path: root/doc/rfc/rfc6106.txt

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                          J. Jeong
Request for Comments: 6106                                  Brocade/ETRI
Obsoletes: 5006                                                  S. Park
Category: Standards Track                            SAMSUNG Electronics
ISSN: 2070-1721                                               L. Beloeil
                                                      France Telecom R&D
                                                          S. Madanapalli
                                                       iRam Technologies
                                                           November 2010


        IPv6 Router Advertisement Options for DNS Configuration

Abstract

   This document specifies IPv6 Router Advertisement options to allow
   IPv6 routers to advertise a list of DNS recursive server addresses
   and a DNS Search List to IPv6 hosts.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6106.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.




Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 1]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................3
      1.1. Applicability Statements ...................................3
      1.2. Coexistence of RA Options and DHCP Options for DNS
           Configuration ..............................................4
   2. Requirements Language ...........................................4
   3. Terminology .....................................................4
   4. Overview ........................................................5
   5. Neighbor Discovery Extension ....................................5
      5.1. Recursive DNS Server Option ................................6
      5.2. DNS Search List Option .....................................7
      5.3. Procedure of DNS Configuration .............................8
           5.3.1. Procedure in IPv6 Host ..............................8
           5.3.2. Warnings for DNS Options Configuration .............10
   6. Implementation Considerations ..................................10
      6.1. DNS Repository Management .................................10
      6.2. Synchronization between DNS Server List and
           Resolver Repository .......................................11
      6.3. Synchronization between DNS Search List and
           Resolver Repository .......................................12
   7. Security Considerations ........................................13
      7.1. Security Threats ..........................................13
      7.2. Recommendations ...........................................14
   8. IANA Considerations ............................................15
   9. Acknowledgements ...............................................15
   10. References ....................................................16
      10.1. Normative References .....................................16
      10.2. Informative References ...................................16
   Appendix A.  Changes from RFC 5006 ................................18





















Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 2]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


1.  Introduction

   The purpose of this document is to standardize an IPv6 Router
   Advertisement (RA) option for DNS Recursive Server Addresses used for
   the DNS name resolution in IPv6 hosts.  This RA option was specified
   in an earlier Experimental specification [RFC5006].  This document is
   also to define a new RA option for Domain Name Search Lists for an
   enhanced DNS configuration.  Thus, this document obsoletes [RFC5006],
   which only defines the RA option for DNS Recursive Server Addresses.

   Neighbor Discovery (ND) for IP version 6 and IPv6 stateless address
   autoconfiguration provide ways to configure either fixed or mobile
   nodes with one or more IPv6 addresses, default routers, and some
   other parameters [RFC4861][RFC4862].  Most Internet services are
   identified by using a DNS name.  The two RA options defined in this
   document provide the DNS information needed for an IPv6 host to reach
   Internet services.

   It is infeasible to manually configure nomadic hosts each time they
   connect to a different network.  While a one-time static
   configuration is possible, it is generally not desirable on general-
   purpose hosts such as laptops.  For instance, locally defined name
   spaces would not be available to the host if it were to run its own
   name server software directly connected to the global DNS.

   The DNS information can also be provided through DHCP
   [RFC3315][RFC3736][RFC3646].  However, the access to DNS is a
   fundamental requirement for almost all hosts, so IPv6 stateless
   autoconfiguration cannot stand on its own as an alternative
   deployment model in any practical network without any support for DNS
   configuration.

   These issues are not pressing in dual-stack networks as long as a DNS
   server is available on the IPv4 side, but they become more critical
   with the deployment of IPv6-only networks.  As a result, this
   document defines a mechanism based on IPv6 RA options to allow IPv6
   hosts to perform the automatic DNS configuration.

1.1.  Applicability Statements

   RA-based DNS configuration is a useful alternative in networks where
   an IPv6 host's address is autoconfigured through IPv6 stateless
   address autoconfiguration and where there is either no DHCPv6
   infrastructure at all or some hosts do not have a DHCPv6 client.  The
   intention is to enable the full configuration of basic networking
   information for hosts without requiring DHCPv6.  However, when in





Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 3]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


   many networks some additional information needs to be distributed,
   those networks are likely to employ DHCPv6.  In these networks, RA-
   based DNS configuration may not be needed.

   RA-based DNS configuration allows an IPv6 host to acquire the DNS
   configuration (i.e., DNS recursive server addresses and DNS Search
   List) for the link(s) to which the host is connected.  Furthermore,
   the host learns this DNS configuration from the same RA message that
   provides configuration information for the link, thereby avoiding
   also running DHCPv6.

   The advantages and disadvantages of the RA-based approach are
   discussed in [RFC4339] along with other approaches, such as the DHCP
   and well-known anycast address approaches.

1.2.  Coexistence of RA Options and DHCP Options for DNS Configuration

   Two protocols exist to configure the DNS information on a host, the
   Router Advertisement options described in this document and the
   DHCPv6 options described in [RFC3646].  They can be used together.
   The rules governing the decision to use stateful configuration
   mechanisms are specified in [RFC4861].  Hosts conforming to this
   specification MUST extract DNS information from Router Advertisement
   messages, unless static DNS configuration has been specified by the
   user.  If there is DNS information available from multiple Router
   Advertisements and/or from DHCP, the host MUST maintain an ordered
   list of this information as specified in Section 5.3.1.

2.  Requirements Language

   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].

3.  Terminology

   This document uses the terminology described in [RFC4861] and
   [RFC4862].  In addition, four new terms are defined below:

   o  Recursive DNS Server (RDNSS): Server that provides a recursive DNS
      resolution service for translating domain names into IP addresses
      as defined in [RFC1034] and [RFC1035].

   o  RDNSS Option: IPv6 RA option to deliver the RDNSS information to
      IPv6 hosts [RFC4861].






Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 4]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


   o  DNS Search List (DNSSL): The list of DNS suffix domain names used
      by IPv6 hosts when they perform DNS query searches for short,
      unqualified domain names.

   o  DNSSL Option: IPv6 RA option to deliver the DNSSL information to
      IPv6 hosts.

   o  DNS Repository: Two data structures for managing DNS Configuration
      Information in the IPv6 protocol stack in addition to Neighbor
      Cache and Destination Cache for Neighbor Discovery [RFC4861].  The
      first data structure is the DNS Server List for RDNSS addresses
      and the second is the DNS Search List for DNS search domain names.

   o  Resolver Repository: Configuration repository with RDNSS addresses
      and a DNS Search List that a DNS resolver on the host uses for DNS
      name resolution; for example, the Unix resolver file (i.e., /etc/
      resolv.conf) and Windows registry.

4.  Overview

   This document standardizes the ND option called the RDNSS option
   defined in [RFC5006] that contains the addresses of recursive DNS
   servers.  This document also defines a new ND option called the DNSSL
   option for the Domain Search List.  This is to maintain parity with
   the DHCPv6 options and to ensure that there is necessary
   functionality to determine the search domains.

   The existing ND message (i.e., Router Advertisement) is used to carry
   this information.  An IPv6 host can configure the IPv6 addresses of
   one or more RDNSSes via RA messages.  Through the RDNSS and DNSSL
   options, along with the prefix information option based on the ND
   protocol ([RFC4861] and [RFC4862]), an IPv6 host can perform the
   network configuration of its IPv6 address and the DNS information
   simultaneously without needing DHCPv6 for the DNS configuration.  The
   RA options for RDNSS and DNSSL can be used on any network that
   supports the use of ND.

   This approach requires the manual configuration or other automatic
   mechanisms (e.g., DHCPv6 or vendor proprietary configuration
   mechanisms) to configure the DNS information in routers sending the
   advertisements.  The automatic configuration of RDNSS addresses and a
   DNS Search List in routers is out of scope for this document.

5.  Neighbor Discovery Extension

   The IPv6 DNS configuration mechanism in this document needs two new
   ND options in Neighbor Discovery: (i) the Recursive DNS Server
   (RDNSS) option and (ii) the DNS Search List (DNSSL) option.



Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 5]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


5.1.  Recursive DNS Server Option

   The RDNSS option contains one or more IPv6 addresses of recursive DNS
   servers.  All of the addresses share the same Lifetime value.  If it
   is desirable to have different Lifetime values, multiple RDNSS
   options can be used.  Figure 1 shows the format of the RDNSS option.

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |     Type      |     Length    |           Reserved            |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                           Lifetime                            |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                                                               |
     :            Addresses of IPv6 Recursive DNS Servers            :
     |                                                               |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

           Figure 1: Recursive DNS Server (RDNSS) Option Format


   Fields:
     Type          8-bit identifier of the RDNSS option type as assigned
                   by the IANA: 25

     Length        8-bit unsigned integer.  The length of the option
                   (including the Type and Length fields) is in units of
                   8 octets.  The minimum value is 3 if one IPv6 address
                   is contained in the option.  Every additional RDNSS
                   address increases the length by 2.  The Length field
                   is used by the receiver to determine the number of
                   IPv6 addresses in the option.

     Lifetime      32-bit unsigned integer.  The maximum time, in
                   seconds (relative to the time the packet is sent),
                   over which this RDNSS address MAY be used for name
                   resolution.  Hosts MAY send a Router Solicitation to
                   ensure the RDNSS information is fresh before the
                   interval expires.  In order to provide fixed hosts
                   with stable DNS service and allow mobile hosts to
                   prefer local RDNSSes to remote RDNSSes, the value of
                   Lifetime SHOULD be bounded as
                   MaxRtrAdvInterval <= Lifetime <= 2*MaxRtrAdvInterval
                   where MaxRtrAdvInterval is the Maximum RA Interval
                   defined in [RFC4861].  A value of all one bits
                   (0xffffffff) represents infinity.  A value of zero
                   means that the RDNSS address MUST no longer be used.



Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 6]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


     Addresses of IPv6 Recursive DNS Servers
                   One or more 128-bit IPv6 addresses of the recursive
                   DNS servers.  The number of addresses is determined
                   by the Length field.  That is, the number of
                   addresses is equal to (Length - 1) / 2.

5.2.  DNS Search List Option

   The DNSSL option contains one or more domain names of DNS suffixes.
   All of the domain names share the same Lifetime value.  If it is
   desirable to have different Lifetime values, multiple DNSSL options
   can be used.  Figure 2 shows the format of the DNSSL option.

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |     Type      |     Length    |           Reserved            |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                           Lifetime                            |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                                                               |
     :                Domain Names of DNS Search List                :
     |                                                               |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

              Figure 2: DNS Search List (DNSSL) Option Format

  Fields:
    Type          8-bit identifier of the DNSSL option type as assigned
                  by the IANA: 31

    Length        8-bit unsigned integer.  The length of the option
                  (including the Type and Length fields) is in units of
                  8 octets.  The minimum value is 2 if at least one
                  domain name is contained in the option.  The Length
                  field is set to a multiple of 8 octets to accommodate
                  all the domain names in the field of Domain Names of
                  DNS Search List.

    Lifetime      32-bit unsigned integer.  The maximum time, in
                  seconds (relative to the time the packet is sent),
                  over which this DNSSL domain name MAY be used for
                  name resolution.  The Lifetime value has the same
                  semantics as with the RDNSS option.  That is, Lifetime
                  SHOULD be bounded as follows:
                  MaxRtrAdvInterval <= Lifetime <= 2*MaxRtrAdvInterval.





Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 7]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


                  A value of all one bits (0xffffffff) represents
                  infinity.  A value of zero means that the DNSSL
                  domain name MUST no longer be used.

    Domain Names of DNS Search List
                  One or more domain names of DNS Search List that MUST
                  be encoded using the technique described in Section
                  3.1 of [RFC1035].  By this technique, each domain
                  name is represented as a sequence of labels ending in
                  a zero octet, defined as domain name representation.
                  For more than one domain name, the corresponding
                  domain name representations are concatenated as they
                  are.  Note that for the simple decoding, the domain
                  names MUST NOT be encoded in a compressed form, as
                  described in Section 4.1.4 of [RFC1035].  Because the
                  size of this field MUST be a multiple of 8 octets,
                  for the minimum multiple including the domain name
                  representations, the remaining octets other than the
                  encoding parts of the domain name representations
                  MUST be padded with zeros.

   Note:  An RDNSS address or a DNSSL domain name MUST be used only as
      long as both the RA router Lifetime (advertised by a Router
      Advertisement message [RFC4861]) and the corresponding option
      Lifetime have not expired.  The reason is that in the current
      network to which an IPv6 host is connected, the RDNSS may not be
      currently reachable, that the DNSSL domain name is not valid any
      more, or that these options do not provide service to the host's
      current address (e.g., due to network ingress filtering
      [RFC2827][RFC5358]).

5.3.  Procedure of DNS Configuration

   The procedure of DNS configuration through the RDNSS and DNSSL
   options is the same as with any other ND option [RFC4861].

5.3.1.  Procedure in IPv6 Host

   When an IPv6 host receives DNS options (i.e., RDNSS option and DNSSL
   option) through RA messages, it processes the options as follows:

   o  The validity of DNS options is checked with the Length field; that
      is, the value of the Length field in the RDNSS option is greater
      than or equal to the minimum value (3), and the value of the
      Length field in the DNSSL option is greater than or equal to the
      minimum value (2).





Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 8]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


   o  If the DNS options are valid, the host SHOULD copy the values of
      the options into the DNS Repository and the Resolver Repository in
      order.  Otherwise, the host MUST discard the options.  Refer to
      Section 6 for the detailed procedure.

   When the IPv6 host has gathered a sufficient number (e.g., three) of
   RDNSS addresses (or DNS search domain names), it SHOULD maintain
   RDNSS addresses (or DNS search domain names) by the sufficient number
   such that the latest received RDNSS or DNSSL is more preferred to the
   old ones; that is, when the number of RDNSS addresses (or DNS search
   domain names) is already the sufficient number, the new one replaces
   the old one that will expire first in terms of Lifetime.  As an
   exceptional case, if the received RDNSS addresses (or DNS search
   domain names) already exist in the IPv6 host, their Lifetime fields
   update their Expiration-time, that is, when the corresponding DNS
   information expires in the IPv6 host; note that when the Lifetime
   field has zero, the corresponding RDNSS (or DNS search domain name)
   is deleted from the IPv6 host.  Except for this update, the IPv6 host
   SHOULD ignore other RDNSS addresses (or DNS search domain names)
   within an RDNSS (or a DNSSL) option and/or additional RDNSS (or
   DNSSL) options within an RA.  Refer to Section 6 for the detailed
   procedure.  Note that the sufficient number is a system parameter, so
   it can be determined by a local policy.  Also, separate parameters
   can be specified for the sufficient number of RDNSS addresses and
   that of DNS search domain names, respectively.  In this document,
   three is RECOMMENDED as a sufficient number considering both the
   robust DNS query and the reasonably time-bounded recognition of the
   unreachability of DNS servers.

   In the case where the DNS options of RDNSS and DNSSL can be obtained
   from multiple sources, such as RA and DHCP, the IPv6 host SHOULD keep
   some DNS options from all sources.  Unless explicitly specified for
   the discovery mechanism, the exact number of addresses and domain
   names to keep is a matter of local policy and implementation choice.
   However, the ability to store at least three RDNSS addresses (or
   DNSSL domain names) from at least two different sources is
   RECOMMENDED.  The DNS options from Router Advertisements and DHCP
   SHOULD be stored into the DNS Repository and Resolver Repository so
   that information from DHCP appears there first and therefore takes
   precedence.  Thus, the DNS information from DHCP takes precedence
   over that from RA for DNS queries.  On the other hand, for DNS
   options announced by RA, if some RAs use the Secure Neighbor
   Discovery (SEND) protocol [RFC3971] for RA security, they MUST be
   preferred over those that do not use SEND.  Refer to Section 7 for
   the detailed discussion on SEND for RA DNS options.






Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                    [Page 9]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


5.3.2.  Warnings for DNS Options Configuration

   There are two warnings for DNS options configuration: (i) warning for
   multiple sources of DNS options and (ii) warning for multiple network
   interfaces.  First, in the case of multiple sources for DNS options
   (e.g., RA and DHCP), an IPv6 host can configure its IP addresses from
   these sources.  In this case, it is not possible to control how the
   host uses DNS information and what source addresses it uses to send
   DNS queries.  As a result, configurations where different information
   is provided by different sources may lead to problems.  Therefore,
   the network administrator needs to configure DNS options in multiple
   sources in order to prevent such problems from happening.

   Second, if different DNS information is provided on different network
   interfaces, this can lead to inconsistent behavior.  The IETF is
   working on solving this problem for both DNS and other information
   obtained by multiple interfaces [MIF-PROBLEM][MIF-PRACTICE].

6.  Implementation Considerations

   Note:  This non-normative section gives some hints for implementing
      the processing of the RDNSS and DNSSL options in an IPv6 host.

   For the configuration and management of DNS information, the
   advertised DNS configuration information can be stored and managed in
   both the DNS Repository and the Resolver Repository.

   In environments where the DNS information is stored in user space and
   ND runs in the kernel, it is necessary to synchronize the DNS
   information (i.e., RDNSS addresses and DNS search domain names) in
   kernel space and the Resolver Repository in user space.  For the
   synchronization, an implementation where ND works in the kernel
   should provide a write operation for updating DNS information from
   the kernel to the Resolver Repository.  One simple approach is to
   have a daemon (or a program that is called at defined intervals) that
   keeps monitoring the Lifetimes of RDNSS addresses and DNS search
   domain names all the time.  Whenever there is an expired entry in the
   DNS Repository, the daemon can delete the corresponding entry from
   the Resolver Repository.

6.1.  DNS Repository Management

   For DNS repository management, the kernel or user-space process
   (depending on where RAs are processed) should maintain two data
   structures: (i) DNS Server List that keeps the list of RDNSS
   addresses and (ii) DNS Search List that keeps the list of DNS search
   domain names.  Each entry in these two lists consists of a pair of an
   RDNSS address (or DNSSL domain name) and Expiration-time as follows:



Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                   [Page 10]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


   o  RDNSS address for DNS Server List: IPv6 address of the Recursive
      DNS Server, which is available for recursive DNS resolution
      service in the network advertising the RDNSS option.

   o  DNSSL domain name for DNS Search List: DNS suffix domain names,
      which are used to perform DNS query searches for short,
      unqualified domain names in the network advertising the DNSSL
      option.

   o  Expiration-time for DNS Server List or DNS Search List: The time
      when this entry becomes invalid.  Expiration-time is set to the
      value of the Lifetime field of the RDNSS option or DNSSL option
      plus the current system time.  Whenever a new RDNSS option with
      the same address (or DNSSL option with the same domain name) is
      received on the same interface as a previous RDNSS option (or
      DNSSL option), this field is updated to have a new Expiration-
      time.  When Expiration-time becomes less than the current system
      time, this entry is regarded as expired.

6.2.  Synchronization between DNS Server List and Resolver Repository

   When an IPv6 host receives the information of multiple RDNSS
   addresses within a network (e.g., campus network and company network)
   through an RA message with RDNSS option(s), it stores the RDNSS
   addresses (in order) into both the DNS Server List and the Resolver
   Repository.  The processing of the RDNSS consists of (i) the
   processing of RDNSS option(s) included in an RA message and (ii) the
   handling of expired RDNSSes.  The processing of RDNSS option(s) is as
   follows:

      Step (a): Receive and parse the RDNSS option(s).  For the RDNSS
      addresses in each RDNSS option, perform Steps (b) through (d).

      Step (b): For each RDNSS address, check the following: If the
      RDNSS address already exists in the DNS Server List and the RDNSS
      option's Lifetime field is set to zero, delete the corresponding
      RDNSS entry from both the DNS Server List and the Resolver
      Repository in order to prevent the RDNSS address from being used
      any more for certain reasons in network management, e.g., the
      termination of the RDNSS or a renumbering situation.  That is, the
      RDNSS can resign from its DNS service because the machine running
      the RDNSS is out of service intentionally or unintentionally.
      Also, under the renumbering situation, the RDNSS's IPv6 address
      will be changed, so the previous RDNSS address should not be used
      any more.  The processing of this RDNSS address is finished here.
      Otherwise, go to Step (c).





Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                   [Page 11]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


      Step (c): For each RDNSS address, if it already exists in the DNS
      Server List, then just update the value of the Expiration-time
      field according to the procedure specified in the third bullet of
      Section 6.1.  Otherwise, go to Step (d).

      Step (d): For each RDNSS address, if it does not exist in the DNS
      Server List, register the RDNSS address and Lifetime with the DNS
      Server List and then insert the RDNSS address in front of the
      Resolver Repository.  In the case where the data structure for the
      DNS Server List is full of RDNSS entries (that is, has more
      RDNSSes than the sufficient number discussed in Section 5.3.1),
      delete from the DNS Server List the entry with the shortest
      Expiration-time (i.e., the entry that will expire first).  The
      corresponding RDNSS address is also deleted from the Resolver
      Repository.  For the ordering of RDNSS addresses in an RDNSS
      option, position the first RDNSS address in the RDNSS option as
      the first one in the Resolver Repository, the second RDNSS address
      in the option as the second one in the repository, and so on.
      This ordering allows the RDNSS addresses in the RDNSS option to be
      preferred according to their order in the RDNSS option for the DNS
      name resolution.  The processing of these RDNSS addresses is
      finished here.

   The handling of expired RDNSSes is as follows: Whenever an entry
   expires in the DNS Server List, the expired entry is deleted from the
   DNS Server List, and also the RDNSS address corresponding to the
   entry is deleted from the Resolver Repository.

6.3.  Synchronization between DNS Search List and Resolver Repository

   When an IPv6 host receives the information of multiple DNSSL domain
   names within a network (e.g., campus network and company network)
   through an RA message with DNSSL option(s), it stores the DNSSL
   domain names (in order) into both the DNS Search List and the
   Resolver Repository.  The processing of the DNSSL consists of (i) the
   processing of DNSSL option(s) included in an RA message and (ii) the
   handling of expired DNSSLs.  The processing of DNSSL option(s) is as
   follows:

      Step (a): Receive and parse the DNSSL option(s).  For the DNSSL
      domain names in each DNSSL option, perform Steps (b) through (d).

      Step (b): For each DNSSL domain name, check the following: If the
      DNSSL domain name already exists in the DNS Search List and the
      DNSSL option's Lifetime field is set to zero, delete the
      corresponding DNSSL entry from both the DNS Search List and the
      Resolver Repository in order to prevent the DNSSL domain name from
      being used any more for certain reasons in network management,



Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                   [Page 12]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


      e.g., the termination of the RDNSS or a renaming situation.  That
      is, the RDNSS can resign from its DNS service because the machine
      running the RDNSS is out of service intentionally or
      unintentionally.  Also, under the renaming situation, the DNSSL
      domain names will be changed, so the previous domain names should
      not be used any more.  The processing of this DNSSL domain name is
      finished here.  Otherwise, go to Step (c).

      Step (c): For each DNSSL domain name, if it already exists in the
      DNS Server List, then just update the value of the Expiration-time
      field according to the procedure specified in the third bullet of
      Section 6.1.  Otherwise, go to Step (d).

      Step (d): For each DNSSL domain name, if it does not exist in the
      DNS Search List, register the DNSSL domain name and Lifetime with
      the DNS Search List and then insert the DNSSL domain name in front
      of the Resolver Repository.  In the case where the data structure
      for the DNS Search List is full of DNSSL domain name entries (that
      is, has more DNSSL domain names than the sufficient number
      discussed in Section 5.3.1), delete from the DNS Server List the
      entry with the shortest Expiration-time (i.e., the entry that will
      expire first).  The corresponding DNSSL domain name is also
      deleted from the Resolver Repository.  For the ordering of DNSSL
      domain names in a DNSSL option, position the first DNSSL domain
      name in the DNSSL option as the first one in the Resolver
      Repository, the second DNSSL domain name in the option as the
      second one in the repository, and so on.  This ordering allows the
      DNSSL domain names in the DNSSL option to be preferred according
      to their order in the DNSSL option for the DNS domain name used by
      the DNS query.  The processing of these DNSSL domain name is
      finished here.

      The handling of expired DNSSLs is as follows: Whenever an entry
      expires in the DNS Search List, the expired entry is deleted from
      the DNS Search List, and also the DNSSL domain name corresponding
      to the entry is deleted from the Resolver Repository.

7.  Security Considerations

   In this section, we analyze security threats related to DNS options
   and then suggest recommendations to cope with such security threats.

7.1.  Security Threats

   For the RDNSS option, an attacker could send an RA with a fraudulent
   RDNSS address, misleading IPv6 hosts into contacting an unintended
   DNS server for DNS name resolution.  Also, for the DNSSL option, an




Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                   [Page 13]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


   attacker can let IPv6 hosts resolve a host name without a DNS suffix
   into an unintended host's IP address with a fraudulent DNS Search
   List.

   These attacks are similar to Neighbor Discovery attacks that use
   Redirect or Neighbor Advertisement messages to redirect traffic to
   individual addresses of malicious parties.  That is, as a rogue
   router, a malicious node on a LAN can promiscuously receive packets
   for any router's Media Access Control (MAC) address and send packets
   with the router's MAC address as the source MAC address in the Layer
   2 (L2) header.  As a result, L2 switches send packets addressed to
   the router to the malicious node.  Also, this attack can send
   redirects that tell the hosts to send their traffic somewhere else.
   The malicious node can send unsolicited RA or Neighbor Advertisement
   (NA) replies, answer RS or Neighbor Solicitation (NS) requests, etc.
   Thus, the attacks related to RDNSS and DNSSL are similar to both
   Neighbor Discovery attacks and attacks against unauthenticated DHCP,
   as both can be used for both "wholesale" traffic redirection and more
   specific attacks.

   However, the security of these RA options for DNS configuration does
   not affect ND protocol security [RFC4861].  This is because learning
   DNS information via the RA options cannot be worse than learning bad
   router information via the RA options.  Therefore, the vulnerability
   of ND is not worse and is a subset of the attacks that any node
   attached to a LAN can do independently of ND.

7.2.  Recommendations

   The Secure Neighbor Discovery (SEND) protocol [RFC3971] is used as a
   security mechanism for ND.  It is RECOMMENDED that ND use SEND to
   allow all the ND options including the RDNSS and DNSSL options to be
   automatically included in the signatures.  Through SEND, the
   transport for the RA options is integrity protected; that is, SEND
   can prevent the spoofing of these DNS options with signatures.  Also,
   SEND enables an IPv6 host to verify that the sender of an RA is
   actually a router authorized to act as a router.  However, since any
   valid SEND router can still insert RDNSS and DNSSL options, the
   current SEND cannot verify which one is or is not authorized to send
   the options.  Thus, this verification of the authorized routers for
   ND options will be required.  [CSI-SEND-CERT] specifies the usage of
   extended key for the certificate deployed in SEND.  This document
   defines the roles of routers (i.e., routers acting as proxy and
   address owner) and explains the authorization of the roles.  The
   mechanism in this document can be extended to verify which routers
   are authorized to insert RDNSS and DNSSL options.





Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                   [Page 14]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


   It is common for network devices such as switches to include
   mechanisms to block unauthorized ports from running a DHCPv6 server
   to provide protection from rogue DHCP servers.  That means that an
   attacker on other ports cannot insert bogus DNS servers using DHCPv6.
   The corresponding technique for network devices is RECOMMENDED to
   block rogue Router Advertisement messages including the RDNSS and
   DNSSL options from unauthorized nodes.

   An attacker may provide a bogus DNS Search List option in order to
   cause the victim to send DNS queries to a specific DNS server when
   the victim queries non-FQDNs (fully qualified domain names).  For
   this attack, the DNS resolver in IPv6 hosts can mitigate the
   vulnerability with the recommendations mentioned in [RFC1535],
   [RFC1536], and [RFC3646].

8.  IANA Considerations

   The RDNSS option defined in this document uses the IPv6 Neighbor
   Discovery Option type defined in RFC 5006 [RFC5006], which was
   assigned by the IANA as follows:

                 Option Name                   Type
                 Recursive DNS Server Option   25

   The IANA has assigned a new IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Option type for
   the DNSSL option defined in this document:

                 Option Name                   Type
                 DNS Search List Option        31

   These options have been registered in the "Internet Control Message
   Protocol version 6 (ICMPv6) Parameters" registry
   (http://www.iana.org).

9.  Acknowledgements

   This document has greatly benefited from inputs by Robert Hinden,
   Pekka Savola, Iljitsch van Beijnum, Brian Haberman, Tim Chown, Erik
   Nordmark, Dan Wing, Jari Arkko, Ben Campbell, Vincent Roca, and Tony
   Cheneau.  The authors sincerely appreciate their contributions.











Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                   [Page 15]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]        Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                    Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC4861]        Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H.
                    Soliman, "Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6
                    (IPv6)", RFC 4861, September 2007.

   [RFC4862]        Thomson, S., Narten, T., and T. Jinmei, "IPv6
                    Stateless Address Autoconfiguration", RFC 4862,
                    September 2007.

   [RFC1035]        Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
                    specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, November 1987.

10.2.  Informative References

   [RFC1034]        Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - concepts and
                    facilities", STD 13, RFC 1034, November 1987.

   [RFC3315]        Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins,
                    C., and M. Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration
                    Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, July 2003.

   [RFC3736]        Droms, R., "Stateless Dynamic Host Configuration
                    Protocol (DHCP) Service for IPv6", RFC 3736,
                    April 2004.

   [RFC3646]        Droms, R., "DNS Configuration options for Dynamic
                    Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)",
                    RFC 3646, December 2003.

   [RFC5006]        Jeong, J., Park, S., Beloeil, L., and S.
                    Madanapalli, "IPv6 Router Advertisement Option for
                    DNS Configuration", RFC 5006, September 2007.

   [RFC4339]        Jeong, J., "IPv6 Host Configuration of DNS Server
                    Information Approaches", RFC 4339, February 2006.

   [RFC3971]        Arkko, J., Kempf, J., Zill, B., and P. Nikander,
                    "SEcure Neighbor Discovery (SEND)", RFC 3971,
                    March 2005.






Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                   [Page 16]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


   [RFC5358]        Damas, J. and F. Neves, "Preventing Use of Recursive
                    Nameservers in Reflector Attacks", BCP 140,
                    RFC 5358, October 2008.

   [RFC2827]        Ferguson, P. and D. Senie, "Network Ingress
                    Filtering: Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which
                    employ IP Source Address Spoofing", BCP 38,
                    RFC 2827, May 2000.

   [RFC1535]        Gavron, E., "A Security Problem and Proposed
                    Correction With Widely Deployed DNS Software",
                    RFC 1535, October 1993.

   [RFC1536]        Kumar, A., Postel, J., Neuman, C., Danzig, P., and
                    S. Miller, "Common DNS Implementation Errors and
                    Suggested Fixes", RFC 1536, October 1993.

   [MIF-PROBLEM]    Blanchet, M. and P. Seite, "Multiple Interfaces
                    Problem Statement", Work in Progress, August 2010.

   [MIF-PRACTICE]   Wasserman, M. and P. Seite, "Current Practices for
                    Multiple Interface Hosts", Work in Progress,
                    August 2010.

   [CSI-SEND-CERT]  Gagliano, R., Krishnan, S., and A. Kukec,
                    "Certificate profile and certificate management for
                    SEND", Work in Progress, October 2010.
























Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                   [Page 17]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


Appendix A.  Changes from RFC 5006

   The following changes were made from RFC 5006 "IPv6 Router
   Advertisement Option for DNS Configuration":

   o  Added the DNS Search List (DNSSL) option to support the
      advertisement of DNS suffixes used in the DNS search along with
      RDNSS option in RFC 5006.

   o  Clarified the coexistence of RA options and DHCP options for DNS
      configuration.

   o  Modified the procedure in IPv6 host:

      *  Clarified the procedure for DNS options in an IPv6 host.

      *  Specified a sufficient number of RDNSS addresses or DNS search
         domain names as three.

      *  Specified a way to deal with DNS options from multiple sources,
         such as RA and DHCP.

   o  Modified the implementation considerations for DNSSL option
      handling.

   o  Modified the security considerations to consider more attack
      scenarios and the corresponding possible solutions.

   o  Modified the IANA considerations to require another IPv6 Neighbor
      Discovery Option type for the DNSSL option.





















Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                   [Page 18]
^L
RFC 6106                   IPv6 RA DNS Options             November 2010


Authors' Addresses

   Jaehoon Paul Jeong
   Brocade Communications Systems/ETRI
   6000 Nathan Ln N
   Plymouth, MN  55442
   USA

   Phone: +1 763 268 7173
   Fax:   +1 763 268 6800
   EMail: pjeong@brocade.com
   URI:   http://www.cs.umn.edu/~jjeong/


   Soohong Daniel Park
   Digital Media & Communications R&D Center
   SAMSUNG Electronics
   416 Maetan-3dong, Yeongtong-Gu
   Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do  443-742
   Korea

   Phone: +82 31 279 8876
   EMail: soohong.park@samsung.com


   Luc Beloeil
   France Telecom R&D
   42, rue des coutures
   BP 6243
   14066 CAEN Cedex 4
   France

   Phone: +33 2 40 44 97 40
   EMail: luc.beloeil@orange-ftgroup.com


   Syam Madanapalli
   iRam Technologies
   #H304, Shriram Samruddhi, Thubarahalli
   Bangalore - 560066
   India

   EMail: smadanapalli@gmail.com








Jeong, et al.                Standards Track                   [Page 19]
^L