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DNSSEC Extension by Using PKIX Certificates
draft-dnsop-dnssec-extension-pkix-00

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Hyeonmin Lee , Taekyoung Kwon
Last updated 2023-03-07
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draft-dnsop-dnssec-extension-pkix-00
Internet Engineering Task Force                                   H. Lee
Internet-Draft                                                   T. Kwon
Intended status: Informational                 Seoul National University
Expires: 8 September 2023                                   7 March 2023

              DNSSEC Extension by Using PKIX Certificates
                  draft-dnsop-dnssec-extension-pkix-00

Abstract

   The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) were standardized
   a couple of decades ago but it has not been widely deployed.  Thus, a
   vast majority of DNS messages in the real world are still vulnerable
   to various kinds of integrity attacks like cache poisoning attacks.
   This document describes a mechanism that extends the current DNSSEC
   protocol in such a way that guarantees the integrity of DNS messages
   using PKIX certificates without any dependencies on other entities in
   the DNS infrastructure.

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
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
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   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on 8 September 2023.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2023 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

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   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/
   license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document.
   Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights
   and restrictions with respect to this document.  Code Components
   extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as
   described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are
   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   2.  DNSSEC-PKI Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.1.  Design Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     2.2.  The Operations of DNSSEC-PKI  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   3.  Authoritative DNS Server-side Deployment  . . . . . . . . . .   5
     3.1.  Generating Signatures of RRsets . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       3.1.1.  PKIX Certificates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       3.1.2.  RRSIG Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
     3.2.  Publishing Public Keys and Certificate Chains . . . . . .   6
       3.2.1.  DNSKEY Records  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       3.2.2.  CERT Records  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   4.  Validator's Behavior  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.1.  Verifying DNS RR  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.2.  Determine Verification Results  . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     6.1.  Authenticated Denial of Existence . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     6.2.  Leveraging Certificate Authorities  . . . . . . . . . . .   9
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11

1.  Introduction

   The DNSSEC [RFC4033] was standardized to provide integrity and
   authentication of DNS records.  After twenty years of its
   introduction, DNSSEC is widely deployed for top-level domains.
   However, its deployment rates in second-level domains are low and
   most DNS messages in the real world are still vulnerable to tampering
   like cache poisoning attacks.

   In addition, to support DNSSEC, it is necessary that a domain
   publishes DS records to its upper zone (i.e., parent zone) to
   establish a chain of trust.  Usually, this process requires manual
   intervention of domain owners which often results in errors.  Thus,

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   it is reported that a large number of domains do not have their
   corresponding DS records in their upper zones [DNSSEC-Deployment],
   which results in DNSSEC validation failures.  Thus, we need a more
   practical and deployable mechanism to guarantee the integrity and
   authenticity of DNS records.

   This document specifies DNSSEC-PKI to provide the integrity and
   authentication of DNS Resource Record sets (RRsets) by leveraging
   PKIX [RFC5280] certificates.  DNSSEC-PKI offers domain owners another
   option to provide the DNS integrity without requiring the cooperation
   (or dependencies) of other entities in the DNS infrastructure (e.g.,
   establishing a chain of trust across zones).  For this purpose,
   DNSSEC-PKI exploits PKIX certificates widely used by most domains.
   Thus, DNSSEC-PKI allows a domain (or a zone) to use a public/private
   key pair from its certificate rather than generating a distinct key
   for DNS.  This document defines the requirements and operations of
   domains and validators (e.g., resolvers) to support DNSSEC-PKI.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP
   14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
   capitals, as shown here.

2.  DNSSEC-PKI Overview

   DNSSEC-PKI is designed to provide a practical and deployable way that
   guarantees the integrity and authenticity of DNSSEC RRsets.  To
   achieve this, we need a mechanism that does not have dependencies on
   other entities in the DNS infrastructure.

2.1.  Design Requirements

   We consider two requirements when designing DNSSEC-PKI.

   1.  Minimum or no changes of other entities in the DNS
       infrastructure:

       *  Requiring changes (or cooperations) from other entities causes
          dependency on those entities in the DNSSEC operations.  Thus,
          DNSSEC-PKI should minimally require a change of other entities
          in the DNS infrastructure (e.g. parent zones and DNS
          registrars).

   2.  Maximum reuse of the current DNSSEC standards and DNS
       infrastructure:

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       *  DNSSEC-PKI should work with the existing DNS in a way that
          maximally reuses the current infrastructure.  That is, DNSSEC-
          PKI seeks to achieve compatibility with the current DNSSEC
          standards.

2.2.  The Operations of DNSSEC-PKI

                                          +---------------+
                                          |  Certificate  |
                                          |   Authority   |
                                          |      (CA)     |
                                          +---------------+
                                                  |
                                                  | Certificate
                                                  v
   +----------+                           +---------------+
   |          |    RRSIG, DNSKEY, CERT    |               |
   |  Client  |<--------------------------| Authoritative |
   |          |                           |  Name Server  |
   |          |                           |               |
   +----------+                           +---------------+

                      Figure 1: Entities in DNSSEC-PKI

   To satisfy the design requirements, we leverage PKIX certificates
   issued by CAs.  A domain generates a private/public key pair.  Also,
   it asks a CA to issue a certificate that contains its domain name and
   the public key.  It then uses the private key to generate the
   signatures of its DNS RRsets.  Each signature (for each RRset) is
   published as a DNS record.  Here, we reuse an RRSIG record [RFC4034],
   which is used to store the signature of an RRset.  The domain
   publishes the public key in the certificate as a DNSKEY record
   [RFC4034].  Also the certificates in the certificate chain are
   published as CERT records [RFC4398].  The signature (i.e., RRSIG
   record) guarantees the integrity and authenticity of the
   corresponding DNS RRset and the certificate guarantees that the
   signature is generated by the domain owner’s private key.

   A validator (e.g., a client or a resolver) can check the integrity of
   a given RRset by fetching the corresponding signature (RRSIG), a
   public key (DNSKEY), and a certificate chain (CERTs) and verifying
   them.

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   Validator                    Authoritative                 Certificate
(e.g., Resolver)                 Name Server                   Authority
       |                              |                          (CA)
       |                              |    Issue a certificate     |
       |                              |<---------------------------|
       |                              |                            |
       |                              |
       |                              |
       |                              + Generate signatures of RRsets
       |                              |
       |                              + Publish RRSIG, DNSKEY, CERT records
       |                              |
       |  Fetch a target DNS record   |
       |       (i.e., A record)       |
       |<-----------------------------|
       |                              |
       |  Fetch RRSIG, DNSKEY, CERT   |
       |<-----------------------------|
       |                              |
       |                              |
       + Verify the target record     |
       |  using RRSIG, DNSKEY, CERT   |
       |                              |

                Figure 2: The operations of DNSSEC-PKI

3.  Authoritative DNS Server-side Deployment

   Deploying DNSSEC-PKI on the authoritative DNS server (i.e., a domain
   or a zone) requires the following steps:

   1.  A domain is issued a PKIX certificate (from a CA).

   2.  The domain generates the signatures of its DNS RRsets using its
       private key in the certificate.

   3.  The domain publishes the signatures as RRSIG records.

   4.  The domain publishes the corresponding public key as a DNSKEY
       record.

   5.  Finally, the domain publishes the certificates (of its
       certificate chain) as CERT records.

3.1.  Generating Signatures of RRsets

   For each RRset, the domain generates its signature and publishes it
   as an RRSIG record.

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3.1.1.  PKIX Certificates

   ost domains use PKIX [RFC5280] certificates for HTTPS (or TLS).
   Thus, they are familiar with how to handle such certificates
   (issuance, storage, and so on).  We also rely on PKIX certificates
   issued by CAs for DNSSEC-PKI.

3.1.2.  RRSIG Records

   We use RRSIG records for digital signatures of RRsets, which are
   generated by a private key in a PKIX certificate.  The description of
   the RRSIG RR format is specified in Section 3 of [RFC4034].  The Key
   Tag field should be calculated as explained in Appendix B of
   [RFC4034].

   A validator can fetch and validate RRSIG records to check the
   integrity and authenticity of DNS RRs.

3.2.  Publishing Public Keys and Certificate Chains

   Like DNSSEC, DNSSEC-PKI uses the public key cryptography to generate
   signatures of DNS RRsets.  Thus, a domain should publish the public
   key as a DNS record.  Also, the domain should publish a certificate
   that contains the public key and its certificate chain to allow a DNS
   client to validate the certificate and the signature.  For this
   purpose, we use two existing DNS resource record (RR) types in
   DNSSEC.

3.2.1.  DNSKEY Records

   A domain (or zone) generates the signatures of DNS RRsets using its
   private key.  The corresponding public key is stored in a DNSKEY RR
   which is described in Section 2 of [RFC4034].  As specified in
   Section 2 of [RFC4034], a DNSKEY RR MUST have a signature algorithm
   and a public key.

   Other fields except the Flags field have the same meaning as those
   specified in Section 2 of [RFC4034].

3.2.1.1.  The Flags Field extension

   [RFC4034] specifies the use of two bits in the Flags field.  Bit 7 is
   used to specify the Zone Key flag.  If bit 7 is set to 1, the DNSKEY
   RR contains a DNS zone key.  Otherwise, the DNSKEY MUST NOT be used
   to verify RRSIGs.  Thus, to use DNSSEC-PKI, bit 7 MUST be set to 1.

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   Bit 15 is used to specify the Secure Entry Point flag which is
   described in [RFC3757].  If bit 7 is set to 1, the DNSKEY RR contains
   a key-signing key (KSK).  Otherwise, the DNSKEY RR contains a zone-
   signing key (ZSK).  In DNSSEC-PKI, a private key corresponding to the
   public key in the DNSKEY RR is used to sign a zone’s RRsets, and
   hence its role is similar to that of a ZSK.  Thus, for DNSSEC-PKI,
   bit 7 MUST be set to 0.

   We propose to use bit 3 to specify whether the DNSSEC-PKI extension
   is supported flag (P).  If bit 3 is set to 1, the public key in
   DNSKEY RR MUST be validated using the certificates in CERT RRs
   (specified in Section 3.2.2).

                        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
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   |     |P|      flags            |   protocol    |   algorithm   |
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
   /                                                               /
   /                        public key                             /
   /                                                               /
   +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                       Figure 3: DNSSEC-PKI (P) Flag

3.2.2.  CERT Records

   A CERT RR [RFC4398] contains a PKIX certificate.  The certificate
   includes a public key which is also included in a DNSKEY RR.

   A Key Tag should be calculated using the public key in the
   certificate as specified in Appendix B of [RFC4034].

   We assume that a DNS client already stores the certificate of a root
   CA.  Thus, CERT RRs include the certificates of the domain, issuing
   CA and intermediate CAs (excluding the root CA).

4.  Validator's Behavior

4.1.  Verifying DNS RR

   DNSSEC-PKI guarantees the integrity and authenticity of DNS RRs based
   on public key cryptography.  Validators should verify the signatures
   of DNS RRsets generated by domains.

   To check the integrity and authenticity of DNS RRs, a validator:

   1.  Fetches a target DNS RRset and its RRSIG, DNSKEY, and CERT RRs.

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       *  If there are cached DNS records whose TTLs are valid, the
          validator can use them directly.

       *  The fetched DNS records can be cached.

   2.  Extracts a public key from the DNSKEY RR and another from a leaf
       certificate in the CERT RR.

       *  If the extracted public keys are not matched, the verification
          of the signature fails.

       *  Otherwise, it proceeds to the next step.

   3.  Validates the chain of certificates in the CERT RRs.

       *  A certificate chain can be verified according to Section 6 of
          [RFC5280].

       *  If the certificate chain verification fails, the verification
          of the signature fails.

   4.  Verifies the signature in the RRSIG RR using the public key.

4.2.  Determine Verification Results

   The signature verification will result in one of the following:

   *  Mismatch of public keys in DNSKEY and Certificate: A public key in
      a DNSKEY RR and another in a certificate are different.

   *  Certificate chain validation failure: The public keys in a DNSKEY
      RR and a certificate are matched but a certificate chain
      validation failed. (e.g., a certificate of a CA is expired).

   *  Signature validation failure: A chain of certificates is validated
      but the validation of RRSIGs fails (e.g., missing signatures or
      incorrect signatures).

   *  Authenticated: the signature is verified.

   If a client trusts a (local or public) resolver, the resolver should
   validate the signature of DNS RRs and return the result to the
   client.  A resolver sets the Authenticated Data (AD) bit in the
   message header of the DNS response message if and only if the queried
   RRset is authenticated.

   If a client does not trust the resolver, it should verify the
   signature (RRSIG) by itself.

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5.  IANA Considerations

   We ask to update the “DNSKEY FLAGS” registry [RFC3755][RFC4034] to
   assign 3rd bit in the DNSKEY Flags as the DNSSEC-PKI (P) bit.

      +========+================+==================================+
      | Number | Description    | Reference                        |
      +========+================+==================================+
      | 3      | DNSSEC-PKI (P) | Section 3.2.1.1 of this document |
      +--------+----------------+----------------------------------+

                       Table 1: DNSSEC-PKI (P) bit

6.  Security Considerations

6.1.  Authenticated Denial of Existence

   We recommend using the NSEC [RFC4034] or NSEC3 [RFC5155] mechanism to
   provide the authenticated denial of existence.

6.2.  Leveraging Certificate Authorities

   DNSSEC-PKI leverages PKIX certificates issued by CAs.  However,
   Certificate Authorities (CAs) have been criticized since there are no
   limits in a namespace in terms of certificate issuance.  Protocols
   such as DNS CAA [RFC8659] and Certificates Transparency [RFC9162] can
   mitigate the problem.

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
              2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
              May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.

   [RFC3755]  Weiler, S., "Legacy Resolver Compatibility for Delegation
              Signer (DS)", RFC 3755, DOI 10.17487/RFC3755, May 2004,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3755>.

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   [RFC3757]  Kolkman, O., Schlyter, J., and E. Lewis, "Domain Name
              System KEY (DNSKEY) Resource Record (RR) Secure Entry
              Point (SEP) Flag", RFC 3757, DOI 10.17487/RFC3757, April
              2004, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3757>.

   [RFC4033]  Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
              Rose, "DNS Security Introduction and Requirements",
              RFC 4033, DOI 10.17487/RFC4033, March 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4033>.

   [RFC4034]  Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
              Rose, "Resource Records for the DNS Security Extensions",
              RFC 4034, DOI 10.17487/RFC4034, March 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4034>.

   [RFC4398]  Josefsson, S., "Storing Certificates in the Domain Name
              System (DNS)", RFC 4398, DOI 10.17487/RFC4398, March 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4398>.

   [RFC5155]  Laurie, B., Sisson, G., Arends, R., and D. Blacka, "DNS
              Security (DNSSEC) Hashed Authenticated Denial of
              Existence", RFC 5155, DOI 10.17487/RFC5155, March 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5155>.

   [RFC5280]  Cooper, D., Santesson, S., Farrell, S., Boeyen, S.,
              Housley, R., and W. Polk, "Internet X.509 Public Key
              Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List
              (CRL) Profile", RFC 5280, DOI 10.17487/RFC5280, May 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5280>.

   [RFC8659]  Hallam-Baker, P., Stradling, R., and J. Hoffman-Andrews,
              "DNS Certification Authority Authorization (CAA) Resource
              Record", RFC 8659, DOI 10.17487/RFC8659, November 2019,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8659>.

   [RFC9162]  Laurie, B., Messeri, E., and R. Stradling, "Certificate
              Transparency Version 2.0", RFC 9162, DOI 10.17487/RFC9162,
              December 2021, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9162>.

7.2.  Informative References

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   [DNSSEC-Deployment]
              Chung, T., van Rijswijk-Deij, R., Chandrasekaran, B.,
              Choffnes, D., Levin, D., Maggs, B. M., Misloven, A., and
              C. Wilson, "A Longitudinal, End-to-End View of the DNSSEC
              Ecosystem", Proceedings of the 26th USENIX Security
              Symposium, Vancouver, August 2017,
              <https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/
              usenixsecurity17/sec17-chung.pdf>.

Authors' Addresses

   Hyeonmin Lee
   Seoul National University
   Korea, Republic of
   Email: min0921110@snu.ac.kr

   Taekyoung Kwon
   Seoul National University
   Korea, Republic of
   Email: tkkwon@snu.ac.kr

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