DHC Working Group Carl Smith Internet Draft Sun Microsystems, Inc. Ted Lemon Nominum, Inc. Updates: RFC 2132 March 2003 Expires September 2003 Considerations for the use of the Host Name option Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress". To view the entire list of current Internet-Drafts, please check the 1id-abstracts.txt" listing contained in the Internet-Drafts Shadow Directories on ftp.is.co.za (Africa), ftp.nordu.net (Northern Europe), ftp.nic.it (Southern Europe), munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim), ftp.ietf.org (US East Coast), or ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast). Abstract This document clarifies the use of the DHCP Host Name option. The primary point of this clarification addresses the use of the option by clients to request proxy DNS updates by DHCP servers. 1. Introduction The initial concept of the Host Name option, as documented in RFC 1533[1] and duplicated in RFC 2132 [2], was simply to allow a DHCP server to supply a client with its name (``This option specifies the name of the client''). The DHCP client was merely a consumer of the option information. Even in this case, confusion has been reported in interactions with various domain name options. Behavior of client and server when the client supplies the option was, and still is, unspecified. In the intervening years, the Smith & Lemon" [Page 1] RFC DRAFT March 2003 ability to easily update Domain Name Service information [3] has encouraged the use of this option by DHCP clients as a way to request that DHCP servers issue proxy DNS updates on their behalf. Lack of a document describing its exact usage has led, as one would surely expect, to interoperability problems. It is the purpose of this document to outline the expectations that clients and servers should have when using the Host Name option. 2. Definitions The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY" and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [4]. This document also uses the following terms: "DHCP client" DHCP client or "client" is an Internet host using DHCP to obtain configuration parameters such as a network address. "DHCP server" A DHCP server or "server" is an Internet host that returns configuration parameters to DHCP clients. "FQDN" A fully-qualified name, including the host part and Domain Name system domain. 3. Interactions with Name Services RFC 2132 [2] indicates that the value supplied in the Host Name option may or may not be fully-qualified, suggesting the use of the Domain Name option to retrieve the domain name. This, plus the possibility of interactions between DNS (RFC 1034 [5] and RFC 1035 [6]) and other naming services motivates us to clarify and expand the description of the expected behavior: if a DHCP server supplies both Host Name and Domain Name options to a client, the host name SHOULD NOT be fully-qualified if a DHCP server supplies only a Host Name option, the host name SHOULD be fully qualified; the server MUST append only DNS domain names in forming a fully-qualified name a client MUST check to see whether a Host Name option contains a fully-qualified name and if so, MUST NOT append the value of the Smith & Lemon" [Page 2] RFC DRAFT March 2003 Domain Name option (if present) in forming its fully-qualified domain name since a Host Name option's value may be fully-qualified only by supplying the DNS domain name, a client that receives a fully- qualified name in the Host Name option MAY infer the DNS domain name from the suffix of the supplied host name. This inference remains valid even in the presence of client configuration infor- mation or policies that prefer other name services in favor of, or in place of, DNS. In summary, Host Name Host Name not fully-qualifled fully-qualified _____________________________________________ Domain Name | no derivable FQDN | infer Domain Name | option absent | | from Host Name suffix | |____________________|________________________| Domain Name | derive FQDN by | Domain Name MUST be a | option present | Host and Domain | suffix of Host Name | | Name concatenation | | |____________________|________________________| 4. DNS Updates for DHCP Clients DNS maintains Resource Records (RRs) for mapping between IP addresses FQDNs. Specifically, A records map FQDNs to IP addresses and PTR records map IP addresses to FQDNs. Several options are available to DHCP clients interested in updating A and PTR records: issuing direct updates to DNS using the DHCP client FQDN option [7] using the DHCP Host Name option Either of the first two methods has the advantage of offering the client a number of approaches for fine-tuning DNS update requests as well as direct feedback on the success or failure of the intended operations. Both are to be preferred over the latter: use of the Host Name option does not even guarantee that the DHCP server will attempt any DNS updates on a client's behalf. It should be con- sidered deprecated. Nevertheless, support for this method of requesting proxy DNS updates is widespread and it may be viewed as appropriate for situations in which there are no requirements for other finely-tunable methods. Smith & Lemon" [Page 3] RFC DRAFT March 2003 4.1 DHCP Client Considerations and Behavior A DHCP client that uses the Host Name option to request a DNS update MUST be prepared to independently verify the success or failure of the request before using the name in a manner that would imply its validity. If a DHCP server returns the requested name in the DHCPACK's Host Name option, the client MAY infer that the server has honored its request. There are a number of reasons that a DHCP server may fail to return a Host Name option; nothing should be inferred from the option's absence in the DHCPACK. The client MAY supply the option on subse- quent RENEW operations as a method of retrying the request. However, if the Host Name option is absent in the DHCPACK, the client MUST NOT use the requested name until it has verified the validity of the association between it and the IP address supplied in the yiaddr field. Moreover, if the name returned in the DHCPACK is different from the one requested, the client MUST use the new name. A DHCP client MAY send either an unqualified or fully-qualified name in the Host Name option. Clients sending unqualified names are implicitly relying on DHCP servers to associate the clients with the appropriate zones before issuing any updates to DNS. A DHCP client in INIT state SHOULD fill in the requested host name in the DHCPDIS- COVER packet. It MUST do so in its subsequent DHCPREQUEST packet. Clients in states other than INIT SHOULD avoid ambiguity in their requests by supplying the same Host Name option value on subsequent DHCPREQUESTs as was supplied on their original (INIT state) DHCPRE- QUEST. A client that wishes to change its host name MAY request it by sup- plying a Host Name option with the new name in a subsequent RENEW request. As with the initial request, a client MUST NOT use the newly-requested name until it has verified that it is now valid. 4.2 DHCP Server Considerations and Behavior Use of the FQDN option makes it possible to easily separate update operations into pieces corresponding to what are thought of as the traditional ownership boundaries: DHCP servers own the addresses they lease, while the clients own their names. This boundary is not present when the Host Name option is used: the implied proxy update request assumes that the DHCP server has sufficient privilege to change both the A and PTR records. That is, it ``owns'' both. For this and other reasons, use of the FQDN option is preferred: a DHCP server that receives both a Host Name option and a client FQDN Smith & Lemon" [Page 4] RFC DRAFT March 2003 option MUST prefer the FQDN option. In such a case, the server SHOULD behave as if the Host Name option is not present. A DHCP server MAY use the value of the Host Name option in a DHCPDIS- COVER packet in some limited ways: it may check to see whether the requested name belongs to an address that ls leaseable to the client, saving the need for a DNS update, or it may begin preparation of an update request. The server MUST wait for the DHCPREQUEST before ini- tiating any update operations. DNS updates may not complete in a timely manner, forcing the DHCP server to reply to a client before the update has finished. Alterna- tively, an error may be reported in response to the update request. It is not possible to distinguish these cases for the client's bene- fit, and the the DHCP server simply omits the Host Name option from its DHCPACK. For simplicity of implementation, servers may choose to ``orphan'' any outstanding requests, taking no note of subsequent reports of success or failure. Servers that choose to keep track of the results of update requests SHOULD use successful completion reports to avoid subsequent unnecessary work; those servers SHOULD ignore reports of soft, transitory errors. Hard errors SHOULD be logged by the server so that corrective action, if any, may be taken by an administrator. Servers MAY choose to not cache hard failures, retrying on subsequent DHCPREQUESTs in the hope that the errors logged have led to a remedy. Issuing DNS updates on behalf of DHCP clients is an inherently state- ful operation. A DHCP server MUST commit to stable storage the necessary information regarding any updates it successfully makes on behalf of its clients. This state may be needed when a lease expires when communicating with a failover partner on subsequent lease renewals and may need to be recovered when the server is restarted. When a lease expires, a DHCP server MAY use this stored information to expunge the name-to-address association it created on the client's behalf. Because the use of the Host Name option cedes the ownership of the name to the server, a server MAY instead choose to allow the association to continue, saving itself work now and possibly sparing the need for a future update. A server SHOULD reevaluate the Host Name option each time a client sends a RENEW request via a DHCPREQUEST, or the server MAY choose to Smith & Lemon" [Page 5] RFC DRAFT March 2003 view the update request as an action to be taken once, upon initial lease of an address. Servers that take the former view offer their clients the possibility of changing the name associated with a currently valid lease, but may incur additional processing costs because of it. Servers taking the latter view do not afford clients the opportunity to change names, but more importantly do not allow them to retry failed requests, possibly even with different host names. For this reason, the former behavior is preferred: servers SHOULD reevaluate the Host Name option on each RENEW. Some servers interpret a Host Name option on the initial DHCPREQUEST, followed by the absence of the option on subsequent RENEW DHCPRE- QUESTs as a request by the client to delete a name-to-address associ- ation. Because clients that expect DNS updates to apply for the duration of their leases may not send Host Name options when RENEW- ing, servers should be cautious when interpreting the absence of the option as a request for deletion of the association; if they choose such behavior, servers SHOULD offer an administrative facility for disabling it. Servers that do not normally operate in this manner MAY similarly choose to offer an administrative facility to enable it. 5. Security Considerations Use of the Host Name option to petition DHCP servers to do proxy DNS updates is undeniably convenient for the clients but it also opens the door for denial of service attacks and identity impersonation. Administrators MUST carefully evaluate the balance between offering the convenience of proxy DNS updates and the attendant risks. Clients using the Host Name option to request a DNS update will likely lack a means of authenticating themselves (otherwise, they might have dealt directly, and securely, with DNS). DHCP servers SHOULD use all means at their disposal to verify the requests. Use of DHCP Authentication ([8]) is far from common but other means, such as previous authentication to a network access server via PPP or proprietary controls such as exist in many broadband cable systems, may be available. A DHCP server must be prepared to arbitrate between multiple clients that all claim the same fully-qualified name. It SHOULD give prefer- ence to a client whose identity it can verify. Failing that, it MUST use the method described in [9] to ensure that an association made on behalf of one client is not inadvertently changed by another. Smith & Lemon" [Page 6] RFC DRAFT March 2003 6. Normative References [1] Alexander, S. and Droms, R., "DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor Extensions", RFC 1533, October 1993. [2] Alexander, S. and Droms, R., "DHCP Options and BOOTP Vendor Extensions", RFC 2132, March 1997. [3] Vixie, P., Thomson, S., Rekhter, Y., Bound, J., "Dynamic Updates in the Domain Name System (DNS UPDATE)", RFC 2136, April 1997. [4] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to indicate requirement levels", RFC 2119, March 1997. [6] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - Implementation and Specifica- tion", RFC 1035, November 1987. [7] Stapp, M. and Rekhter, Y., "The DHCP Client FQDN Option", draft- ietf-dhc-fqdn-option-05.txt, November 2002. [8] Droms, R. and Arbaugh, W., "Authentication for DHCP Messages", RFC 3118, June 2001. [9] Stapp, M., "Resolution of DNS Name Conflicts Among DHCP Clients", draft-ietf-dhc-ddns-resolution-05.txt, November 2002. 7. Informative References [5] Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - Concepts and Facilities", RFC 1034, November 1987. 8. Author Information Carl Smith Sun Microsystems, Inc. 901 San Antonio Road Palo Alto, CA 94043 USA email: cs@Eng.Sun.COM Ted Lemon Nominum, Inc. 950 Charter Street Redwood City, CA 94043 USA email: Ted.Lemon@nominum.com 9. Expiration This document will expire on September 3, 2003. 10. Full Copyright Statement Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved. Smith & Lemon" [Page 7] RFC DRAFT March 2003 This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of develop- ing Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English. The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns. 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