An Integrity Verification Scheme for DNS Zone File based on Security Impact Analysis

Published

November 1, 2005

Author(s)

Ramaswamy Chandramouli, Scott W. Rose

Abstract

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the worlds largest distributed computing system that performs the key function of translating user-friendly domain names to IP Addresses through a process called Name Resolution. After looking at the protection measures for securing the DNS transactions, we discover that the trust in the name resolution process ultimately depends upon the integrity of the data repository that Authoritative Name Servers of DNS uses. This data repository is called Zone file. Hence we analyze in detail the data content relationships in zone file that have security impacts and develop a taxonomy and associated population of constraints. We also have developed a platform-independent framework using XML, XML Schema and XSLT for encoding those constraints and verifying them against the XML encoded zone file data to detect integrity violations.

Conference Location

Tucson, AZ, USA

Conference Title

21st Annual Computer Security Applications Conference

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

Domain Name System, DNS, XML Schema, XSLT, Zone File, Integrity Verification

Citation

Chandramouli, R. and Rose, S. (2005), An Integrity Verification Scheme for DNS Zone File based on Security Impact Analysis, 21st Annual Computer Security Applications Conference, Tucson, AZ, USA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=150378 (Accessed October 9, 2025)