INTERNET-DRAFT Donald E. Eastlake 3rd CyberCash, Inc. Expires: 27 August 1996 28 February 1996 Secure Domain Name System Dynamic Update ------ ------ ---- ------ ------- ------ Status of This Document This draft, file name draft-ietf-dnssec-update-00.txt, is intended to be become a Proposed Standard RFC. Distribution of this document is unlimited. Comments should be sent to the DNS security mailing list or the author. This document is an Internet-Draft. 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. Internet-Drafts may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is not appropriate to use Internet- Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as a ``working draft'' or ``work in progress.'' To learn the current status of any Internet-Draft, please check the 1id-abstracts.txt listing contained in the Internet-Drafts Shadow Directories on ds.internic.net (East USA), ftp.isi.edu (West USA), nic.nordu.net (North Europe), ftp.nis.garr.it (South Europe), munnari.oz.au (Pacific Rim), or ftp.is.co.za (Africa). Eastlake [Page 1] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 Abstract Domain Name System (DNS) protocol extensions have been defined to authenticate the data in DNS and provide key distribution services (draft-ietf-dnssec-secext-*.txt). DNS Dynamic Update operations have also been defined (draft-ietf-dnsind-dynDNS-*.txt>, but without a detailed description of strong security for the update operation. This draft describes how to use DNS digital signatures covering requests and data to secure updates and restrict them to those authorized to perform them as indicated by the updater's possession of cryptographic keys. Acknowledgements The contributions of the following person to this draft are gratefully acknowledged: Charlie Kaufman Eastlake [Page 2] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 Table of Contents Status of This Document....................................1 Abstract...................................................2 Acknowledgements...........................................2 Table of Contents..........................................3 1. Introduction............................................4 1.1 Overview of DNS Dynamic Update.........................4 1.2 Overview of DNS Security...............................4 2. Two Basic Strategies....................................6 3. Keys....................................................8 3.1 Update Keys............................................8 3.1.1 Update Key Name Scope................................8 3.1.2 Update Key Class Scope...............................8 3.1.3 Update Key Signatory Field...........................8 3.2 Zone Keys and Update Modes............................10 3.3 Wildcard Key Punch Through............................11 4. Update Signatures......................................12 4.1 Update Request Signatures.............................12 4.2 Update Data Signatures................................12 5. The in-key.int. Domain.................................13 6. Security Considerations................................15 References................................................15 Author's Address..........................................15 Expiration and File Name..................................15 Eastlake [Page 3] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 1. Introduction Dynamic update operations have been defined for the Domain Name System (DNS) in draft-ietf-dsnind-dynDNS-*.txt but without a detailed description of strong security for those updates. Means of securing the DNS and using it for key distribution have been defined in draft-ietf-dnssec-sexect-*.txt. This draft proposes techniques based on the defined DNS security mechanisms to authenticate DNS updates. In addition, a secure in- key.int. domain is defined with special security policies. This in- key domain permits access to entities by their key if the entity has been registered in that domain. Familiarity with the DNS system [RFC 1034, 1035] is assumed. Familiarity with the DNS security and dynamic update proposals will be helpful. 1.1 Overview of DNS Dynamic Update DNS dynamic update defines a new DNS opcode, new DNS request and response structure if that opcode is used, and new error codes. An update can specify complex combinations of deletion and insertion (with or without pre-existence testing) of resource records (RRs) with one or more owner names; however, all testing and changes for any particular DNS update request are restricted to a single zone. The server for a secure dynamic zone must increment the zone SOA serial number when an update occurs or the next time the SOA is retrieved if one or more updates have occurred since the previous SOA retrieval and the updates themselves did not update the SOA. 1.2 Overview of DNS Security DNS security authenticates data in the DNS by also storing digital signatures in the DNS as resource records (RRs). A SIG RR provides a digital signature on the set of all RRs with the same owner name and class as the SIG and whose type is the type covered by the SIG. The SIG RR cryptographically binds the covered RR set to the signer, time signed, signature expiration date, etc. There is a key associated with every secure zone and all data in the secure zone is signed either by this zone key or by a dynamic update key tracing its authority to the zone key. DNS security also defines transaction SIGs and request SIGs. Transaction SIGs appear at the end of a response. Transaction SIGs Eastlake [Page 4] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 authenticate the response and bind it to the corresponding request with the key of the host that the responding DNS server is running on. Request SIGs appear at the end of a request and authenticate the request. Request SIGs are the primary means of authenticating update requests. DNS security also permits the storage of public keys in the DNS via KEY RRs. These KEY RRs are also, of course, authenticated by SIG RRs. KEY RRs for zones are stored in their superzone and subzone servers, if any, so that the secure DNS tree of zones can be traversed by a security aware resolver. Eastlake [Page 5] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 2. Two Basic Strategies A dynamic secure zone is any secure DNS zone containing one or more KEY RRs that can authorize dynamic updates, i.e., entity or user KEY RRs with the signatory field non-zero and whose zone KEY RR signatory field indicates that updates are implemented. There are two basic modes of dynamic secure zone which relate to the update strategy, mode A and mode B. A summary comparison table is given below and then each mode is described. SUMMARY OF DYNAMIC SECURE ZONE MODES CRITERIA: | MODE A | MODE B -------------------------+--------------------+------------------- Zone Key | Off line | On line -------------------------+--------------------+------------------- Server Workload | Low | High -------------------------+--------------------+------------------- Static Data Security | Very High | Medium-High -------------------------+--------------------+------------------- Dynamic Data Security | Medium | Medium-High -------------------------+--------------------+------------------- Dynamic Key Rollover | No | Yes -------------------------+--------------------+------------------- Key Restrictions | Fine grain | Coarse grain -------------------------+--------------------+------------------- For mode A, the zone owner key and static zone master file are always kept off-line for maximum security of the static zone contents. Any dynamicly added or changed RRs are signed in the secure zone by their authorizing dynamic update key and they are backed up, along with this SIG RR, in a separate online dynamic master file. In this type of zone, server computation is minimized since the server need only check signatures on the update data, which has already been signed by the updater, generally a much faster operation than signing data. However, the AXFR SIG and NXT RRs which covers the zone under the zone key will not cover dynamically added data. Thus, for type A dynamic secure zones, zone transfer security is not provided for dynamically added RRs, where they could be omitted, and authentication is not provided for the server denial of the existence of a dynamically added type. Key rollover for an entity that can authorize dynamic updates is more cumbersome since the authority of their key must be traceable to a zone key and so, in general, they must securely communicate a new key to the zone authority for manual transfer to the off line static master file. Because the dynamicly added RRs retain their update KEY signed SIG, finer grained control control of updates can be implemented via bits in the KEY RR signatory field. NOTE: for this mode the zone SOA must be signed by a dynamic update key and that private key must be kept on line so that the SOA can be changed for updates. Eastlake [Page 6] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 For mode B, the zone owner key and master file are kept on-line at the zone primary server. When authenticated updates succeed, SIGs under the zone key for the resulting data (including the possible NXT type bit map changes) are calculated and these SIG (and possible NXT) changes are entered into the zone and the unified on-line master file. (The zone transfer AXFR SIG may be recalculated for each update or on demand when a zone transfer is requested and it is out of date.) This requires considerably more computational effort on the part of the server as the public/private keys are generally arranged so that signing (calculating a SIG) is more effort than verifying a signature. The security on static data in the zone is decreased because the ultimate state of the static date being served and the ultimate zone authority private key are all on-line on the net. This means that if the primary server is subverted, false data could be authenticated to secondaries and other servers/resolvers. On the other hand, this mode of operation means that data added dynamically is more secure than in mode A. Dynamic data will be covered by the AXFR SIG and thus fully protected during zone transfers and will be included in NXT RRs so that it can be falsely denied by a server only to the same extent that static data can (i.e., if it is within a wild card scope). Maintaining the zone key on-line also means that dynamic update keys which are signed by the zone key can be dynamically updated since the zone key is available to dynamically sign new values. Finally, because the zone key is used to sign all the zone data, the information as to who originated the current state of dynamic RR sets is lost making unavailable the effects of some of the update control bits in the KEY RR signatory field. NOTE: The Mode A / Mode B distinction only effects the validation and performance of update requests. It has no effect on retrievals. [It might be possible to dream up additional modes but I think they would be more complicated. A mode where things are temporarily signed by the entity key but lated changed to being signed off line by the zone key doesn't work well. You could also have a mode where the zone key SIGs were added to and also covered the entity signature. But the problem with any delayed addition of zone signatures tends to be that you have to delay deletes of such material until you can zone sign new NXT RRs, etc.] Eastlake [Page 7] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 3. Keys Dynamic update requests depend on update keys as described in section 3.1 below. In addition, the zone secure dynamic update mode and availability of some options is indicated in the zone key. Finally, a special rule is used in searching for KEYs to validate updates as described in section 3.3. 3.1 Update Keys All update requests to a secure zone must include signatures by one or more key(s) that together can authorize that update. In order for the Domain Name System (DNS) server receiving the request to confirm this, the key or keys must be available to and authenticated by that server as a specially flagged KEY Resource Record. The one exception is in the in-key.int. domain as described in section 5. The scope of authority of such keys is indicated by their KEY RR owner name, class, and signatory field flags as described below. In addition, such KEY RRs must be entity or user keys and not have the authentication use prohibited bit on. All parts of the actual update must be within the scope of at least one of the keys used for a request SIG on the update request as described in section 4. 3.1.1 Update Key Name Scope The owner name of any update authorizing KEY RR must (1) be the same as the owner name of any RRs being added or deleted or (2) if the owner name of the KEY is a wildcard, it must include within its extended scope (see section 3.3) the name of any RRs being added or deleted and those RRs must be in the same zone. 3.1.2 Update Key Class Scope The class of any update authorizing KEY RR must be the same as the class of any RR's being added or deleted. 3.1.3 Update Key Signatory Field The four bit "signatory field" (see draft-ietf-dnssec-secext-*.txt) of any update authorizing KEY RR must be non-zero. The bits have the meanings described below for non-zone keys (see section 3.2 for zone Eastlake [Page 8] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 type keys). UPDATE KEY RR SIGNATORY FIELD BITS 0 1 2 3 +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | zone | strong | unique | general | +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ Bit 0, zone control - If nonzero, this key is authorized to attach, detach, and move zones by creating and deleting NS, glue, and zone KEY RR(s). If zero, the key can not authorize any update that would effect such RRs. This bit is meaningful for both type A and type B dynamic secure zones. NOTE: do not confuse the "zone" signatory field bit with the "zone" key type bit. Bit 1, strong update - If nonzero, this key is authorized to add and delete RRs even if there are other RRs with the same owner name and class that are authenticated by a SIG signed with a different dynamic update KEY. If zero, the key can only authorize updates where any existing dynamic RRs of the same owner and class are authenticated by a SIG using the same key. This bit is meaningful only for type A dynamic zones and is ignored in type B dynamic zones. Keeping this bit zero on multiple KEY RRs with the same or nested wild card owner names permits multiple entities to exist that can create and delete names but can not effect RRs with different owner names from any they created. In effect, this creates two levels of dynamic update key, strong and weak, where weak keys are limited in interfering with each other but a strong key can interfere with any weak keys or other strong keys. Bit 2, unique name update - If nonzero, this key is authorized to add and update RRs for only a single owner name. If there already exist RRs with multiple names signed by this key, they may be updated but no new name created until the number of existing names is reduced to zero. This bit is meaningful only for mode A dynamic zones and is ignored in mode B dynamic zones. This bit is meaningful only if the owner name is a wildcard. (Any dynamic update KEY with a non-wildcard name is, in effect, a unique name update key.) This bit can be used to restrict a KEY from flooding a zone with new names. In conjunction with a local administratively imposed limit on the number of dynamic RRs with a particular name, it can completely restrict a KEY from flooding a zone with RRs. Eastlake [Page 9] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 Bit 3, general update - The general update signatory field bit has no special meaning. If the other three bits are all zero, it must be one so that the field is non-zero in the update key. The meaning of all values of the signatory field with the general bit and one or more other signatory field bits on is reserved. All the signatory bit update authorizations described above only apply if the update is within the name and class scope as per sections 3.1.1 and 3.1.2. 3.2 Zone Keys and Update Modes Zone type keys are automatically authorized to sign anything in their zone, of course, regardless of the value of their signatory field. For zone keys, the signatory field bits have different means than they they do for update keys, as shown below: ZONE KEY RR SIGNATORY FIELD BITS 0 1 2 3 +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ | mode | strong | unique | general | +-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+ Bit 0, mode - This bit indicates the update mode for this zone. Zero indicates mode A while a one indicates mode B. Bit 1, strong update - If nonzero, this indicates that the "strong" key feature described in section 3.1.3 above is implemented and enabled for this secure zone. If zero, the feature is not available. Has no effect if the zone is a mode B secure update zone. Bit 2, unique name update - If nonzero, this indicates that the "unique name" feature described in section 3.1.3 above is implemented and enabled for this secure zone. If zero, this feature is not available. Has no effect if the zone is a mode B secure update zone. Bit 3, general - This bit has no special meeting. If dynamic update for a zone is supported and the other bits in the zone key signatory field are zero, it must be a one. The meaning of zone keys where the signatory field has the general bit and other bits on is reserved. If there are multiple KEY RRs for a zone and zone policy is in transition, they might have different signatory fields. In that Eastlake [Page 10] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 case, strong and unique name restrictions must be enforced as long as there is a non-expired zone key being advertised that indicates node A with the strong or unique name bit on respectively. Mode B updates must be supported as long as there is a non-expired zone key that indicates mode B. Mode A updates may be treated as mode B updates at server option if non-expired zone keys indicate that both are supported. A server that will be executing update operations on a zone, that is the primary master server, MUST not advertize a zone key that will attract requests for a mode or features that it can not support. 3.3 Wildcard Key Punch Through Just as a zone key is valid throughout the entire zone, update keys with wildcard names are valid throughout their extended scope, within the zone. That is, they remain remain valid for any name that would match them, even existing specific names within their apparent scope. If this were not so, then whenever a name within a wildcard scope was created by dynamic update, it would be necessary to first create a copy of the KEY RR with this name, because otherwise the existence of the more specific name would hide the authorizing KEY RR and would make later updates impossible. An updater could create such a KEY RR but could not zone sign it. They would have to sign it with the same key using the wildcard name as signer. Thus in creating, for example, one hundred type A RRs authorized by a *.1.1.1.in-addr.arpa. KEY RR, without key punch through 100 As, 100 KEYs, and 200 SIGs would have to be created as opposed to merely 100 As and 100 SIGs with key punch through. Eastlake [Page 11] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 4. Update Signatures Two kinds of signatures can appear in updates. Request signatures, which are always required, cover the entire request and authenticate the DNS header, including opcode, counts, etc., as well as the data. Data signatures, on the other hand, appear only among the RRs to be added and are only required for mode A operation. 4.1 Update Request Signatures An update can effect multiple owner names in a zone. It may be that these different names are covered by different dynamic update keys. For every owner name and class effected, the updater must know a private key valid for that name and class and must prove this by appending request SIG RRs under each such key. As specified in draft-ietf-dnssec-secext-*.txt, a request signature is a SIG RR occurring at the end of a request with a type covered field of zero. For an update, request signatures occur in the Additional section. The final "Reserved" section of update requests in draft-ietf-dnsind-dynDNS-06.txt is hereby redefined as the Additional section and its corresponding count field is relabeled ARCOUNT. Each request SIG signs the entire request, including DNS header, but excluding any other request SIG(s). 4.2 Update Data Signatures Mode A dynamic secure zones require that the update requester provide SIG RRs that will authenticate the after update state of all RR sets that are changed by the update and are non-empty after the update. These SIG RRs appear in the request as RRs to be added and the request must delete any previous data SIG RRs that are invalidated by the request. In Mode B dynamic secure zones, all zone data is authenticated by zone key SIG RRs. In this case data signatures need not be included with the update. A resolver can determine which mode an updatable secure zone is using by examining the signatory field bits of the zone KEY RR (see section 3.2). Eastlake [Page 12] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 5. The in-key.int. Domain A special domain is defined, the in-key.int. domain, to permit inverse lookup by key. DNS servers for zones that include any updatable part of this domain have a special update policy and all servers and resolvers have a special authentication policy for this domain. Servers authenticate updates for this domain based on the requesters knowledge of the private key corresponding to a public key whose hash is encoded into the RR owner name. Normally the only RRs stored in this domain will be a KEY RR and an authenticating SIG with the SIG signer field pointing to the normal owner of the KEY. It is expected that an administrative restriction may be placed on the number of RRs stored under any particular owner name or charges imposed for additions to this domain. [It would be possible to just have a PTR and a SIG here but then you would always have to actually retrieved the KEY(s) at where the PTR points to to validate anything. Or you could have both a KEY and a PTR and two SIGs but that would be twice as bulky.] The owner name associated with a key is ..algorithm.in-key.int. key-hash is the hex representation of the SHA1 [SHA1] hash of the "public key" portion of the corresponding KEY RR (the portion of the RDATA after the algorithm octet) with label separating dots added every fourth hex digit. [should I go for decimal here and for footprint?] [I'm afraid of hash collisions with MD5 so I went for the longer SHA...] key-footprint is the hex representation of the key footprint field of the KEY RR. [yet more bits to make collisions even less likely] [could add a key-length label instead of or in addition to the key- footprint...] algorithm is the decimal number designating the public key algorithm from the "algorithm" octet portion of the corresponding key. Thus, at this time, algorithm will be either 1 or 254. Entries for algorithm 253 are prohibited. For example, the RRs in this domain for a purported key with actual owner name example.tld could be as follows: $ORIGIN xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.xxxx.1.in-key.int. IN KEY 0 1 ( 45IkskceFGgiWCn/GxHhai6VAuHAoNUz4YoUMxFcby9k/yvedMfQgKzhH5er0Mu/vILz Eastlake [Page 13] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 80jEeC8aTrO+KKmCaY1tVfSCSqQYn6//11U6Nld= ;key ) IN SIG KEY 1 3 ( ;type-cov=PTR, alg=1, labels=3 19991202030405 ;signature expiration 19951211100908 ;time signed 2143658709 ;key footprint example.tld. ;signer MxFcby9k/yvedMfQgKzhH5er0Mu/vILz45IkskceFGgiWCn/GxHhai6VAuHAoNUz4YoU 1tVfSCSqQYn6//11U6Nld80jEeC8aTrO+KKmCaY= ;signature ) Retrievals from leaves of this zone are authenticated by validating the SIG against the KEY with the same owner name and checking that this owner name correctly reflects the hash and key footprint of the key. Thus, for this type of validation only, the signer name is ignored and the SIG is NOT traced back to a known trusted key. In addition, entries in this domain are "eternal" in that the SIG time signed and signature expiration are ignored. Note that entries in this special zone, even when authenticated, give only a hint that the KEY stored there is or was valid for the signer name. A separate retrieval from the signer name must be done for confirmation that they key is currently valid. Registration in the in-key.int. domain is voluntary. All servers that include key storage leaves of the in-key.int. domain MUST operate in mode A. Eastlake [Page 14] INTERNET-DRAFT Secure DNS Update 28 February 1996 6. Security Considerations Any zone permitting dynamic updates is inherently less secure than a static secure zone maintained off line as recommended in draft-ietf- dnssec-secext-*.txt. If nothing else, secure dynamic update requires on line change to and re-signing of the zone SOA resource record (RR) to increase the SOA serial number. This means that compromise of the primary server host could lead to arbitrary serial number changes. Isolation of dynamic RRs to separate zones from from holding most static RRs can limit the damage that could occur from breach of a dynamic zone's security. References draft-ietf-dnssec-secext-*.txt draft-ietf-dnsind-dynDNS-*.txt [RFC1034] - Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities, P. Mockapetris, November 1987 [RFC1035] - Domain Names - Implementation and Specifications [SHA1] Author's Address Donald E. Eastlake, 3rd CyberCash, Inc. 318 Acton Street Carlisle, MA 01741 USA Telephone: +1 508-287-4877 +1 508-371-7148 (fax) +1 703-620-4200 (main office, Reston, Virginia, USA) email: dee@cybercash.com Expiration and File Name This draft expires 27 August 1996. Its file name is draft-ietf-dnssec-update-00.txt. Eastlake [Page 15]