MARADNS 8 "January 2002" MARADNS "MaraDNS reference"

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# NAME

maradns - DNS server

# SYNOPSIS

maradns [ -v | -f mararc_file_location ]

# TABLE OF CONTENTS

This man page has the following sections:

>     Name
>     Synopsis
>     Table of Contents
>     Description
>     Usage
>     Firewall Configuration
>     Frequently Asked Questions
>     Bugs
>     Unimplemented Features
>     Legal Disclaimer
>     Authors

# DESCRIPTION

maradns is a DNS server written with security, simplicity, and performance in mind.

maradns has two forms of arguments, both of which are optional.

The first is the location of a mararc file which MaraDNS obtains all configuration information from. The default location of this file is /etc/mararc. This is specified in the form maradns -f mararc_file_location; mararc_file_location is the location of the mararc file.

It is also possible to have MaraDNS display the version number and exit. This is specified by invoking maradns in the form maradns -v or maradns --version

# USAGE

MaraDNS consists of two programs: maradns, an authoritative-only nameserver, and Deadwood, a recursive name server. Deadwood has its own man page.

In order for MaraDNS to function as an authoritative nameserver, two or more files need to be set up: the mararc file and one or more "csv2" (or "csv1") zone files.

The format of a csv2 zone file can be obtained from the csv2(5) manual page. The configuration format of the mararc file can be obtained from the mararc(5) manual page.

In order to have MaraDNS run as a daemon, the duende program is used to daemonize MaraDNS. See the duende(8) manual page for details.

# FIREWALL CONFIGURATION

When using the maradns authoritative nameserver, allow UDP connections from all hosts on the internet to UDP port 53 for the IP that the authoritative nameserver uses.

When using the Deadwood recursive nameserver:

- Allow UDP connections from the Deadwood server to any machine on the internet where the UDP destination port is 53
- Allow UDP connections from any machine on the internet to the IP of the recursive server, where the source port from the remote server is 53, and the destination port is between 15000 and 19095 (inclusive)
- Allow UDP connections from IPs that use Deadwood as a recursive DNS server to port 53

Deadwood uses a strong secure RNG (RadioGatun[32]) for both the query (16 bits of entropy) and the source port of the query (12 bits of entropy). This makes spoofing replies to a Deadwood recursive server more difficult, since the attacker has only a one in 250 million chance that a given spoofed reply will be considered valid.

# BUGS

In the unusual case of having a csv2 zone file with Macintosh-style newlines (as opposed to DOS or UNIX newlines), while the file will parse, any errors in the file will be reported as being on line 1.

The system startup script included with MaraDNS assumes that the only MaraDNS processes running are started by the script; it stops all MaraDNS processes running on the server when asked to stop MaraDNS.

MaraDNS needs to use the zoneserver program to serve DNS records over TCP. See zoneserver(8) for usage information.

MaraDNS does not use the zone file ("master file") format specified in chapter 5 of RFC1035; however bind2csv2.py can convert the majority of such zone files.

MaraDNS default behavior with star records is not RFC-compliant. In more detail, if a wildcard MX record exists in the form "*.example.com", and there is an A record for "www.example.com", but no MX record for "www.example.com", the correct behavior (based on RFC1034 §4.3.3) is to return "no host" (nothing in the answer section, SOA in the authority section, 0 result code) for a MX request to "www.example.com". Instead, MaraDNS returns the MX record attached to "*.example.com". This can be changed by setting `bind_star_handling` to 1.

Star records (what RFC1034 calls "wildcards") can not be attached to NS records.

MaraDNS, like every other known DNS implementation, only supports a QDCOUNT of 0 or 1.

# UNIMPLEMENTED FEATURES

These are features which I do not plan to implement in MaraDNS.

MaraDNS does not have a disk-based caching scheme for authoritative zones.

MaraDNS' UDP server only loads zone files while MaraDNS is first started. UDP Zone information can only be updated by stopping MaraDNS, and restarting MaraDNS again. Note that TCP zone files are loaded from the filesystem at the time the client requests a zone.

MaraDNS does not have support for allowing given host names to only resolve for a limited range of IPs querying the DNS server, or for host names to resolve differently, depending on the IP querying the host name.

MaraDNS only allows wildcards at the beginning or end of a host name. E.g. names with wildcards like "foo.*.example.com". "www.*" will work, however, if a default zonefile is set up. Likewise, MaraDNS does not have regular expression hostname substitution.

MaraDNS does not have support for MRTG or any other SNMP-based logging mechanism.

# LEGAL DISCLAIMER

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS ''AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

# AUTHORS

Sam Trenholme (http://www.samiam.org) is responsible for this man page.

MaraDNS is written by me, Sam Trenholme, with a little help from my friends. Naturally, all errors in MaraDNS are my own (but read the disclaimer above).