DNS Query Name Minimisation to Improve Privacy
draft-bortzmeyer-rfc7816bis-00

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Network Working Group                                      S. Bortzmeyer
Internet-Draft                                                     AFNIC
Obsoletes: 7816 (if approved)                                 P. Hoffman
Intended status: Standards Track                                   ICANN
Expires: January 18, 2019                                  July 17, 2018

             DNS Query Name Minimisation to Improve Privacy
                     draft-bortzmeyer-rfc7816bis-00

Abstract

   This document describes a technique to improve DNS privacy, a
   technique called "QNAME minimisation", where the DNS resolver no
   longer sends the full original QNAME to the upstream name server.

   RFC EDITOR: PLEASE REMOVE BEFORE PUBLICATION.  The original [RFC7816]
   had the experimental status.  This document is intended for the
   standards track.  It should be discussed in the IETF DNSOP (DNS
   Operations) Working Group, through its mailing list.  The source of
   the document, as well as a list of open issues, is currently kept at
   Framagit [1].

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 18, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2018 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of

Bortzmeyer & Hoffman    Expires January 18, 2019                [Page 1]
Internet-Draft             QNAME Minimisation                  July 2018

   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
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   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction and Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  QNAME Minimisation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Possible Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Protocol and Compatibility Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   5.  Operational Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Performance Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  Results of the Experimentation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   9.  Implementation status - RFC EDITOR: PLEASE REMOVE BEFORE
       PUBLICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     10.3.  URIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Appendix A.  An Algorithm to Perform QNAME Minimisation . . . . .  10
   Appendix B.  Alternatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   Changes from RFC 7816 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  12

1.  Introduction and Background

   The problem statement is described in
   [I-D.bortzmeyer-dprive-rfc7626-bis].  The terminology ("QNAME",
   "resolver", etc.) is defined in [I-D.ietf-dnsop-terminology-bis].
   This specific solution is not intended to fully solve the DNS privacy
   problem; instead, it should be viewed as one tool amongst many.

   QNAME minimisation follows the principle explained in Section 6.1 of
   [RFC6973]: the less data you send out, the fewer privacy problems
   you have.

   Before QNAME minimisation, when a resolver received the query "What
   is the AAAA record for www.example.com?", it sent to the root
   (assuming a cold resolver, whose cache is empty) the very same
   question.  Sending the full QNAME to the authoritative name server
   was a tradition, not a protocol requirement.  In a conversation with
   the author in January 2015, Paul Mockapetris explained that this
   tradition comes from a desire to optimise the number of requests,