nist.gov DNSSEC Outage: 2018-04-14

Updated: April 17, 2018

Overview

This page gives some details on the nist.gov DNSSEC outage on April 14, 2018.

Timeline / DNSViz

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 DNS SEC. With DNSSEC, DNS queries result in SERVFAIL:

$ dig +dnssec a nist.gov. @8.8.8.8

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> +dnssec a nist.gov. @8.8.8.8
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 49362
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

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

;; Query time: 4020 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Sat Apr 14 12:37:54 2018
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 37

You have to disable DNSSEC to make DNS queries work:

$ dig +cd a nist.gov. @8.8.8.8

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> +cd a nist.gov. @8.8.8.8
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 13522
;; flags: qr rd ra cd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;nist.gov. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
nist.gov. 420 IN A 129.6.13.49

;; Query time: 2 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Sat Apr 14 12:37:54 2018
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 42

Logfile examples