Understanding the Performance and Challenges of DNS Query Name Minimization

Published

June 9, 2018

Author(s)

Zheng Wang

Abstract

As a promising solution to DNS privacy, query name minimization limits the unnecessary leakage of query name information in DNS requests. Due to the lack of detailed measurement study, there is little understanding of the performance, compatibility, and security implications of query name minimization. In this paper, we measure the performance of query name minimization. We find that query name minimization requires a significant query increase but NXDOMAIN optimization technique can alleviate the increase. We propose a DDoS vulnerability with query name minimization and evaluate its impacts and defenses using NXDOMAIN optimization. Broken empty non-terminals are measured and identified as the critical obstacles to the transition to query name minimization.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE International Conference On Trust, Security And Privacy In Computing And Communications

Conference Dates

August 1-3, 2018

Conference Location

New York, NY, US

Conference Title

IEEE TrustCom 2018

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/TrustCom/BigDataSE.2018.00155

Local Download

Keywords

DNS, privacy, qname-minimization

Citation

Wang, Z. (2018), Understanding the Performance and Challenges of DNS Query Name Minimization, Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE International Conference On Trust, Security And Privacy In Computing And Communications, New York, NY, US, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/TrustCom/BigDataSE.2018.00155, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=926044 (Accessed October 14, 2025)