DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) overview (original) (raw)

The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is a feature of the Domain Name System (DNS) that authenticates responses to domain name lookups. It does not provide privacy protections for those lookups, but prevents attackers from manipulating or poisoning the responses to DNS requests.

To protect domains from spoofing and poisoning attacks, enable and configure DNSSEC in the following places:

1. The DNS zone. If you enable DNSSEC for a zone, Cloud DNS automatically manages the creation and rotation of DNSSEC keys (DNSKEY records) and the signing of zone data with resource record digital signature (RRSIG) records.
2. The top-level domain (TLD) registry (for example.com, this would be .com). In your TLD registry, you must have a DS record that authenticates a DNSKEY record in your zone. Do this by activating DNSSECat your domain registrar.
3. The DNS resolver. For full DNSSEC protection, you must use a DNS resolver that validates signatures for DNSSEC-signed domains. You can enable validation for individual systems or your local caching resolvers if you administer your network's DNS services.
   For more information about DNSSEC validation, see the following resources:
   • Do you have DNSSEC validation enabled?
   • Deploying DNSSEC with BIND and Ubuntu Server (Part 1)
   • DNSSEC Guide: Chapter 3. Validation
   • DNSSEC
     You can also configure systems to use public resolvers that validate DNSSEC, notably Google Public DNSand Verisign Public DNS.

The second point limits the domain names where DNSSEC can work. Both the registrar and registrymust support DNSSEC for the TLD that you are using. If you cannot add a DS record through your domain registrar to activate DNSSEC, enabling DNSSEC in Cloud DNS has no effect.

Before enabling DNSSEC, check the following resources:

• The DNSSEC documentation for both your domain registrar and TLD registry
• The Google Cloud community tutorial's domain registrar-specific instructions
• The ICANN listof domain registrar DNSSEC support to confirm DNSSEC support for your domain.

If the TLD registry supports DNSSEC, but your registrar does not (or does not support it for that TLD), you might be able to transfer your domains to a different registrar that does. After you have completed that process, you can activate DNSSEC for the domain.

Management operations

For step-by-step instructions for managing DNSSEC, see the following resources:

• To change the DNSSEC state of the zone from Transfer to On, seeLeaving DNSSEC transfer state.
• To enable DNSSEC for delegated subdomains, seeDelegating DNSSEC-signed subdomains.

Record set types enhanced by DNSSEC

For more information about record set types and other record types, see the following resources:

• To control which public certificate authorities (CAs) can generate TLS or other certificates for your domain, seeCAA records.
• To enable opportunistic encryption through IPsec tunnels, seeIPSECKEY records.

DNS record types with DNSSEC-secured zones

For more information about DNS record types and other record types, see the following resource:

• To enable SSH client applications to validate SSH servers, seeSSHFP records.

Migration or transfer of DNSSEC-enabled zones

Cloud DNS supports migrating DNSSEC-enabled zones where DNSSEC has been activated at the domain registry without breaking the chain of trust. You can migrate zones to or from other DNS operators that also support migration.

• To migrate a DNSSEC-signed zone to Cloud DNS, seeMigrate DNSSEC-signed zones to Cloud DNS.
• To migrate a DNSSEC-signed zone to another DNS operator, seeMigrate DNSSEC-signed zones from Cloud DNS.

If your existing domain is hosted by your registrar, we recommend migrating the name servers to Cloud DNS before transferring to another registrar.

What's next

• To view DNSSEC key records, see View DNSSEC keys.
• To work with managed zones, seeCreate, modify, and delete zones.
• To find solutions for common issues that you might encounter when using Cloud DNS, see Troubleshooting.
• To get an overview of Cloud DNS, seeCloud DNS overview.