draft-msawyer-dnsext-edns-attributes-00.txt

bind-3.2.

INTERNET-DRAFT                                                 M. Sawyer
                                                           A. Gustafsson
                                                                M. Graff
                                                                 Nominum
<draft-msawyer-dnsext-edns-attributes-00.txt>           15 November 2000

                  Handling of unknown EDNS0 attributes

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts.

   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.''

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
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   This draft expires on May 15, 2001.

Abstract

   This document provides a clarification of the EDNS0 protocol,
   specifying the behavior of servers when they receive unknown EDNS
   options.

1.1 - Introduction

   Familiarity with DNS [RFC1034, RFC1035] and DNS Extension Mechanisms
   [RFC2671] is helpful.

   EDNS0 [RFC2671] specifies a general framework for extending the
   packet format used by the Domain Name System protocol.  The framework
   provides for a series of additional options, identified by a 16 bit
   attribute ID and arbitrary sized payload.  Any number of these
   additional options can be specified in the DNS packet.  As specified,
   the current scheme has drawbacks:



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   - It provides no way for implementers to deploy test systems with
   experimental features prior to approval of the feature and assignment
   of an attribute ID.

   - It provides no specification on what an application should do when
   receiving unrecognized options.

   This draft proposes to clarify the original EDNS0 draft [RFC2671],
   addressing these drawbacks.

1.2 - Requirements

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED",  "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

2 - Protocol changes:

   This document updates [RFC2671].  Conformance to this specification
   is claimed by specifying EDNS version 1.

2.1 - Advisory and Required Options:


   Some potential uses of EDNS options are advisory in nature,  For
   example, a hypothetical option indicating that "I understand frobozz
   compression in responses" can be safely ignored by the recipient,
   which will then simply not use frobozz compression.  Others uses of
   options, such as a hypothetical "send only cryptographically verified
   data in responses" option, cannot be safely ignored, and should cause
   the request to fail if not understood by the receiver.

   This suggests that we need two types of options, "advisory" options
   (that can be ignored) and "required" options (that can not).  Because
   a server needs to classify options as advisory or required even if
   they were not yet defined when the server was implemented, the type
   of an option must be evident without knowing its internal structure.
   This is achieved by splitting the option type codes into two ranges:
   options with type code 0x0000-0x7FFF are considered "advisory", and
   options with type code 0x8000-0xFFFF are considered "required".

2.2 - Handling of Unknown and Unsupported EDNS Option Types

   When a server receives an unknown or unsupported advisory option in a
   request or response message, it MUST ignore the unknown option and
   process the message as if the option was not present.  In the reply,
   it SHOULD include an advisory UNSUPPORTED option (TBD).




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   When a server receives an unknown or unsupported required option in a
   request message, it MUST NOT act on the request, and it MUST return
   an error response with the extended result code BADOPT (TBD).  In the
   reply, it SHOULD include an advisory UNSUPPORTED option.

   When a server receives an unknown or unsupported required option in a
   response message, it MUST ignore the response.  The server SHOULD
   continue to parse options after the unknown option, including a list
   of all unsupported options in the UNSUPPORTED option in the reply.

   Servers MAY include SUPPORTED options in replies to messages, listing
   option codes which they understand.  This message SHOULD contain all
   option codes the server understands.  This facility MAY NOT be used
   in place of the UNSUPPORTED option to identify unsupported options in
   replies.

   Clients MAY include SUPPORTED or UNSUPPORTED options in queries.
   UNSUPPORTED options SHOULD only list those option codes which the
   client has received in previous replies from the server, not an
   inclusive list of all unsupported option codes.

2.3 - Use of Reserved Options for Development

   Option codes in the range of 0x7FF0 to 0x7FFF and 0xFFF0 to 0xFFFF
   are considered "reserved" and shall not be assigned to new protocols.
   Software vendors SHOULD use these options for testing of protocols
   under development, provided the following conditions are met:

   - Vendors MUST NOT ship any versions of the software which use option
   codes in this range.  They MUST delay shipping software with the new
   options until IANA has assigned permanent option codes.

   - Vendors MUST NOT place development servers on the live internet
   which send options in this range to remote servers or which
   understand options in this range as having any meaning.

3.1 - SUPPORTED and UNSUPPORTED options

   The SUPPORTED and UNSUPPORTED options contain a list of option codes
   which the server or client does or doesn't support.  The list
   contains, in network byte order, the supported or unsupported 16 bit
   option codes:

                                     1  1  1  1  1  1
       0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  0  1  2  3  4  5
     +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
     |        SUPPORTED or UNSUPPORTED (TBD)         |
     +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+



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     |        LENGTH (number of options * 2)         |
     +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
     /               OPTION CODE(s)                  /
     /                                               /
     +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+

   Sending a SUPPORTED option with a zero-length payload indicates that
   the server or client supports no EDNS options, so none should be
   used.  UNSUPPORTED options with zero-length payloads SHOULD NOT be
   sent, as such a message is meaningless.

4 - IANA considerations

   When allocating EDNS Option Codes, the IANA shall henceforth require
   the RFC defining the new option to specify whether the option is an
   "advisory" or a "required" option.  The option code for an advisory
   option shall be allocated from the range 0x0000-0x7FEF, and the code
   for a required option shall be allocated from the range
   0x8000-0xFFEF.

   Option codes in the ranges of 0x7FF0 to 0x7FFF and 0xFFF0 to 0xFFFF
   are considered "reserved."

   The IANA is hereby requested to assign EDNS Version Number 1 to this
   specification, to assign a new extended RCODE value for BADOPT, and
   to assign advisory option codes for UNSUPPORTED and SUPPORTED.


5 - Security considerations

   This document provides a mechanism for users to override the default
   behavior of the server when accessing data from its internal zone
   databases.  Software developers and administrators should use some
   care when enabling these options, as they may provide outside users
   the ability to retrieve information otherwise not available.

6 - Acknowledgments

   The authors would like to thank Olafur Gudmundsson for his input on
   this draft.

7 - References

   [RFC2119] S. Brander, ``Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
   Requirement Levels,'' RFC 2119, ISI, November 1997.

   [RFC2671]   P. Vixie, ``Extension Mechanisms for DNS (EDNS0),'' RFC
   2671, ISI, August, 1999



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Author's Address

   Michael Sawyer
   Nominum, Inc.
   950 Charter St.
   Redwood City, CA  94063
   Phone: [phone]
   [e-mail]

   Andreas Gustafsson
   Nominum, Inc.
   950 Charter St.
   Redwood City, CA  94063
   Phone: [phone]
   [e-mail]

   Michael Graff
   Nominum, Inc.
   950 Charter St.
   Redwood City, CA  94063
   Phone: [phone]
   [e-mail]





























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