DNSSEC breakdown

The topic of our article today is the DNSSEC. It can be seen as a solution to insecure DNS in other instances. It integrates cryptography and establishes a comprehensive chain of trust. So, this guarantees each level and ensures that your domain is secure. That’s one part of his characteristics. However, you’ll learn about the others a little farther down. So let’s start with the meat of the matter.

DNSSEC full explanation

DNSSEC is an acronym that stands for Domain Name Security Extensions. It is an excellent method for increasing the security of your domains. DNSSEC is a DNS service that associates digital signature (DS) records with DNS data. As a result, the original domain name’s legitimacy may be established.

It was developed to protect Internet users from forged DNS data. A false or malicious address, rather than the desired address, is an example of such a scenario.

Furthermore, there is a complete chain of trust, starting with the root server and ending with the exact hostname. Each zone is signed by the one above it, with the exception of the root zone, which has nothing on top of it.

So, how does DNSSEC work?

DNSSEC is a trust chain that protects every step along the way, from the root to the end-user.

TLD is the key for the level below the root. The domain name’s TLD as well as the subdomain’s TLD.

Each zone is signed with a private key decrypted using cryptography and a public key. The public key will be placed in DNS records in the zone to allow it to be unlocked, and the secret key should not be revealed.

The public key is also sent when a recursive DNS server requests DNS data. It’ll use it to double-check the data and unlock DNS records. If it is not possible to do so for some reason, the user will receive an error message.

Why is it beneficial?

Yes, its obvious advantage is that its security makes the internet trustworthy. But it is not the only one. In addition, it guards against man-in-the-middle, spoofing, and cache poisoning attacks and prevents users from being redirected to malicious websites. To avoid receiving a forged IP address, IP addresses are verified in every DNS resolution process using a digital signature.

DNSSEC and the DS record

The DNSSEC Delegation Signer (DS) records for a domain must be published in the zone file in order to use DNSSEC to secure its DNS records.

When signing a zone on your nameserver to enable DNSSEC, the DS record must be forwarded to the parent of the zone in order to establish a chain of trust in your zone. The DS record provides a digest of your DNSSEC Key Signing Key and serves as a reference to the following key in the chain of trust (KSK).

Conclusion

The decision to adopt DNSSEC to maintain DNS security is a wise one. Nowadays, online threats and direct DNS attacks are commonplace. Of course, DNSSEC is expensive, but you already know that the cost of preventing a criminal attack is always less than the cost of repairing the unintended consequences of a criminal attack.