LocalRoot++

Making LocalRoot the Default

ICANN85 - Mumbai, IN - 2026-03 V0.6

Disclaimers:

  • Joint work with Wes Hardaker, Geoff Huston, Jim Reid, but input from many many others.
  • Ongoing discussions in the IETF DNSOP working group.
    • Things are subject to change
# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Webserver

How do I reach

www.a-random-domain.net?

www.a-random-domain.net

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

ISP Resolver

www.a-random-domain.net

Webserver

How do I reach

www.a-random-domain.net?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.a-random-domain.net?

www.a-random-domain.net

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.a-random-domain.net?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.a-random-domain.net?

Ask .net, at 1.1.1.1

www.a-random-domain.net

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.a-random-domain.net?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Resolver

Root

.net
1.1.1.1

www.a-random-domain.net?

Ask .net, at 1.1.1.1

www.a-random-domain.net?

www.a-random-domain.net

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.a-random-domain.net?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

.net
1.1.1.1

www.a-random-domain.net?

Ask .net, at 1.1.1.1

www.a-random-domain.net?

Ask ns1.foo.net, at 2.2.2.2

www.a-random-domain.net

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.a-random-domain.net?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

.net
1.1.1.1

ns1.foo.net

2.2.2.2

www.a-random-domain.net?

Ask .net, at 1.1.1.1

www.a-random-domain.net?

Ask ns1.foo.net, at 2.2.2.2

www.a-random-domain.net?

www.a-random-domain.net

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.a-random-domain.net?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

.net
1.1.1.1

www.a-random-domain.net?

Ask .net, at 1.1.1.1

www.a-random-domain.net?

Ask ns1.foo.net, at 2.2.2.2

www.a-random-domain.net is 193.151.173.16

www.a-random-domain.net

Webserver

ns1.foo.net

2.2.2.2

www.a-random-domain.net?

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.a-random-domain.net?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

.net
1.1.1.1

www.a-random-domain.net?

Ask .net, at 1.1.1.1

www.a-random-domain.net?

Ask ns1.foo.net, at 2.2.2.2

193.151.173.16

www.a-random-domain.net

Webserver

www.a-random-domain.net is 193.151.173.16

ns1.foo.net

2.2.2.2

www.a-random-domain.net?

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.a-random-domain.net?

Webpage please...

Response...

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Webserver

www.example.com

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.com?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.example.com?

Webserver

www.example.com

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.com?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.example.com?

Ask .com, at 2.2.2.2

www.example.com

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.com?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.example.com?

Ask .com, at 2.2.2.2

www.example.com

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.com?

[ ...]

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Webserver

www.example.org

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.org?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.example.org?

Webserver

www.example.org

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.org?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.example.org?

Ask .org, at 3.3.3.3

www.example.org

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.org?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.example.org?

Ask .org, at 3.3.3.3

www.example.org

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.org?

[ ...]

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Webserver

www.example.in

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.in?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.example.in?

www.example.in

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.in?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.example.in?

Ask .in, at 3.3.3.3

www.example.in

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.in?

# PRESENTING CODE

A refresher on how resolution works...

Root

www.example.in?

Ask .in, at 3.3.3.3

www.example.in

Webserver

ISP Resolver

How do I reach

www.example.in?

[ ...]

Wouldn't it be nice...

# CHAPTER 2

RFC8806 - "Running a Root Server Local to a Resolver"

  • Published in 2020, updates RFC7706 from 2015.
     
  • Basically: Fetch the root zone and cache it.
# PRESENTING CODE

Benefits

  • Increased performance
    • If you don't need to send a packet, there is no RTT
  • Increased reliability
    • If you don't need to reach the root, you don't need to be able to reach the root
  • Improved privacy
    • www.alcoholics-anonymous.org
    • www.alcoholics-anonymous.orf
  • DoS Mitigation
    • Enumeration attacks

Yes, I'm aware of RFC7816 - "DNS Query Name Minimisation to Improve Privacy" and RFC8198 - "Aggressive Use of DNSSEC-Validated Cache" (I'm an author)

# CHAPTER 2

How?

# CHAPTER 2

Getting the root zone

https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone

Fetching using curl / wget

$ wget https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone

--2025-10-17 11:37:51--  https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone
Resolving www.internic.net (www.internic.net)... 192.0.46.9
Connecting to www.internic.net (www.internic.net)|192.0.46.9|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 2246592 (2.1M) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘root.zone’

root.zone                         100%[==============>]   2.14M  2.28MB/s    in 0.9s

2025-10-17 11:37:53 (2.28 MB/s) - ‘root.zone’ saved [2246592/2246592]
# PRESENTING CODE

Fetching using AXFR

$ dig axfr . @b.root-servers.net

; <<>> DiG 9.10.6 <<>> axfr . @b.root-servers.net
;; global options: +cmd
.			86400	IN	SOA	a.root-servers.net. nstld.verisign-grs.com. 2025101700 1800 900 604800 86400
.			518400	IN	NS	a.root-servers.net.
.			518400	IN	NS	b.root-servers.net.
.			518400	IN	NS	c.root-servers.net.
.			518400	IN	NS	d.root-servers.net.
.			518400	IN	NS	e.root-servers.net.
.			518400	IN	NS	f.root-servers.net.
...
...
ns1zim.telone.co.zw.	172800	IN	A	41.220.30.81
ns1zim.telone.co.zw.	172800	IN	AAAA	2c0f:f758:0:a::81
ns2zim.telone.co.zw.	172800	IN	A	41.220.30.82
ns2zim.telone.co.zw.	172800	IN	AAAA	2c0f:f758:0:a::82
.			86400	IN	SOA	a.root-servers.net. nstld.verisign-grs.com. 2025101700 1800 900 604800 86400
;; Query time: 172 msec
;; SERVER: 170.247.170.2#53(170.247.170.2)
;; WHEN: Fri Oct 17 11:30:52 EDT 2025
;; XFR size: 24904 records (messages 86, bytes 1422842)
# PRESENTING CODE

Can fetch from: [b, c, d, f, g].root-servers.net

Fetching using AXFR

# PRESENTING CODE

Stats from b.root-servers.net

ISC BIND 9.14 (and above)

 zone "." {
       type mirror;
   };
# PRESENTING CODE

Source: BIND documentation for mirror zones

Example configuration using a BIND "mirror" zone:

root zone

uses AXFR

Knot Resolver

modules.load('prefill')
 prefill.config({
       ['.'] = {
               url = 'https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone',
               interval = 86400  -- seconds
               ca_file = '/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt', -- optional
       }
 })
# PRESENTING CODE

Source: Knot Resolver Cache prefilling

Example configuration to prefill cache with root zone using HTTPS:

HTTP(s)

Optional TLS

zone

Unbound 1.9 (and above)

auth-zone:
     name: "."
     url: "https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone"
     zonefile: "root.zone"
           fallback-enabled: yes
       for-downstream: no
       for-upstream: yes
       zonefile: "root.zone"
     prefetch: yes

# PRESENTING CODE

Source: Unbound Authority Zone Options

Unbound Auth Zones example:

HTTP(s)

root zone

# PRESENTING CODE

So, how much data is this?!

sudo ipset destroy root_servers
sudo ipset -N root_servers iphash

sudo ipset -A root_servers 198.41.0.4
sudo ipset -A root_servers 170.247.170.2
...

sudo iptables -A INPUT -m set --match-set root_servers src -j ACCEPT

sudo unbound-control flush_zone .
sudo iptables -L -Z -v

[ Query each TLD]

sudo iptables -L -vv
sudo iptables -L -vvv
ip filter INPUT 8
  [ match name set rev 4 ]
  [ counter pkts 1537 bytes 1127567 ]
  [ immediate reg 0 accept ]

Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT 21512 packets, 5564K bytes)
 pkts bytes target     prot opt in     out     source               destination
 1537 1128K ACCEPT     all  --  any    any     anywhere             anywhere             match-set root_servers src
    0     0 ACCEPT     all  --  any    any     anywhere             anywhere             match-set root_servers dst

# PRESENTING CODE

Individual queries

1.1MB

# PRESENTING CODE

AXFR

Bytes: 1,602,476 (2719 packets)

dig axfr . @b.root-servers.net
# PRESENTING CODE

HTTP

Bytes: 2,379,902

wget https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone

Bytes: 990,949

wget https://www.owl-stretching-time.com/root.zone

HTTPS

HTTPS with nginx - gzip

# PRESENTING CODE

CDNs - Content Delivery Network

  • Specifically designed to distribute web objects
  • Basically every webpage and video is served from a CDN
  • Designed for high scalability, geographic distribution

Capacity

# PRESENTING CODE

Trust...

# PRESENTING CODE

RFC 8976 - "Message Digest for DNS Zones"

  • "... an RR type that provides a cryptographic message digest of the data in a zone."
  • Also known as "ZONEMD"
  • DNSSEC signature over the entire zone file
 $ dig zonemd . 

; <<>> DiG 9.18.39-0ubuntu0.24.04.2-Ubuntu <<>> zonemd .
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 9730
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 65494
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;.				IN	ZONEMD

;; ANSWER SECTION:
.			86400	IN	ZONEMD	2025102400 1 1 9679D824471ED710F3C6332217D1A70A96757F564DD83F7C12F4C886 BBB744A51168E86E1932D59524A14B10956759C6

;; Query time: 22 msec
# CHAPTER 2

New document(s) provide:

  • A list of places to fetch from
    • And algorithm (AXFR, HTTPS, ...)
       
  • Procedures for updating this list
     
  • Relaxing the implementation requirements
    • What to do (have the root zone locally), not how to do it (removed the "Thou must run an authoritative server...")
       
  • Clarifications on fallback, resilience, etc.
     

 

draft-wkumari-dnsop-localroot-bcp

# PRESENTING CODE

draft-wkumari-dnsop-localroot-bcp

1.  Identify locations from where root zone data can be 
     obtained (Section 3.1).

2.  Downloading and refreshing the root zone data from
    one of the publication points (Section 3.2).

3.  Integrating and serving the data while performing 
    DNS resolutions (Section 3.3).
  • Has new text on retries, fallback and fetching by IP, where and how to get the zone, etc. 
# PRESENTING CODE

Benefits

  • Increased performance
    • If you don't need to send a packet, there is no RTT
  • Increased reliability
    • If you don't need to reach the root, you don't need to be able to reach the root
  • Improved privacy
    • www.alcoholics-anonymous.org
    • www.alcoholics-anonymous.orf
  • DoS Mitigation
    • Enumeration attacks
  • Bonus Benefit: Reduced policy pressure
    • 13 letters, but ~2000 instances (~40 in India)

Yes, I'm aware of RFC7816 - "DNS Query Name Minimisation to Improve Privacy" and RFC8198 - "Aggressive Use of DNSSEC-Validated Cache" (I'm an author)

Questions?

Backup slides

Capacity

  • Comparison to current root-server system
    • One CDN states 405Tbps
    • Current RSS: 1999 instances (2025-10-19)
    • That means each instance would need 202Gbps to match

Google

Cloudflare

Capacity

Source: Akamai’s Vision and Strategy Dr. Tom Leighton, Akamai CEO

DDoS Capacity

Source: KrebsOnSecurity

Aisuru

  • 30 Tbps / 1998 instances =~ 15Gpbs / instance 

Root Query 

Source: Some Thoughts on the Root of the DNS (Geoff Huston)

Making LocalRoot Default - ICANN85

By wkumari

Making LocalRoot Default - ICANN85

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