icann.org DNSSEC Outage: 2017-10-24

Date: October 24, 2017

Overview

This page gives some details on the icann.org DNSSEC outage on October 24, 2017.

Timeline / DNSViz

DNSSEC Debugger

Unlike DNSViz, Verisign's DNSSEC Debugger doesn't archive results, so here's a screenshot of my web browser's output from October 24, 2017:

October 24, 2017 icann.org DNSSEC outage

Google Public DNS: with and without DNSSEC

DNSSEC can be disabled in queries via the CD (checking disabled) bit. Let's compare DNS queries with and without DNSSEC.

With DNSSEC, DNS queries fail:

$ dig +dnssec icann.org. @8.8.8.8

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> +dnssec icann.org. @8.8.8.8
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 60722
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags: do; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;icann.org. IN A

;; Query time: 41 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Tue Oct 24 20:53:21 2017
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 38

You have to disable DNSSEC to make DNS queries work:

$ dig +cd icann.org. @8.8.8.8

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> +cd icann.org. @8.8.8.8
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 58617
;; flags: qr rd ra cd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;icann.org. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
icann.org. 599 IN A 192.0.43.7

;; Query time: 40 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Tue Oct 24 20:53:21 2017
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 43

drill trace

Since DNSSEC contains so much garbage, I put the complete drill trace into its own file with the relevant portion below (emphasis added):

;; Domain: icann.org.
;; Signature ok but no chain to a trusted key or ds record
[S] icann.org. 3600 IN DNSKEY 256 3 7 ;{id = 48072 (zsk), size = 1024b}
icann.org. 3600 IN DNSKEY 256 3 7 ;{id = 41859 (zsk), size = 1024b}
icann.org. 3600 IN DNSKEY 257 3 7 ;{id = 43711 (ksk), size = 2048b}
[S] icann.org. 600 IN A 192.0.43.7
;;[S] self sig OK; [B] bogus; [T] trusted

Twitter

@_AlexDeacon writes: "Is it just me or are others seeing SERVFAIL error response for http://icann.org ? #ICANN #ICANN60"
ICANN DNSSEC outage

@ICANN writes: "DNS resolution for #ICANN org domains impacted for 60mins due to scheduled maintenance of DNSSEC Infra. All Systems are up and working again"
ICANN DNSSEC outage

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