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rfc:rfc2540

Network Working Group D. Eastlake Request for Comments: 2540 IBM Category: Experimental March 1999

           Detached Domain Name System (DNS) Information

Status of this Memo

 This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
 community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
 Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
 Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

 A standard format is defined for representing detached DNS
 information.  This is anticipated to be of use for storing
 information retrieved from the Domain Name System (DNS), including
 security information, in archival contexts or contexts not connected
 to the Internet.

Table of Contents

 Abstract...................................................1
 1. Introduction............................................1
 2. General Format..........................................2
 2.1 Binary Format..........................................3
 2.2. Text Format...........................................4
 3. Usage Example...........................................4
 4. IANA Considerations.....................................4
 5. Security Considerations.................................4
 References.................................................5
 Author's Address...........................................5
 Full Copyright Statement...................................6

1. Introduction

 The Domain Name System (DNS) is a replicated hierarchical distributed
 database system [RFC 1034, 1035] that can provide highly available
 service.  It provides the operational basis for Internet host name to
 address translation, automatic SMTP mail routing, and other basic
 Internet functions.  The DNS has been extended as described in [RFC
 2535] to permit the general storage of public cryptographic keys in

Eastlake Experimental [Page 1] RFC 2540 Detached DNS Information March 1999

 the DNS and to enable the authentication of information retrieved
 from the DNS though digital signatures.
 The DNS was not originally designed for storage of information
 outside of the active zones and authoritative master files that are
 part of the connected DNS.  However there may be cases where this is
 useful, particularly in connection with archived security
 information.

2. General Format

 The formats used for detached Domain Name System (DNS) information
 are similar to those used for connected DNS information. The primary
 difference is that elements of the connected DNS system (unless they
 are an authoritative server for the zone containing the information)
 are required to count down the Time To Live (TTL) associated with
 each DNS Resource Record (RR) and discard them (possibly fetching a
 fresh copy) when the TTL reaches zero.  In contrast to this, detached
 information may be stored in a off-line file, where it can not be
 updated, and perhaps used to authenticate historic data or it might
 be received via non-DNS protocols long after it was retrieved from
 the DNS.  Therefore, it is not practical to count down detached DNS
 information TTL and it may be necessary to keep the data beyond the
 point where the TTL (which is defined as an unsigned field) would
 underflow.  To preserve information as to the freshness of this
 detached data, it is accompanied by its retrieval time.
 Whatever retrieves the information from the DNS must associate this
 retrieval time with it.  The retrieval time remains fixed thereafter.
 When the current time minus the retrieval time exceeds the TTL for
 any particular detached RR, it is no longer a valid copy within the
 normal connected DNS scheme.  This may make it invalid in context for
 some detached purposes as well.  If the RR is a SIG (signature) RR it
 also has an expiration time.  Regardless of the TTL, it and any RRs
 it signs can not be considered authenticated after the signature
 expiration time.

Eastlake Experimental [Page 2] RFC 2540 Detached DNS Information March 1999

2.1 Binary Format

 The standard binary format for detached DNS information is as
 follows:
                       1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3
   0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |                      first retrieval time                     |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |          RR count             |                               |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+     Resource Records (RRs)    |
  /                                                               /
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-|
  |                       next retrieval time                     |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |          RR count             |                               |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+     Resource Records (RRs)    |
  /                                                               /
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  /                              ...                              /
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
  |     hex 20    |
  +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 Retrieval time - the time that the immediately following information
     was obtained from the connected DNS system.  It is an unsigned
     number of seconds since the start of 1 January 1970, GMT,
     ignoring leap seconds, in network (big-endian) order.  Note that
     this time can not be before the initial proposal of this
     standard.  Therefore, the initial byte of an actual retrieval
     time, considered as a 32 bit unsigned quantity, would always be
     larger than 20 hex.  The end of detached DNS information is
     indicated by a "retrieval time" field initial byte equal to 0x20.
     Use of a "retrieval time" field with a leading unsigned byte of
     zero indicates a 64 bit (actually 8 leading zero bits plus a 56
     bit quantity).  This 64 bit format will be required when
     retrieval time is larger than 0xFFFFFFFF, which is some time in
     the year 2106.  The meaning of retrieval times with an initial
     byte between 0x01 and 0x1F is reserved (see section 5).
     Retrieval times will not generally be 32 bit aligned with respect
     to each other due to the variable length nature of RRs.
 RR count - an unsigned integer number (with bytes in network order)
     of following resource records retrieved at the preceding
     retrieval time.

Eastlake Experimental [Page 3] RFC 2540 Detached DNS Information March 1999

 Resource Records - the actual data which is in the same format as if
     it were being transmitted in a DNS response.  In particular, name
     compression via pointers is permitted with the origin at the
     beginning of the particular detached information data section,
     just after the RR count.

2.2. Text Format

 The standard text format for detached DNS information is as
 prescribed for zone master files [RFC 1035] except that the $INCLUDE
 control entry is prohibited and the new $DATE entry is required
 (unless the information set is empty). $DATE is followed by the date
 and time that the following information was obtained from the DNS
 system as described for retrieval time in section 2.1 above.  It is
 in the text format YYYYMMDDHHMMSS where YYYY is the year (which may
 be more than four digits to cover years after 9999), the first MM is
 the month number (01-12), DD is the day of the month (01-31), HH is
 the hour in 24 hours notation (00-23), the second MM is the minute
 (00-59), and SS is the second (00-59).  Thus a $DATE must appear
 before the first RR and at every change in retrieval time through the
 detached information.

3. Usage Example

 A document might be authenticated by a key retrieved from the DNS in
 a KEY resource record (RR).  To later prove the authenticity of this
 document, it would be desirable to preserve the KEY RR for that
 public key, the SIG RR signing that KEY RR, the KEY RR for the key
 used to authenticate that SIG, and so on through SIG and KEY RRs
 until a well known trusted key is reached, perhaps the key for the
 DNS root or some third party authentication service. (In some cases
 these KEY RRs will actually be sets of KEY RRs with the same owner
 and class because SIGs actually sign such record sets.)
 This information could be preserved as a set of detached DNS
 information blocks.

4. IANA Considerations

 Allocation of meanings to retrieval time fields with a initial byte
 of between 0x01 and 0x1F requires an IETF consensus.

5. Security Considerations

 The entirety of this document concerns a means to represent detached
 DNS information.  Such detached resource records may be security
 relevant and/or secured information as described in [RFC 2535].  The
 detached format provides no overall security for sets of detached

Eastlake Experimental [Page 4] RFC 2540 Detached DNS Information March 1999

 information or for the association between retrieval time and
 information.  This can be provided by wrapping the detached
 information format with some other form of signature.  However, if
 the detached information is accompanied by SIG RRs, its validity
 period is indicated in those SIG RRs so the retrieval time might be
 of secondary importance.

References

 [RFC 1034]   Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and
              Facilities", STD 13, RFC 1034, November 1987.
 [RFC 1035]   Mockapetris, P., " Domain Names - Implementation and
              Specifications", STD 13, RFC 1035, November 1987.
 [RFC 2535]   Eastlake, D., "Domain Name System Security Extensions",
              RFC 2535, March 1999.

Author's Address

 Donald E. Eastlake 3rd
 IBM
 65 Shindegan Hill Road, RR #1
 Carmel, NY 10512
 Phone:   +1-914-276-2668(h)
          +1-914-784-7913(w)
 Fax:     +1-914-784-3833(w)
 EMail:   dee3@us.ibm.com

Eastlake Experimental [Page 5] RFC 2540 Detached DNS Information March 1999

Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.
 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
 developing 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.
 This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
 TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
 BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
 HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
 MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Eastlake Experimental [Page 6]

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