# dnssec-signer

NAME
SYNOPSYS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
SAMPLE USAGE
Zone setup and initial preparation
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
FILES
BUGS
AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
SEE ALSO

## NAME

dnssec-signer — Secure DNS zone signing tool

## SYNOPSYS

dnssec-signer [−L|--logfile file] [−V|--view view] [−c file] [−fhnr] [−v [−v]] −N named.conf [zone ...]
dnssec-signer [−L|--logfile file] [−V|--view view] [−c file] [−fhnr] [−v [−v]] [−D directory] [zone ...]
dnssec-signer [−L|--logfile file] [−V|--view view] [−c file] [−fhnr] [−v [−v]] −o origin [zonefile]

## DESCRIPTION

The dnssec-signer command is a wrapper around dnssec-signzone(8) and dnssec-keygen(8) to sign a zone and manage the necessary zone keys. It’s able to increment the serial number before signing the zone and can trigger named(8) to reload the signed zone file. The command controls several secure zones and, if started in regular intervals via cron(8), can do all that stuff automatically.

In the most useful usage scenario the command will be called with option −N to read the secure zones out of the given named.conf file. If you have a configuration file with views, you have to use option -V viewname or --view viewname to specify the name of the view. Alternatively you could link the executable file to a second name like dnssec-signer-viewname and use that command to specify the name of the view. All master zone statements will be scanned for filenames ending with ".signed". These zones will be checked if the necessary zone- and key signing keys are existent and fresh enough to be used in the signing process. If some out-dated keys where found, new keying material will be generated via the dnssec-keygen(8) command and the old ones will be marked as depreciated. So the command do anything needed for a zone key rollover as defined by [2].

If the resigning interval is reached or any new key must be announced, the serial number of the zone will be incremented and the dnssec-signzone(8) command will be evoked to sign the zone. After that, if the option −r is given, the rndc(8) command will be called to reload the zone on the nameserver.

In the second form of the command it’s possible to specify a directory tree with the option −D dir. Every secure zone found in a subdirectory below dir will be signed. However, it’s also possible to reduce the signing to those zones given as arguments. In directory mode the pre-requisite is, that the directory name is exactly (including the trailing dot) the same as the zone name.

In the last form of the command, the functionality is more or less the same as the dnssec-signzone (8) command. The parameter specify the zone file name and the option −o takes the name of the zone.

If neither −N nor −D nor −o is given, then the default directory specified in the dnssec.conf file by the parameter zonedir will be used as top level directory.

## OPTIONS

−L file|dir, −−logfile=file|dir

Specify the name of a log file or a directory where logfiles are created with a name like zkt-YYYY-MM-DDThhmmssZ.log. If the argument is not an absolute path name and a zone directory is specified in the config file, this will prepend the given name. This option is also settable in the dnssec.conf file via the parameter LogFile.
The default is no file logging, but error logging to syslog with facility USER at level ERROR is enabled by default. These parameters are settable via the config file parameter SyslogFacility:, SyslogLevel:, LogFile: and Loglevel.
There is an additional parameter VerboseLog: which specifies the verbosity (0|1|2) of messages that will be logged with level DEBUG to file and syslog.

−V view, −−view=view

Try to read the default configuration out of a file named dnssec-<view>.conf . Instead of specifying the −V or --view option every time, it’s also possible to create a hard or softlink to the executable file with an additional name like dnssec-zkt-<view> .

−c file, −−config=file

Read configuration values out of the specified file. Otherwise the default config file is read or build-in defaults will be used.

−O optstr, −−config-option=optstr

Set any config file option via the commandline. Several config file options could be specified at the argument string but have to be delimited by semicolon (or newline).

−f, −−force

Force a resigning of the zone, regardless if the resigning interval is reached, or any new keys must be announced.

−n, −−noexec

Don’t execute the dnssec-signzone(8) command. Currently this option is of very limited usage.

−r, −−reload

Reload the zone via rndc(8) after successful signing. In a production environment it’s recommended to use this option to be sure that a freshly signed zone will be immediately propagated. However, that’s only feasable if the named runs on the signing machine, which is not recommended. Otherwise the signed zonefile must be copied to the production server before reloading the zone. If this is the case, the parameter propagation in the dnssec.conf file must be set to a reasonable value.

−v, −−verbose

Verbose mode (recommended). A second −v will be a little more verbose.

−h, −−help

Print out the online help.

## SAMPLE USAGE

dnssec-signer −N /var/named/named.conf −r −v −v

Sign all secure zones found in the named.conf file and, if necessary, trigger a reload of the zone. Print some explanatory remarks on stdout.

dnssec-signer −D zonedir/example.net. −f −v −v

Force the signing of the zone found in the directory zonedir/example.net . Do not reload the zone.

dnssec-signer −D zonedir −f −v −v example.net.

Same as above.

dnssec-signer −f −v −v example.net.

Same as above if the dnssec.conf file contains the path of the parent directory of the example.net zone.

dnssec-signer −f −v −v −o example.net. zone.db

Same as above if we are in the directory containing the example.net files.

dnssec-signer −−config-option=’ResignInterval 1d; Sigvalidity 28h; \

ZSK_lifetime 2d;’ −v −v −o example.net. zone.db
Sign the example.net zone but overwrite some config file values with the parameters given on the commandline.

## Zone setup and initial preparation

Create a separate directory for every secure zone.

This is useful because there are many additional files needed to secure a zone. Besides the zone file (zone.db), there is a signed zone file (zone.db.signed), a minimum of four files containing the keying material, a file called dnskey.db with the current used keys, and the dsset- and keyset-files created by the dnssec-signzone(8) command. So in summary there is a minimum of nine files used per secure zone. For every additional key there are two extra files and every delegated subzone creates also two or three files.

Name the directory just like the zone.

That’s only needed if you want to use the dnssec-signer command in directory mode (−D). Then the name of the zone will be parsed out of the directory name.

Change the name of the zone file to zone.db

Otherwise you have to set the name via the dnssec.conf parameter zonefile, or you have to use the option −o to name the zone and specify the zone file as argument.

Add the name of the signed zonefile to the named.conf file

The filename is the name of the zone file with the extension .signed. Create an empty file with the name zonefile.signed in the zone directory.

Include the keyfile in the zone.

The name of the keyfile is settable by the dnssec.conf parameter keyfile . The default is dnskey.db .

Control the format of the SOA-Record

For automatic incrementation of the serial number, the SOA-Record must be formated, so that the serial number is on a single line and left justified in a field of at least 10 spaces! If you use a BIND Verison of 9.4 or greater and use the unixtime format for the serial number (See parameter Serialformat in dnssec.conf) than this is not necessary.

Try to sign the zone

If the current working directory is the directory of the zone example.net, use the command
$ dnssec-signer −D .. −v −v example.net
$ dnssec-signer −o example.net.
to create the initial keying material and a signed zone file. Then try to load the file on the name server.

## ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

ZKT_CONFFILE

Specifies the name of the default global configuration files.

## FILES

/var/named/dnssec.conf

Built-in default global configuration file. The name of the default global config file is settable via the environment variable ZKT_CONFFILE. Use dnssec-zkt(8) with option −Z to create an initial config file.

/var/named/dnssec-<view>.conf

View specific global configuration file.

./dnssec.conf

Local configuration file.

dnskey.db

The file contains the currently used key and zone signing keys. It will be created by dnsssec-signer(8). The name of the file is settable via the dnssec configuration file (parameter keyfile).

zone.db

This is the zone file. The name of the file is settable via the dnssec configuration file (parameter zonefile).

## BUGS

The zone name given as an argument must be ending with a dot.

The named.conf parser is a bit rudimental and not very well tested.

## AUTHOR

Holger Zuleger

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2005 − 2008 by Holger Zuleger. Licensed under the BSD Licence. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

## SEE ALSO

dnssec-keygen(8), dnssec-signzone(8), rndc(8), named.conf(5), dnssec-zkt(8)
RFC4033, RFC4034, RFC4035
[1] DNSSEC HOWTO Tutorial by Olaf Kolkman, RIPE NCC
(http://www.nlnetlabs.nl/dnssec_howto/)
[2] RFC4641 "DNSSEC Operational Practices" by Miek Gieben and Olaf Kolkman
(http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4641.txt)