]> NLnet Labs

philip@nlnetlabs.nl

Cox Communications

tjw.ietf@gmail.com

University of Amsterdam

Jesse.vanZutphen@os3.nl

NLnet Labs

willem@nlnetlabs.nl

int DNS Delegation Internet-Draft DNS Resolver Delegation Authoritative Deployable Extensible This document proposes a mechanism for extensible delegations in the DNS. The mechanism realizes delegations with resource record sets placed below a _deleg label in the apex of the delegating zone. This authoritative delegation point can be aliased to other names using CNAME and DNAME. This document proposes a new DNS resource record type, DELEG, which is based on the SVCB and inherits extensibility from it. Support in recursive resolvers suffices for the mechanism to be fully functional. The number of subsequent interactions between the recursive resolver and the authoritative name servers is comparable with those for DNS Query Name Minimisation. Additionally, but not required, support in the authoritative name servers enables optimized behavior with reduced (simultaneous) queries. None, mixed or full deployment of the mechanism on authoritative name servers are all fully functional, allowing for the mechanism to be incrementally deployed. About This Document Status information for this document may be found at . Discussion of this document takes place on the deleg Working Group mailing list (), which is archived at . Subscribe at . Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at .

Introduction This document describes a delegation mechanism for the Domain Name System (DNS) that addresses several matters that, at the time of writing, are suboptimally supported or not supported at all. These matters are elaborated upon in sections , and . In addition, the mechanism described in this document aspires to be maximally deployable, which is elaborated upon in .

Signaling capabilities of the authoritative name servers A new DELEG resource record (RR) type is introduced in this document, which is based on and inherits the wire and presentation format from SVCB . All Service Binding Mappings, as well as the capability signalling, that are specified in are also applicable to DELEG, with the exception of the limitations on AliasMode records in . Capability signalling of DNS over Transport Layer Protocol (DoT), DNS Queries over HTTPS and DNS over Dedicated QUIC Connections, on default or alternative ports, can all be used as specified in . The DELEG RR type inherits its extensibility from the SVCB RR type, which is designed to be extensible to support future uses (such as keys for encrypting the TLS ClientHello .)

Outsourcing operation of the delegation Delegation information is stored at an authoritative location in the zone with this mechanism. Legacy methods to redirect this information to another location, possible under the control of another operator, such as (CNAME ) and DNAME remain functional. One could even outsource all delegation operational practice to another party with an DNAME on the _deleg label on the apex of the delegating zone. Additional to the legacy methods, a delegation may be outsourced to a third parties by having RRs in AliasMode. Unlike SVCB, DELEG allows for more than a single DELEG RR in AliasMode in a DELEG RRset, enabling outsourcing a delegation to multiple different operators.

DNSSEC protection of the delegation With legacy delegations, the NS RRset at the parent side of a delegation as well as glue records for the names in the NS RRset are not authoritative and not DNSSEC signed. An adversary that is able to spoof a referral response, can alter this information and redirect all traffic for the delegation to a rogue name server undetected. The adversary can then perceive all queries for the redirected zone (Privacy concern) and alter all unsigned parts of responses (such as further referrals, which is a Security concern). DNSSEC protection of delegation information prevents that, and is the only countermeasure that also works against on-path attackers. At the time of writing, the only way to DNSSEC validate and verify delegations at all levels in the DNS hierarchy is to revalidate delegations , which is done after the fact and has other security concerns (). Direct delegation information (provided by DELEG RRs in ServiceMode) includes the hostnames of the authoritative name servers for the delegation as well as IP addresses for those hostnames. Since the information is stored authoritatively in the delegating zone, it will be DNSSEC signed if the zone is signed. When the delegation is outsourced, then it's protected when the zones providing the aliasing resource records and the zones serving the targets of the aliases are all DNSSEC signed.

Maximize ease of deployment Delegation information is stored authoritatively within the delegation zone. No semantic changes as to what zones are authoritative for what data are needed. As a consequence, existing DNS software, such as authoritative name servers and DNSSEC signing software, can remain unmodified. Unmodified authoritative name server software will serve the delegation information when queried for. Unmodified signers will sign the delegation information in the delegating zone. Only the recursive resolver needs modification to follow referrals as provided by the delegation information. Such a resolver would explicitly query for the delegations administered as specified in . The number of round trips from the recursive resolver to the authoritative name server is comparable to what is needed for DNS Query Name Minimisation . Additional implementation in the authoritative name server optimizes resolution and reduces the number of simultaneous in parallel queries to that what would be needed for legacy delegations. None, mixed or full deployment of the mechanism on authoritative name servers are all fully functional, allowing for the mechanism to be incrementally deployed on the authoritative name servers. Implementation in the recursive may be less demanding with respect to (among other things) DNSSEC validation because there is no need to make additional exceptions as to what is authoritative at the parent side of a delegation.

Terminology 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 when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here. This document follows terminology as defined in . Throughout this document we will also use terminology with the meaning as defined below:

Incremental deleg:

The delegation mechanism as specified in this document.

Incremental delegation:

A delegation as specified in this document

Legacy delegations:

The way delegations are done in the DNS traditionally as defined in .

Delegating zone:

The zone in which the delegation is administered. Sometimes also called the "parent zone" of a delegation.

Subzone:

The zone that is delegated to from the delegating zone.

Delegating name:

The name which realizes the delegation. In legacy delegations, this name is the same as the name of the subzone to which the delegation refers. Delegations described in this document are provided with a different name than the zone that is delegated to.

Delegation point:

The location in the delegating zone where the RRs are provided that make up the delegation. In legacy delegations, this is the parent side of the zone cut and has the same name as the subzone. With incremental deleg, this is the location given by the delegating name.

Triggering query:

The query on which resolution a recursive resolver is working.

Target zone:

The zone for which the authoritative servers, that a resolver contacts while iterating, are authoritative.

The DELEG resource record type The DELEG RR type is a variant of SVCB for use with resolvers to perform iterative resolution (). The DELEG type requires registration in the "Resource Record (RR) TYPEs" registry under the "Domain Name System (DNS) Parameters" registry group (see DELEG RR type). The protocol-specific mapping specification for iterative resolutions are the same as those for "DNS Servers" . states that SVCB RRsets SHOULD only have a single RR in AliasMode, and that if multiple AliasMode RRs are present, clients or recursive resolvers SHOULD pick one at random. Different from SVCB (), DELEG allows for multiple AliasMode RRs to be present in a single DELEG RRset. Note however that the target of a DELEG RR in AliasMode is an SVCB RRset for the "dns" service type adhering fully to the Service Binding Mapping for DNS Servers as specified in . states that within an SVCB RRset, all RRs SHOULD have the same mode, and that if an RRset contains a record in AliasMode, the recipient MUST ignore any ServiceMode records in the set. Different from SVCB, mixed ServiceMode and AliasMode RRs are allowed in a DELEG RRset. At the delegation point (for example customer._deleg.example.), the host names of the authoritative name servers for the subzone, are given in the TargetName RDATA field of DELEG records in ServiceMode. Port Prefix Naming is not used at the delegation point, but MUST be used when resolving the aliased to name servers with DELEG RRs in AliasMode.

Delegation administration An extensible delegation is realized with a DELEG Resource Record set (RRset) below a specially for the purpose reserved label with the name _deleg at the apex of the delegating zone. The _deleg label scopes the interpretation of the DELEG records and requires registration in the "Underscored and Globally Scoped DNS Node Names" registry (see _deleg Node Name). The full scoping of delegations includes the labels that are below the _deleg label and those, together with the name of the delegating domain, make up the name of the subzone to which the delegation refers. For example, if the delegating zone is example., then a delegation to subzone customer.example. is realized by a DELEG RRset at the name customer._deleg.example. in the parent zone. A fully scoped delegating name (such as customer._deleg.example.) is referred to further in this document as the "delegation point". Note that if the delegation is outsourcing to a single operator represented in a single DELEG RR, it is RECOMMENDED to refer to the name of the operator's DELEG RRset with a CNAME on the delegation point instead of a DELEG RR in AliasMode .

Examples

One name server within the subzone

One name server within the subzone

Two name servers within the subzone

Two name servers within the subzone

Outsourced to an operator

Outsourced with CNAME

Instead of using CNAME, the outsourcing could also been accomplished with a DELEG RRset with a single DELEG RR in AliasMode. The configuration below is operationally equivalent to the CNAME configuration above. It is RECOMMENDED to use a CNAME over a DELEG RRset with a single DELEG RR in AliasMode (). Note that a DELEG RRset refers with TargetName to an DNS service, which will be looked up using Port Prefix Naming , but that CNAME refers to the domain name of the target DELEG RRset (or CNAME) which may have an _dns prefix.

Outsourced with an AliasMode DELEG RR

The operator DELEG RRset could for example be:

Operator zone

DNSSEC signed name servers within the subzone

DNSSEC signed incremental deleg zone

customer5.example. is delegated to in an extensible way and customer6.example. is delegated only in a legacy way. customer7.example.'s delegation is outsourced to customer5's delegation. The delegation signals that the authoritative name server supports DoH. customer5.example., customer6.example. and example. are all DNSSEC signed. The DNSSEC authentication chain links from example. to customer5.example. in the for DNSSEC conventional way with the signed customer5.example. DS RRset in the example. zone. Also, customer6.example. is linked to from example. with the signed customer6.example. DS RRset in the example. zone. Note that both customer5.example. and customer6.example. have legacy delegations in the zone as well. It is important to have those legacy delegations to maintain support for legacy resolvers, that do not support incremental deleg. DNSSEC signers SHOULD construct the NS RRset and glue for the legacy delegation from the DELEG RRset.

Minimal implementation Support in recursive resolvers suffices for the mechanism to be fully functional. specifies the basic algorithm for resolving incremental delegations. In , an optimization is presented that will reduce the number of (parallel) queries especially for when authoritative name server support is still lacking and there are still many zones that do not contain incremental delegations.

Recursive Resolver behavior If the triggering query name is the same as the name of the target zone apex, then no further delegation will occur, and resolution will complete. No special behavior or processing is needed. Otherwise, the triggering query is below the target zone apex and a delegation may exist in the target zone. In this case two parallel queries MUST be sent. One for the triggering query in the way that is conventional with legacy delegations (which could be just the triggering query or a minimised query ), and one incremental deleg query with query type DELEG. The incremental deleg query name is constructed by concatenating the first label below the part that the triggering query name has in common with the target zone, a _deleg label and the name of the target zone. For example if the triggering query is www.customer.example. and the target zone example., then the incremental deleg query name is customer._deleg.example. For another example, if the triggering query is www.faculty.university.example. and the target zone example. then the incremental deleg name is university._deleg.example. Normal DNAME, CNAME and DELEG in AliasMode processing should happen as before, though note that when following a DELEG RR in AliasMode the target RR type is SVCB (see ). The eventual incremental deleg query response, after following all redirections caused by DNAME, CNAME and AliasMode DELEG RRs, has three possible outcomes:

1. A DELEG RRset in ServiceMode is returned in the response's answer section containing the delegation for the subzone. The DELEG RRs in the RRset MUST be used to follow the referral. The TargetName data field in the DELEG RRs in the RRset MUST be used as the names for the name servers to contact for the subzone, and the ipv4hint and ipv6hint parameters MUST be used as the IP addresses for the TargetName in the same DELEG RR. The NS RRset and glue, in the response of the legacy query that was sent in parallel to the incremental deleg query, MUST NOT be used, but the signed DS record (or NSEC(3) records indicating that there was no DS) MUST be used in linking the DNSSEC authentication chain as which would conventionally be done with DNSSEC as well.
2. The incremental deleg query name does not exist (NXDOMAIN). There is no incremental delegation for the subzone, and the referral response for the legacy delegation MUST be processed as would be done with legacy DNS and DNSSEC processing.
3. The incremental deleg query name does exist, but resulted in a NOERROR no answer response (also known as a NODATA response). If the legacy query, did result in a referral for the same number of labels as the subdomain that the incremental deleg query was for, then there was no incremental delegation for the subzone, and the referral response for the legacy delegation MUST be processed as would be done with legacy DNS and DNSSEC processing. Otherwise, the subzone may be more than one label below the delegating zone. If the response to the legacy query resulted in a referral, then a new incremental deleg query MUST be spawned, matching the zone cut of the legacy referral response. For example if the triggering query is www.university.ac.example. and the target zone example., and the legacy response contained an NS RRset for university.ac.example., then the incremental deleg query name is university.ac._deleg.example. The response to the new incremental deleg query MUST be processed as described above, as if it was the initial incremental deleg query. If the legacy query was sent minimised and needs a followup query, then parallel to that followup query a new incremental deleg query will be sent, adding a single label to the previous incremental deleg query name. For example if the triggering query is www.university.ac.example. and the target zone is example. and the minimised legacy query name is ac.example. (which also resulted in a NOERROR no answer response), then the incremental deleg query to be sent along in parallel with the followup legacy query will become university.ac.example. Processing of the responses of those two new queries will be done as described above.

_deleg label presence Absence of the _deleg label in a zone is a clear signal that the zone does not contain any incremental deleg delegations. Recursive resolvers SHOULD NOT send any additional incremental deleg queries for zones for which it is known that it does not contain the _deleg label at the apex. The state regarding the presence of the _deleg label within a resolver can be "unknown", "known not to be present", or "known to be present". The state regarding the presence of the _deleg label can be deduced from the response of the incremental deleg query, if the target zone is signed with DNSSEC. If the target zone is unsigned, the procedure as described in the remainder of this section SHOULD be followed. When the presence of a _deleg label is "unknown", a _deleg presence test query SHOULD be sent in parallel to the next query for the unsigned target zone (though not when the target name server is known to support incremental deleg, which will be discussed in ). The query name for the test query is the _deleg label prepended to the apex of zone for which to test presence, with query type A. The testing query can have three possible outcomes:

1. The _deleg label does not exist within the zone, and an NXDOMAIN response is returned. The non-existence of the _deleg label MUST be cached for the duration indicated by the "minimum" RDATA field of the SOA resource record in the authority section, adjusted to the boundaries for TTL values that the resolver has (). For the period the non-existence of the _deleg label is cached, the label is "known not to be present" and the resolver SHOULD NOT send any (additional) incremental deleg queries.
2. The _deleg label does exist within the zone but contains no data. A NOERROR response is returned with no RRs in the answer section. The existence of the _deleg name MUST be cached for the duration indicated by the "minimum" RDATA field of the SOA resource record in the authority section, adjusted to the resolver's TTL boundaries. For the period the existence of the empty non-terminal at the _deleg label is cached, the label is "known to be present" and the resolver MUST send additional incremental deleg queries as described in TODO.
3. The _deleg label does exist within the zone and contains data. A NOERROR response is return with an A RRset in the answer section. The resolver MUST record that the _deleg label is known to be present for a duration indicated by A RRset's TTL value, adjusted to the resolver's TTL boundaries, for example by caching the RRset. For the period any RRset at the _deleg label is cached, the label is "known to be present" and the resolver MUST send additional incremental deleg queries as described in TODO.

Optimized implementation Support for authoritative name servers enables optimized query behavior by resolvers with reduced (simultaneous) queries. specifies how incremental deleg supporting authoritative name servers return referral responses for delegations. In we specify how resolvers can benefit from those authoritative servers.

Authoritative name server support Incremental delegations supporting authoritative name servers include the incremental delegation information (or the NSEC(3) records showing the non-existence) in the authority section of referral responses to legacy DNS queries. For example, querying the zone from for www.customer5.example. A, will return the following referral response:

An incremental deleg referral response >HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, rcode: NOERROR, id: 54349 ;; flags: qr ; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 5, ADDITIONAL: 2 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;; www.customer5.example. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: customer5.example. 3600 IN NS ns.customer5.example. customer5.example. 3600 IN DS ... customer5.example. 3600 IN RRSIG DS ... customer5._deleg.example. 3600 IN DELEG 1 ( ns.customer5.example. alpn=h2,h3 ipv4hint=198.51.100.5 ipv6hint=2001:db8:5::1 dohpath=/dns-query{?dns} ) customer5._deleg.example. 3600 IN RRSIG DELEG ... ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: ns.customer5.example. 3600 IN A 198.51.100.5 ns.customer5.example. 3600 IN AAAA 2001:db8:5::1 ;; Query time: 0 msec ;; EDNS: version 0; flags: do ; udp: 1232 ;; SERVER: 192.0.2.53 ;; WHEN: Mon Jul 1 20:36:25 2024 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 456 ]]>

The referral response in includes the signed DELEG RRset in the authority section. As another example, querying the zone from for www.customer6.example. A, will return the following referral response:

Referral response without incremental deleg >HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, rcode: NOERROR, id: 36574 ;; flags: qr ; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 9, ADDITIONAL: 2 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;; www.customer6.example. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: customer6.example. 3600 IN NS ns.customer6.example. customer6.example. 3600 IN DS ... customer6.example. 3600 IN RRSIG DS ... customer5._deleg.example. 1234 IN NSEC ( customer7._deleg.example. RRSIG NSEC DELEG ) customer5._deleg.example. 1234 IN RRSIG NSEC ... example. 1234 IN NSEC ( customer5._deleg.example. NS SOA RRSIG NSEC DNSKEY ) example. 1234 IN RRSIG NSEC ... ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: ns.customer6.example. 3600 IN A 203.0.113.1 ns.customer6.example. 3600 IN AAAA 2001:db8:6::1 ;; Query time: 0 msec ;; EDNS: version 0; flags: do ; udp: 1232 ;; SERVER: 192.0.2.53 ;; WHEN: Tue Jul 2 10:23:53 2024 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 744 ]]>

Next to the legacy delegation, the incremental deleg supporting authoritative returns the NSEC(3) RRs needed to show that there was no incremental delegation in the referral response in . Querying the zone from for www.customer7.example. A, will return the following referral response:

Aliasing referral response >HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, rcode: NOERROR, id: 9456 ;; flags: qr ; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 7, ADDITIONAL: 2 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;; www.customer7.example. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: customer7.example. 3600 IN NS ns.customer5.example. customer7.example. 3600 IN DS ... customer7.example. 3600 IN RRSIG DS ... customer7._deleg.example. 3600 IN CNAME ( customer5._deleg.example. ) customer7._deleg.example. 3600 IN RRSIG CNAME ... customer5._deleg.example. 3600 IN DELEG 1 ( ns.customer5.example. alpn=h2,h3 ipv4hint=198.51.100.5 ipv6hint=2001:db8:5::1 ) customer5._deleg.example. 3600 IN RRSIG DELEG ... ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: ns.customer5.example. 3600 IN A 198.51.100.5 ns.customer5.example. 3600 IN AAAA 2001:db8:5::1 ;; Query time: 0 msec ;; EDNS: version 0; flags: do ; udp: 1232 ;; SERVER: 192.0.2.53 ;; WHEN: Tue Jul 2 10:55:07 2024 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 593 ]]>

The incremental delegation of customer7.example. is aliased to the one that is also used by customer5.example. Since both delegations are in the same zone, the authoritative name server for example. returns both the CNAME realising the alias, as well as the DELEG RRset which is the target of the alias in . In other cases an returned CNAME or DELEG RR in AliasMode may need further chasing by the resolver. With unsigned zones, only if an incremental deleg delegation exists, the DELEG RRset (or CNAME) will be present in the authority section of referral responses. If the incremental deleg does not exist, then it is simply absent from the authority section and the referral response is indistinguishable from an non supportive authoritative.

Resolver behavior with authoritative name server support Incremental deleg supporting authoritative name servers will include the incremental delegation information (or the NSEC(3) records showing the non-existence) in the authority section of referral responses. If it is known that an authoritative name server supports incremental deleg, then no direct queries for the incremental delegation need to be send in parallel to the legacy delegation query. A resolver SHOULD register that an authoritative name server supports incremental deleg when the authority section, of the returned referral responses from that authoritative name server, contains incremental delegegation information. When the authority section of a referral response contains a DELEG RRset or a CNAME on the incremental delegation name, or valid NSEC(3) RRs showing the non-existence of such DELEG or CNAME RRset, then the resolver SHOULD register that the contacted authoritative name server supports incremental deleg for the duration indicated by the TTL for that DELEG, CNAME or NSEC(3) RRset, adjusted to the resolver's TTL boundaries, but only if it is longer than any already registered duration. Subsequent queries SHOULD NOT include incremental deleg queries, as described in , to be send in parallel for the duration support for incremental deleg is registered for the authoritative name server. For example, in , the DELEG RRset at the incremental delegation point has TTL 3600. The resolver should register that the contacted authoritative name server supports incremental deleg for (at least) 3600 seconds (one hour). All subsequent queries to that authoritative name server SHOULD NOT include incremental deleg queries to be send in parallel. If the authority section contains more than one RRset making up the incremental delegation, then the RRset with the longest TTL MUST be taken to determine the duration for which incremental deleg support is registered. For example, in , both a CNAME and a DELEG RRset for the incremental delegation are included in the authority section. The longest TTL must be taken for incremental support registration, though because the TTL of both RRsets is 3600, it does not matter in this case. With DNSSEC signed zones, support is apparent with all referral responses, with unsigned zones only from referral responses for which a incremental delegation exists. If the resolver knows that the authoritative name server supports incremental deleg, and a DNSSEC signed zone is being served, then all referrals MUST contain either an incremental delegation, or NSEC(3) records showing that the delegation does not exist. If a referral is returned that does not contain an incremental delegation nor an indication that it does not exist, then the resolver MUST send an additional incremental deleg query to find the incremental delegation (or denial of its existence).

Extra optimized implementation A DELEG RRset on an incremental delegation point, with a DELEG RR in AliasMode, aliasing to the root zone, MUST be interpreted to mean that the legacy delegation information MUST be used to follow the referral. All service parameters for such AliasMode (aliasing to the root) DELEG RRs on the incremental delegation point, MUST be ignored. For example, such a DELEG RRset registered on the wildcard below the _deleg label on the apex of a zone, can signal that legacy DNS referrals MUST be used for both signed and unsigned zones:

Wildcard incremental deleg to control duration of detected support

Resolvers SHOULD register that an authoritative name server supports incremental deleg, if such a DELEG RRset is returned in the authority section of referral responses, for the duration of the TTL if the DELEG RRset, adjusted to the resolver's TTL boundaries, but only if it is longer than any already registered duration. Note that this will also be included in referral responses for unsigned zones, which would otherwise not have signalling of incremental deleg support by the authoritative name server. Also, signed zones need fewer RRs to indicate that no incremental delegation exists. The wildcard expansion already shows the closest encloser (i.e. _deleg.<apex>), so only one additional NSEC(3) is needed to show non-existence of the queried for name below the closest encloser. This method of signalling that the legacy delegation MUST be used, is RECOMMENDED.

Priming queries Some zones, such as the root zone, are targeted directly from hints files. Information about which authoritative name servers and with capabilities, MAY be provided in a DELEG RRset directly at the _deleg label under the apex of the zone. Priming queries from a incremental deleg supporting resolver, MUST send an _deleg.<apex> DELEG query in parallel to the legacy <apex> NS query and process the content as if it was found through an incremental referral response.

Comparison with other delegation mechanisms Table provides an overview of when extra queries, in parallel to the legacy query, are sent. Additional queries in parallel to the legacy query

	apex	support	_deleg		<sub>._deleg.<apex> DELEG	_deleg.<apex> A
1	Yes	*	*
2	No	*	No
3	No	Yes	*
4	No	Unknown	Yes		X
5	No	Unknown	Unknown		X	only for unsigned zones

The three headers on the left side of the table mean the following:

apex:

Whether the query is for the apex of the target zone. "Yes" means an apex query, "No" means a query below the apex which may be delegated

support:

Whether or not the target authoritative server supports incremental deleg. "Yes" means it supports it and "Unknown" means support is not detected. "*" means it does not matter

_deleg:

Whether or not the _deleg label is present in the target zone (and thus incremental delegations)

On the right side of the table are the extra queries, to be sent in parallel with the legacy query. The _deleg presence test query (most right column) only needs to be sent to unsigned target zones, because its non-existence will be show in the NSEC(3) records showing the non-existence of the incremental delegation (second from right column). If the query name is the same as the apex of the target zone, no extra queries need to be sent (Row 1). If the _deleg label is known not to exist in the target zone (Row 2) or if the target name server is known to support incremental deleg (Row 3), no extra queries need to be sent. Only if it is unknown that the target name server supports incremental deleg, and the _deleg label is known to exist in the target zone (Row 4) or it its not known whether or not the _deleg label exists (Row 5), and extra incremental deleg query is sent in parallel to the legacy query. If the target zone is unsigned, presence of the _deleg label needs to be tested explicitly (Row 5).

Comparison with legacy delegations

Comparison with Name DNS Query Name Minimisation

Comparison with Comparison of [I-D.dnsop-deleg] with [this document]

[I-D.dnsop-deleg]	[this document]
Requires implementation in both authoritative name server as well as in the resolver	Only resolver implementation required. But optimized with updated authoritative software.
DNSKEY flag needed to signal DELEG support with all authoritative name servers that serve the parent (delegating) domain. Special requirements for the child domain.	No DNSKEY flag needed. Separation of concerns.
Authoritative name servers need to be updated all at once	Authoritative name servers may be updated gradually for optimization
New semantics about what is authoritative (BOGUS with current DNSSEC validators)	Works with current DNS and DNSSEC semantics. Easier to implement.
No extra queries	An extra query, in parallel to the legacy query, per authoritative server when incremental deleg support is not yet detected, and per unsigned zone to determine presence of the _deleg label

Implementation Status Note to the RFC Editor: please remove this entire section before publication. Jesse van Zutphen has built a proof of concept implementation supporting delegations as specified in this document for the Unbound recursive resolver as part of his master thesis for the Security and Network Engineering master program of the University of Amsterdam. The source code of his implementation is available on github

Security Considerations TODO Security

IANA Considerations

DELEG RR type IANA is requested to update the "Resource Record (RR) TYPEs" registry under the "Domain Name System (DNS) Parameters" registry group as follows:

TYPE	Value	Meaning	Reference
DELEG	TBD	Delegation	[this document]

_deleg Node Name Per , IANA is requested to add the following entry to the DNS "Underscored and Globally Scoped DNS Node Names" registry: Entry in the Underscored and Globally Scoped DNS Node Names registry

RR Type	_NODE NAME	Reference
DELEG	_deleg	[this document]

References Normative References This RFC is the revised basic definition of The Domain Name System. It obsoletes RFC-882. This memo describes the domain style names and their used for host address look up and electronic mail forwarding. It discusses the clients and servers in the domain name system and the protocol used between them. This RFC is the revised specification of the protocol and format used in the implementation of the Domain Name System. It obsoletes RFC-883. This memo documents the details of the domain name client - server communication. This document specifies the "SVCB" ("Service Binding") and "HTTPS" DNS resource record (RR) types to facilitate the lookup of information needed to make connections to network services, such as for HTTP origins. SVCB records allow a service to be provided from multiple alternative endpoints, each with associated parameters (such as transport protocol configuration), and are extensible to support future uses (such as keys for encrypting the TLS ClientHello). They also enable aliasing of apex domains, which is not possible with CNAME. The HTTPS RR is a variation of SVCB for use with HTTP (see RFC 9110, "HTTP Semantics"). By providing more information to the client before it attempts to establish a connection, these records offer potential benefits to both performance and privacy. The SVCB DNS resource record type expresses a bound collection of endpoint metadata, for use when establishing a connection to a named service. DNS itself can be such a service, when the server is identified by a domain name. This document provides the SVCB mapping for named DNS servers, allowing them to indicate support for encrypted transport protocols. This document describes the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) to provide privacy for DNS. Encryption provided by TLS eliminates opportunities for eavesdropping and on-path tampering with DNS queries in the network, such as discussed in RFC 7626. In addition, this document specifies two usage profiles for DNS over TLS and provides advice on performance considerations to minimize overhead from using TCP and TLS with DNS. This document 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. This document defines a protocol for sending DNS queries and getting DNS responses over HTTPS. Each DNS query-response pair is mapped into an HTTP exchange. This document describes the use of QUIC to provide transport confidentiality for DNS. The encryption provided by QUIC has similar properties to those provided by TLS, while QUIC transport eliminates the head-of-line blocking issues inherent with TCP and provides more efficient packet-loss recovery than UDP. DNS over QUIC (DoQ) has privacy properties similar to DNS over TLS (DoT) specified in RFC 7858, and latency characteristics similar to classic DNS over UDP. This specification describes the use of DoQ as a general-purpose transport for DNS and includes the use of DoQ for stub to recursive, recursive to authoritative, and zone transfer scenarios. The DNAME record provides redirection for a subtree of the domain name tree in the DNS. That is, all names that end with a particular suffix are redirected to another part of the DNS. This document obsoletes the original specification in RFC 2672 as well as updates the document on representing IPv6 addresses in DNS (RFC 3363). [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document describes a technique called "QNAME minimisation" to improve DNS privacy, where the DNS resolver no longer always sends the full original QNAME and original QTYPE to the upstream name server. This document obsoletes RFC 7816. In many standards track documents several words are used to signify the requirements in the specification. These words are often capitalized. This document defines these words as they should be interpreted in IETF documents. This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. RFC 2119 specifies common key words that may be used in protocol specifications. This document aims to reduce the ambiguity by clarifying that only UPPERCASE usage of the key words have the defined special meanings. This document defines a method (serve-stale) for recursive resolvers to use stale DNS data to avoid outages when authoritative nameservers cannot be reached to refresh expired data. One of the motivations for serve-stale is to make the DNS more resilient to DoS attacks and thereby make them less attractive as an attack vector. This document updates the definitions of TTL from RFCs 1034 and 1035 so that data can be kept in the cache beyond the TTL expiry; it also updates RFC 2181 by interpreting values with the high-order bit set as being positive, rather than 0, and suggests a cap of 7 days. Informative References n.d. n.d. Independent Fastly Cryptography Consulting LLC Cloudflare This document describes a mechanism in Transport Layer Security (TLS) for encrypting a ClientHello message under a server public key. Discussion Venues This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC. Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at https://github.com/tlswg/draft-ietf-tls-esni (https://github.com/tlswg/draft-ietf-tls-esni). Salesforce SIE Europe, U.G. NLnet Labs This document recommends improved DNS resolver behavior with respect to the processing of Name Server (NS) resource record (RR) sets (RRsets) during iterative resolution. When following a referral response from an authoritative server to a child zone, DNS resolvers should explicitly query the authoritative NS RRset at the apex of the child zone and cache this in preference to the NS RRset on the parent side of the zone cut. The (A and AAAA) address RRsets in the additional section from referral responses and authoritative NS answers for the names of the NS RRset, should similarly be re-queried and used to replace the entries with the lower trustworthiness ranking in cache. Resolvers should also periodically revalidate the child delegation by re-querying the parent zone at the expiration of the TTL of the parent side NS RRset. The Domain Name System (DNS) is defined in literally dozens of different RFCs. The terminology used by implementers and developers of DNS protocols, and by operators of DNS systems, has changed in the decades since the DNS was first defined. This document gives current definitions for many of the terms used in the DNS in a single document. This document updates RFC 2308 by clarifying the definitions of "forwarder" and "QNAME". It obsoletes RFC 8499 by adding multiple terms and clarifications. Comprehensive lists of changed and new definitions can be found in Appendices A and B. Akamai Technologies Akamai Technologies Salesforce A delegation in the Domain Name System (DNS) is a mechanism that enables efficient and distributed management of the DNS namespace. It involves delegating authority over subdomains to specific DNS servers via NS records, allowing for a hierarchical structure and distributing the responsibility for maintaining DNS records. An NS record contains the hostname of the nameserver for the delegated namespace. Any facilities of that nameserver must be discovered through other mechanisms. This document proposes a new extensible DNS record type, DELEG, which contains additional information about the delegated namespace and the capabilities of authoritative nameservers for the delegated namespace. Formally, any DNS Resource Record (RR) may occur under any domain name. However, some services use an operational convention for defining specific interpretations of an RRset by locating the records in a DNS branch under the parent domain to which the RRset actually applies. The top of this subordinate branch is defined by a naming convention that uses a reserved node name, which begins with the underscore character (e.g., "_name"). The underscored naming construct defines a semantic scope for DNS record types that are associated with the parent domain above the underscored branch. This specification explores the nature of this DNS usage and defines the "Underscored and Globally Scoped DNS Node Names" registry with IANA. The purpose of this registry is to avoid collisions resulting from the use of the same underscored name for different services. Akamai Technologies Within the DNS, there is no mechanism for authoritative servers to advertise which transport methods they are capable of. If secure transport methods are adopted by authoritative operators, transport signaling would be required to negotiate how authoritative servers would be contacted by resolvers. This document provides two new Resource Record Types, NS2 and NS2T, to facilitate this negotiation by allowing zone owners to signal how the authoritative nameserver(s) for their zone(s) may accept queries.

Acknowledgments The idea to utilize SVCB based RRs to signal capabilities was first proposed by Tim April in . The idea to utilize SVCB for extensible delegations (and also the idea described in this document) emerged from the DNS Hackathon at the IETF 118. The following participants contributed to this brainstorm session: Vandan Adhvaryu, Roy Arends, David Blacka, Manu Bretelle, Vladimír Čunát, Klaus Darilion, Peter van Dijk, Christian Elmerot, Bob Halley, Shumon Huque, Shane Kerr, David C Lawrence, Edward Lewis, George Michaelson, Erik Nygren, Libor Peltan, Ben Schwartz, Petr Špaček, Jan Včelák and Ralf Weber