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