DNS Security Reading List

I often get asked for background reading on the Internet's naming and address address allocation systems. So I've started to pull together a collection of links to documents and sites that I've found helpful in discussions about the security/integrity/resilience of the Internet's domain name system, along with some basic primers on Internet architecture. Suggestions and recommendations are avidly invited -- particularly for non-US resources.

-- Andrew

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Internet Architecture

• The Internet's Coming of Age (Committee on the Internet in the Evolving Information Infrastructure, Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council) [2001]
  (Great in-depth introduction to how the Internet works & current issues of scaling, assuring integrity, robustness, etc.)
• RFC 1958: Architectural Principles of the Internet (B. Carpenter, editor) [June 1996]

Domain Name System (DNS):

• RFC 1591: Domain Name System Structure and Delegation (J. Postel) [March 1994]
• RFC 1035: Domain Names - Implementation and Specification (P. Mockapetris) [November 1987]
• RFC 1034: Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities (P. Mockapetris) [November 1987]
• DNS and BIND: Chapter 11 - Security (P. Albitz and C. Liu) [O'Reilly, May 2001]
• Cricket Liu's DNS Corner (Includes useful DNS Glossary and DNS Security pages)

Root Name Servers:

• RFC 2870: Root Name Server Operational Requirements (R. Bush, et al.) [June 2000]
• Root Name Server Year 2000 Status (D. Conrad, et al.) [July 1999]

Name Server Security:

• Securing An Internet Name Server (C. Liu)

DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC):

• RFC 3130: Notes from the State-Of-The-Technology: DNSSEC (E. Lewis) [June 2001]
• RFC 3090: DNS Security Extension Clarification on Zone Status (E. Lewis) [March 2001]
• RFC 2541: DNS Security Operational Considerations (D. Eastlake) [March 1999]
• RFC 2536: DSA KEYs and SIGs in the Domain Name System (DNS) (D. Eastlake) [March 1999]
  
• RFC 2535: Domain Name System Security Extensions (D. Eastlake) [March 1999]
• DNSSEC - Design & Structure (E. Lewis) [May 1999]
• "Securing the Domain Name System" (D. Davidowicz and P. Vixie) [Network Magazine, January 2000]
• DNS Security - An Introduction (B. Wellington) [NAI Labs, January 1999]
• NLNetLabs DNSSEC Resources page

Very User-Friendly Introductions to the DNS:

• "How Domain Name Servers Work" (Marshall Brain)

General Internet Security Resources:

• RFC 2828: Internet Security Glossary (R.Shirey) [May 2000]
• W3C World Wide Web Security FAQ [September 2001]
• Security of the Internet (CERT) [1998]
• The Survivability Imperative: Protecting Critical Systems (R. Linger, et al.) [October 2000]
• Beyond Encryption (prepared by Marketa Morska, Office for the State Information System, Czech Republic, for the Information Society DG of the European Commission) [June 2000]

Governmental Communications:

• Letter from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald L. Evans to Vint Cerf [October 2001]
• "Creating a Safer Information Society by Improving the Security of Information Infrastructures and Combating Computer-related Crime" (Communication from the European Commission) [January 2001]

Organizations:

• Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS) (Purdue Univ.)
• Forum for Incident Response and Security Teams
• Internet Engineering Task Force:
  • Security Area
  • Operations and Management Area
• IT-ISAC
• SANS (System Administration, Networking, and Security) Institute

Governmental agencies:

• Computer Security Resource Center (US)
• Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (US)
• National Infrastructure Protection Center (US)

CERTs:

• AUSCERT (Australia)
• CAIS (Brazil)
• CanCERT (Canada)
• CARNet CERT (Croatia)
• CERT Coordination Center (US)
• CERT-IT (Italy)
• CERT-NASK (Poland)
• CERT-NL (Netherlands)
• CERT Renater (France)
• CERT-RU (Russia)
• CN CERT (China)
• DFN-CERT "Zentrum für sichere Netzdienste" GmbH (Germany)
• DK-CERT (Denmark)
• esCERT-UPC (Spain)
• Funet CERT (Finland)
• HK-CERT (Hong Kong S.A.R., China)
• ID-CERT (Indonesia)
• ISnet CERT (Iceland)
• IT-ISAC (US)
• JANET-CERT (United Kingdom)
• JP-CERT (Japan)
• KR-CERT (South Korea)
• Litnet CERT (Lithuania)
• MyCERT (Malaysia)
• NIC BR Security Office (Brazil)
• NORDUnet CERT (Nordic countries)
• PakCERT (Pakistan)
• RCCN-CERT (Portugal)
• SI-CERT (Slovenia)
• SingCERT (Singapore)
• SUNET-CERT (Sweden)
• SWITCH-CERT (Switzerland)
• TW-CERT (Taiwan)
• UNINETT CERT (Norway)