal detection
   and Internet connectivity checks SHOULD delay encrypted transport
   probes to authoritative servers until after the node's Internet
   connectivity check policy has been satisfied.

9.  Acknowledgements

   Many people contributed to the development of this document beyond
   the authors, including Alexander Mayrhofer, Brian Dickson, Christian
   Huitema, Dhruv Dhody, Eric Nygren, Erik Kline, Florian Obser, Haoyu
   Song, Jim Reid, Kris Shrishak, Peter Thomassen, Peter van Dijk, Ralf
   Weber, Rich Salz, Robert Evans, Sara Dickinson, Scott Hollenbeck,
   Stephane Bortzmeyer, Yorgos Thessalonikefs, and the DPRIVE working
   group.

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119>.



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   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174>.

   [RFC9250]  Huitema, C., Dickinson, S., and A. Mankin, "DNS over
              Dedicated QUIC Connections", RFC 9250,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9250, May 2022,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9250>.

   [RFC7858]  Hu, Z., Zhu, L., Heidemann, J., Mankin, A., Wessels, D.,
              and P. Hoffman, "Specification for DNS over Transport
              Layer Security (TLS)", RFC 7858, DOI 10.17487/RFC7858, May
              2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7858>.

   [RFC7301]  Friedl, S., Popov, A., Langley, A., and E. Stephan,
              "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Application-Layer Protocol
              Negotiation Extension", RFC 7301, DOI 10.17487/RFC7301,
              July 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7301>.

10.2.  Informative References

   [RFC7435]  Dukhovni, V., "Opportunistic Security: Some Protection
              Most of the Time", RFC 7435, DOI 10.17487/RFC7435,
              December 2014, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7435>.

   [RFC1035]  Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
              specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, DOI 10.17487/RFC1035,
              November 1987, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1035>.

   [RFC8484]  Hoffman, P. and P. McManus, "DNS Queries over HTTPS
              (DoH)", RFC 8484, DOI 10.17487/RFC8484, October 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8484>.

   [RFC7830]  Mayrhofer, A., "The EDNS(0) Padding Option", RFC 7830,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7830, May 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7830>.

   [RFC8467]  Mayrhofer, A., "Padding Policies for Extension Mechanisms
              for DNS (EDNS(0))", RFC 8467, DOI 10.17487/RFC8467,
              October 2018, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8467>.

   [RFC8305]  Schinazi, D. and T. Pauly, "Happy Eyeballs Version 2:
              Better Connectivity Using Concurrency", RFC 8305,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8305, December 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8305>.






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   [I-D.ietf-tls-esni]
              Rescorla, E., Oku, K., Sullivan, N., and C. A. Wood, "TLS
              Encrypted Client Hello", Work in Progress, Internet-Draft,
              draft-ietf-tls-esni-17, 9 October 2023,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-tls-
              esni-17>.

   [RFC7766]  Dickinson, J., Dickinson, S., Bellis, R., Mankin, A., and
              D. Wessels, "DNS Transport over TCP - Implementation
              Requirements", RFC 7766, DOI 10.17487/RFC7766, March 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7766>.

   [RFC9156]  Bortzmeyer, S., Dolmans, R., and P. Hoffman, "DNS Query
              Name Minimisation to Improve Privacy", RFC 9156,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9156, November 2021,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9156>.

   [RFC8806]  Kumari, W. and P. Hoffman, "Running a Root Server Local to
              a Resolver", RFC 8806, DOI 10.17487/RFC8806, June 2020,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8806>.

   [MTA-STS]  Margolis, D., Risher, M., Ramakrishnan, B., Brotman, A.,
              and J. Jones, "SMTP MTA Strict Transport Security (MTA-
              STS)", RFC 8461, DOI 10.17487/RFC8461, September 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8461>.

   [DANE-SMTP]
              Dukhovni, V. and W. Hardaker, "SMTP Security via
              Opportunistic DNS-Based Authentication of Named Entities
              (DANE) Transport Layer Security (TLS)", RFC 7672,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7672, October 2015,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7672>.

   [TLSRPT]   Margolis, D., Brotman, A., Ramakrishnan, B., Jones, J.,
              and M. Risher, "SMTP TLS Reporting", RFC 8460,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8460, September 2018,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8460>.

   [DNS-Error-Reporting]
              Arends, R. and M. Larson, "DNS Error Reporting", Work in
              Progress, Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-dnsop-dns-error-
              reporting-06, 11 October 2023,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-dnsop-
              dns-error-reporting-06>.







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   [RFC9102]  Dukhovni, V., Huque, S., Toorop, W., Wouters, P., and M.
              Shore, "TLS DNSSEC Chain Extension", RFC 9102,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9102, August 2021,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9102>.

Appendix A.  Early Implementations

   [ RFC Editor: please remove this section before publication ]

   This appendix lists some of the implementations of the protocol as it
   finished working group last call in the DPRIVE Working Group.  This
   list reflects reporting from the DNS community.

   *  The Unbound resolver has initial experimental code paths to probe
      over DoT

   *  The Drink authoritative server supports DoT

   *  The check-soa tool can probe over DoT

   *  The Bleau tool can probe over DoT through RIPE Atlas probes

   *  The PowerDNS Recursor resolver can probe over DoT

   *  Nameservers for various DNS zones support DoT.  These include the
      root zone (one of the 13 root server identifiers), a social media
      site, some DNS software developers, and others

Appendix B.  Assessing the Experiment

   This document is published as an experimental RFC.  In order to
   assess the success of the experiment, some key metrics could be
   collected by the technical community about the deployment of the
   protocol in this document.  These metrics will be collected in
   recursive resolvers, authoritative servers, and the networks
   containing them.  Some key metrics include:

   *  Comparison of the CPU and memory use between Do53 and encrypted
      transports

   *  Comparison of the query response rates between Do53 and encrypted
      transports

   *  Measurement of server authentication successes and failures

   *  Measurement and descriptions of observed attack traffic, if any





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   *  Comparison of transactional bandwidth (ingress/egress, packets per
      second, bytes per second) between Do53 and encrypted transports

Appendix C.  Defense Against Active Attackers

   The protocol described in this document provides no defense against
   active attackers.  A future protocol for recursive-to-authoritative
   DNS might want to provide such protection.

   This appendix assumes that the use case for that future protocol is a
   recursive resolver that wants to prevent an active attack on
   communication between it and an authoritative server that has
   committed to offering encrypted DNS transport.  An inherent part of
   this use case is that the recursive resolver would want to respond
   with a SERVFAIL response to its client if it cannot make an
   authenticated encrypted connection to any of the authoritative
   nameservers for a name.

   However, an authoritative server that merely offers encrypted
   transport (for example, by following the guidance in Section 3) has
   made no such commitment, and no recursive resolver that prioritizes
   delivery of DNS records to its clients would want to "fail closed"
   unilaterally.

   So such a future protocol would need at least three major
   distinctions from the protocol described in this document:

   *  A signaling mechanism that tells the recursive resolver that the
      authoritative server intends to offer authenticated encryption

   *  Authentication of the authoritative server

   *  A way to combine defense against an active attacker with the
      defenses described in this document

   This can be thought of as a DNS analog to [MTA-STS] or [DANE-SMTP].

C.1.  Signaling Mechanism Properties

   To defend against an active attacker, the signaling mechanism needs
   to be able to indicate that the recursive resolver should "fail
   closed" if it cannot authenticate the server for a particular query.

   The signaling mechanism itself would have to be resistant to
   downgrade attacks from active attackers.






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   One open question is how such a signal should be scoped.  While this
   document scopes opportunistic state about encrypted transport based
   on the IP addresses of the client and server, signaled intent to
   offer encrypted transport is more likely to be scoped by queried zone
   in the DNS, or by nameserver name than by IP address.

   A reasonable authoritative server operator or zone administrator
   probably doesn't want to risk breaking anything when they first
   enable the signal.  Therefore, a signaling mechanism should probably
   also offer a means to report problems to the authoritative server
   operator without the client failing closed.  Such a mechanism is
   likely to be similar to [TLSRPT] or [DNS-Error-Reporting].

C.2.  Authentication of Authoritative Server

   Forms of server authentication might include:

   *  an X.509 Certificate issued by a widely-known certification
      authority associated with the common NS names used for this
      authoritative server

   *  DANE authentication (to avoid infinite recursion, the DNS records
      necessary to authenticate could be transmitted in the TLS
      handshake using the DNSSEC Chain Extension (see [RFC9102]))

   A recursive resolver would have to verify the server's identity.
   When doing so, the identity would presumably be based on the NS name
   used for a given query or the IP address of the server.

C.3.  Combining Protocols

   If this protocol gains reasonable adoption, and a newer protocol that
   can offer defense against an active attacker were available,
   deployment is likely to be staggered and incomplete.  This means that
   an operator that want to maximize confidentiality for their users
   will want to use both protocols together.

   Any new stronger protocol should consider how it interacts with the
   opportunistic protocol defined here, so that operators are not faced
   with the choice between widespread opportunistic protection against
   passive attackers (this document) and more narrowly-targeted
   protection against active attackers.

Appendix D.  Document Considerations

   [ RFC Editor: please remove this section before publication ]





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D.1.  Document History

D.1.1.  Substantive Changes from -12 to -13

   *  Changes based on IESG review

D.1.2.  Substantive Changes from -11 to -12

   *  Editorial changes received during IETF Last Call

D.1.3.  Substantive Changes from -10 to -11

   *  Editorial changes to prepare for IETF Last Call

D.1.4.  Substantive Changes from -09 to -10

   *  Responded to AD review from Eric Vyncke

D.1.5.  Substantive Changes from -08 to -09

   *  Added section with metrics for assessing the experiment

   *  Updated the definition of unsuccessful responses to encrypted
      queries

D.1.6.  Substantive Changes from -07 to -08

   *  Changed status to Experimental

   *  Added operational considerations section

   *  Many many editorial updates

D.1.7.  Substantive Changes from -06 to -07

   *  Updated how to handle responses from encrypted transports that are
      slower that Do53

D.1.8.  Substantive Changes from -05 to -06

   *  Clarified the optinality of the protocol

   *  Spelled out the current scope of DoT and DoQ

   *  Clarified that responses must be the same on all transports

   *  Loosened requirement for the resolver to know all its addresses




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   *  Changed examples of unsuccessful responses to timeouts and
      connection failed

   *  Expanded acknowledgements

   *  Added preliminary implementation status

D.1.9.  Substantive Changes from -03 to -04

   *  Clarified that "completed handshake" in Table 2 also includes
      resumed sessions.

   *  In Section 4.6.1, specified not to use Do53 even when the last
      successful connection is far in the past.

   *  In Section 4.6.3, clarified that an established connection in the
      established state should not be resumed prematurely.

D.1.10.  Substantive Changes from -02 to -03

   *  Added an Additional Tuning section on recursive resolvers
      recording other data about an authoritative server's capabilities
      for future interactions (thank you again Sara Dickinson!).
      Feedback from operators on how the extra information would be used
      by a recursive resolver that retains such an expanded state table
      is particularly welcome.

   *  Added more text about sharing session state information.

   *  Added section on modelling the probability of encryption as a
      future task.

D.1.11.  Substantive Changes from -01 to -02

   *  Removed EDNS Client Subnet recommendations from the probing
      policy: recursive resolvers implementing the guidance provided in
      this draft intend to enhance privacy for their users' queries, and
      although ECS is a valuable feature, it represents a privacy risk.
      Therefore, a future document encompassing a "how to add privacy"
      approach could serve for better discussion on this discrepancy
      (thank you Puneet Sood!).

   *  Added text on padding queries and responses to mitigate traffic
      analysis (thank you Sara Dickinson!).

   *  Put draft on standards track





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D.1.12.  Substantive Changes from -00 to -01

   *  Moved discussion of non-opportunistic encryption to an appendix

   *  Clarify state transitions when sending over encrypted transport

   *  Introduced new field E-last-response[X] for comparison with
      persistence

D.1.13.  Substantive Changes from -01 to -02 (now draft-ietf-dprive-
         unilateral-probing-00)

   *  Clarify that deployment to a pool does not need to be strictly
      simultaneous

   *  Explain why authoritatives need to serve the same records
      regardless of SNI

   *  Defer to external, protocol-specific references for resource
      management

   *  Clarify that probed connections must not fail due to
      authentication failure

D.1.14.  draft-dkgjsal-dprive-unilateral-probing Substantive Changes
         from -00 to -01

   *  Fallback to cleartext when encrypted transport fails.

   *  Reduce default timeout to 4s

   *  Clarify SNI guidance: OK for selecting server credentials, not OK
      for changing answers

   *  Document ALPN and port numbers

   *  Justify sorting recursive resolver state by authoritative IP
      address

Authors' Addresses

   Daniel Kahn Gillmor (editor)
   American Civil Liberties Union
   125 Broad St.
   New York, NY,  10004
   United States of America
   Email: dkg@fifthhorseman.net




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   Joey Salazar (editor)
   Alajuela
   20201
   Costa Rica
   Email: joeygsal@gmail.com


   Paul Hoffman (editor)
   ICANN
   United States of America
   Email: paul.hoffman@icann.org








































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