dnsops.gov DNSSEC Outage: 2022-02-22

Date: February 22, 2022

Overview

This page gives some details on the dnsops.gov DNSSEC outage on February 22, 2022. This is at least the 6th DNSSEC outage for dnsops.gov.

Timeline / DNSViz

There are some copies courtesy of:

And here's a screenshot:

dnsops.gov DNSSEC outage

DNSSEC Debugger

Unlike DNSViz, Verisign's DNSSEC Debugger doesn't archive results, so here's a screenshot of my web browser's output from February 22, 2022.

February 22, 2022 dnsops.gov DNSSEC outage

The outage was also archived thanks to archive.is.

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 result in SERVFAIL:

$ dig +dnssec a www.dnsops.gov. @8.8.8.8.

; <<>> dig 9.10.8-P1 <<>> +dnssec a www.dnsops.gov. @8.8.8.8.
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 42973
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

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

;; Query time: 161 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Tue Feb 22 23:30:04 UTC 2022
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 43

You have to disable DNSSEC to make DNS queries work:

$ dig +cd a www.dnsops.gov. @8.8.8.8.

; <<>> dig 9.10.8-P1 <<>> +cd a www.dnsops.gov. @8.8.8.8.
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 36755
;; flags: qr rd ra cd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

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

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.dnsops.gov. 3600 IN A 129.6.100.203

;; Query time: 97 msec
;; SERVER: 8.8.8.8#53(8.8.8.8)
;; WHEN: Tue Feb 22 23:30:04 UTC 2022
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 59

dns.google.com

dns.google.com noticed the outage. And here's a screenshot:

dnsops.gov DNSSEC outage

Zonemaster

Logfile example