295 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
295 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
Requirements for Recursive Caching Resolver
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(a.k.a. Treeshrew, Unbound-C)
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By W.C.A. Wijngaards, NLnet Labs, October 2006.
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Contents
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1. Introduction
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2. History
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3. Goals
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4. Non-Goals
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1. Introduction
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---------------
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This is the requirements document for a DNS name server and aims to
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document the goals and non-goals of the project. The DNS (the Domain
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Name System) is a global, replicated database that uses a hierarchical
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structure for queries.
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Data in the DNS is stored in Resource Record sets (RR sets), and has a
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time to live (TTL). During this time the data can be cached. It is
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thus useful to cache data to speed up future lookups. A server that
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looks up data in the DNS for clients and caches previous answers to
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speed up processing is called a caching, recursive nameserver.
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This project aims to develop such a nameserver in modular components, so
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that also DNSSEC (secure DNS) validation and stub-resolvers (that do not
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run as a server, but a linked into an application) are easily possible.
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The main components are the Validator that validates the security
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fingerprints on data sets, the Iterator that sends queries to the
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hierarchical DNS servers that own the data and the Cache that stores
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data from previous queries. The networking and query management code
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then interface with the modules to perform the necessary processing.
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In Section 2 the origins of the Unbound project are documented. Section
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3 lists the goals, while Section 4 lists the explicit non-goals of the
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project. Section 5 discusses choices made during development.
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2. History
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----------
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The unbound resolver project started by Bill Manning, David Blacka, and
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Matt Larson (from the University of California and from Verisign), that
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created a Java based prototype resolver called Unbound. The basic
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design decisions of clean modules was executed.
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The Java prototype worked very well, with contributions from Geoff
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Sisson and Roy Arends from Nominet. Around 2006 the idea came to create
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a full-fledged C implementation ready for deployed use. NLnet Labs
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volunteered to write this implementation.
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3. Goals
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--------
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o A validating recursive DNS resolver.
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o Code diversity in the DNS resolver monoculture.
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o Drop-in replacement for BIND apart from config.
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o DNSSEC support.
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o Fully RFC compliant.
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o High performance
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* even with validation.
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o Used as
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* stub resolver.
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* full caching name server.
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* resolver library.
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o Elegant design of validator, resolver, cache modules.
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* provide the ability to pick and choose modules.
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o Robust.
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o In C, open source: The BSD license.
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o Highly portable, targets include modern Unix systems, such as *BSD,
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solaris, linux, and maybe also the windows platform.
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o Smallest as possible component that does the job.
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o Stub-zones can be configured (local data or AS112 zones).
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4. Non-Goals
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------------
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o An authoritative name server.
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o Too many Features.
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5. Choices
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----------
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o rfc2181 discourages duplicates RRs in RRsets. unbound does not create
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duplicates, but when presented with duplicates on the wire from the
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authoritative servers, does not perform duplicate removal.
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It does do some rrsig duplicate removal, in the msgparser, for dnssec qtype
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rrsig and any, because of special rrsig processing in the msgparser.
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o The harden-glue feature, when yes all out of zone glue is deleted, when
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no out of zone glue is used for further resolving, is more complicated
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than that, see below.
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Main points:
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* rfc2182 trust handling is used.
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* data is let through only in very specific cases
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* spoofability remains possible.
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Not all glue is let through (despite the name of the option). Only glue
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which is present in a delegation, of type A and AAAA, where the name is
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present in the NS record in the authority section is let through.
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The glue that is let through is stored in the cache (marked as 'from the
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additional section'). And will then be used for sending queries to. It
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will not be present in the reply to the client (if RD is off).
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A direct query for that name will attempt to get a msg into the message
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cache. Since A and AAAA queries are not synthesized by the unbound cache,
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this query will be (eventually) sent to the authoritative server and its
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answer will be put in the cache, marked as 'from the answer section' and
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thus remove the 'from the additional section' data, and this record is
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returned to the client.
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The message has a TTL smaller or equal to the TTL of the answer RR.
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If the cache memory is low; the answer RR may be dropped, and a glue
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RR may be inserted, within the message TTL time, and thus return the
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spoofed glue to a client. When the message expires, it is refetched and
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the cached RR is updated with the correct content.
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The server can be spoofed by getting it to visit a especially prepared
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domain. This domain then inserts an address for another authoritative
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server into the cache, when visiting that other domain, this address may
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then be used to send queries to. And fake answers may be returned.
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If the other domain is signed by DNSSEC, the fakes will be detected.
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In summary, the harden glue feature presents a security risk if
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disabled. Disabling the feature leads to possible better performance
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as more glue is present for the recursive service to use. The feature
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is implemented so as to minimise the security risk, while trying to
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keep this performance gain.
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o The method by which dnssec-lameness is detected is not secure. DNSSEC lame
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is when a server has the zone in question, but lacks dnssec data, such as
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signatures. The method to detect dnssec lameness looks at nonvalidated
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data from the parent of a zone. This can be used, by spoofing the parent,
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to create a false sense of dnssec-lameness in the child, or a false sense
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or dnssec-non-lameness in the child. The first results in the server marked
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lame, and not used for 900 seconds, and the second will result in a
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validator failure (SERVFAIL again), when the query is validated later on.
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Concluding, a spoof of the parent delegation can be used for many cases
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of denial of service. I.e. a completely different NS set could be returned,
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or the information withheld. All of these alterations can be caught by
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the validator if the parent is signed, and result in 900 seconds bogus.
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The dnssec-lameness detection is used to detect operator failures,
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before the validator will properly verify the messages.
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Also for zones for which no chain of trust exists, but a DS is given by the
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parent, dnssec-lameness detection enables. This delivers dnssec to our
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clients when possible (for client validators).
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The following issue needs to be resolved:
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a server that serves both a parent and child zone, where
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parent is signed, but child is not. The server must not be marked
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lame for the parent zone, because the child answer is not signed.
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Instead of a false positive, we want false negatives; failure to
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detect dnssec-lameness is less of a problem than marking honest
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servers lame. dnssec-lameness is a config error and deserves the trouble.
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So, only messages that identify the zone are used to mark the zone
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lame. The zone is identified by SOA or NS RRsets in the answer/auth.
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That includes almost all negative responses and also A, AAAA qtypes.
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That would be most responses from servers.
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For referrals, delegations that add a single label can be checked to be
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from their zone, this covers most delegation-centric zones.
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So possibly, for complicated setups, with multiple (parent-child) zones
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on a server, dnssec-lameness detection does not work - no dnssec-lameness
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is detected. Instead the zone that is dnssec-lame becomes bogus.
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o authority features.
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This is a recursive server, and authority features are out of scope.
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However, some authority features are expected in a recursor. Things like
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localhost, reverse lookup for 127.0.0.1, or blocking AS112 traffic.
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Also redirection of domain names with fixed data is needed by service
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providers. Limited support is added specifically to address this.
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Adding full authority support, requires much more code, and more complex
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maintenance.
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The limited support allows adding some static data (for localhost and so),
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and to respond with a fixed rcode (NXDOMAIN) for domains (such as AS112).
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You can put authority data on a separate server, and set the server in
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unbound.conf as stub for those zones, this allows clients to access data
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from the server without making unbound authoritative for the zones.
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o the access control denies queries before any other processing.
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This denies queries that are not authoritative, or version.bind, or any.
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And thus prevents cache-snooping (denied hosts cannot make non-recursive
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queries and get answers from the cache).
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o If a client makes a query without RD bit, in the case of a returned
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message from cache which is:
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answer section: empty
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auth section: NS record present, no SOA record, no DS record,
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maybe NSEC or NSEC3 records present.
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additional: A records or other relevant records.
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A SOA record would indicate that this was a NODATA answer.
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A DS records would indicate a referral.
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Absence of NS record would indicate a NODATA answer as well.
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Then the receiver does not know whether this was a referral
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with attempt at no-DS proof) or a nodata answer with attempt
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at no-data proof. It could be determined by attempting to prove
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either condition; and looking if only one is valid, but both
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proofs could be valid, or neither could be valid, which creates
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doubt. This case is validated by unbound as a 'referral' which
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ascertains that RRSIGs are OK (and not omitted), but does not
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check NSEC/NSEC3.
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o Case preservation
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Unbound preserves the casing received from authority servers as best
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as possible. It compresses without case, so case can get lost there.
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The casing from the query name is used in preference to the casing
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of the authority server. This is the same as BIND. RFC4343 allows either
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behaviour.
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o Denial of service protection
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If many queries are made, and they are made to names for which the
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authority servers do not respond, then the requestlist for unbound
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fills up fast. This results in denial of service for new queries.
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To combat this the first 50% of the requestlist can run to completion.
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The last 50% of the requestlist get (200 msec) at least and are replaced
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by newer queries when older (LIFO).
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When a new query comes in, and a place in the first 50% is available, this
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is preferred. Otherwise, it can replace older queries out of the last 50%.
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Thus, even long queries get a 50% chance to be resolved. And many 'short'
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one or two round-trip resolves can be done in the last 50% of the list.
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The timeout can be configured.
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o EDNS fallback. Is done according to the EDNS RFC (and update draft-00).
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Unbound assumes EDNS 0 support for the first query. Then it can detect
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support (if the servers replies) or non-support (on a NOTIMPL or FORMERR).
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Some middleboxes drop EDNS 0 queries, mainly when forwarding, not when
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routing packets. To detect this, when timeouts keep happening, as the
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timeout approached 5-10 seconds, and EDNS status has not been detected yet,
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a single probe query is sent. This probe has a sub-second timeout, and
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if the server responds (quickly) without EDNS, this is cached for 15 min.
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This works very well when detecting an address that you use much - like
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a forwarder address - which is where the middleboxes need to be detected.
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Otherwise, it results in a 5 second wait time before EDNS timeout is
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detected, which is slow but it works at least.
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It minimizes the chances of a dropped query making a (DNSSEC) EDNS server
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falsely EDNS-nonsupporting, and thus DNSSEC-bogus, works well with
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middleboxes, and can detect the occasional authority that drops EDNS.
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For some boxes it is necessary to probe for every failing query, a
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reassurance that the DNS server does EDNS does not mean that path can
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take large DNS answers.
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o 0x20 backoff.
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The draft describes to back off to the next server, and go through all
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servers several times. Unbound goes on get the full list of nameserver
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addresses, and then makes 3 * number of addresses queries.
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They are sent to a random server, but no one address more than 4 times.
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It succeeds if one has 0x20 intact, or else all are equal.
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Otherwise, servfail is returned to the client.
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o NXDOMAIN and SOA serial numbers.
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Unbound keeps TTL values for message formats, and thus rcodes, such
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as NXDOMAIN. Also it keeps the latest rrsets in the rrset cache.
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So it will faithfully negative cache for the exact TTL as originally
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specified for an NXDOMAIN message, but send a newer SOA record if
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this has been found in the mean time. In point, this could lead to a
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negative cached NXDOMAIN reply with a SOA RR where the serial number
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indicates a zone version where this domain is not any longer NXDOMAIN.
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These situations become consistent once the original TTL expires.
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If the domain is DNSSEC signed, by the way, then NSEC records are
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updated more carefully. If one of the NSEC records in an NXDOMAIN is
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updated from another query, the NXDOMAIN is dropped from the cache,
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and queried for again, so that its proof can be checked again.
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o SOA records in negative cached answers for DS queries.
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The current unbound code uses a negative cache for queries for type DS.
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This speeds up building chains of trust, and uses NSEC and NSEC3
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(optout) information to speed up lookups. When used internally,
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the bare NSEC(3) information is sufficient, probably picked up from
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a referral. When answering to clients, a SOA record is needed for
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the correct message format, a SOA record is picked from the cache
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(and may not actually match the serial number of the SOA for which the
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NSEC and NSEC3 records were obtained) if available otherwise network
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queries are performed to get the data.
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o Parent and child with different nameserver information.
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A misconfiguration that sometimes happens is where the parent and child
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have different NS, glue information. The child is authoritative, and
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unbound will not trust information from the parent nameservers as the
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final answer. To help lookups, unbound will however use the parent-side
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version of the glue as a last resort lookup. This resolves lookups for
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those misconfigured domains where the servers reported by the parent
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are the only ones working, and servers reported by the child do not.
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o Failure of validation and probing.
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Retries on a validation failure are now 5x to a different nameserver IP
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(if possible), and then it gives up, for one name, type, class entry in
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the message cache. If a DNSKEY or DS fails in the chain of trust in the
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key cache additionally, after the probing, a bad key entry is created that
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makes the entire zone bogus for 900 seconds. This is a fixed value at
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this time and is conservative in sending probes. It makes the compound
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effect of many resolvers less and easier to handle, but penalizes
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individual resolvers by having less probes and a longer time before fixes
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are picked up.
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