



Domain Name System Operations                                W. Hardaker
Internet-Draft                                              Google, Inc.
Updates: RFC8806 (if approved)                           19 January 2026
Intended status: Standards Track                                        
Expires: 23 July 2026


            An IANA root zone publication source list format
          draft-hardaker-dnsop-root-zone-publication-points-00

Abstract

   This document describes a machine readable format to be used by IANA
   to publish a list of sources where the contents of the IANA DNS Root
   Zone may be fetched from.

About This Document

   This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.

   Status information for this document may be found at
   https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-hardaker-dnsop-iana-root-zone-
   publication-points/.

   Discussion of this document takes place on the Domain Name System
   Operations Working Group mailing list (mailto:dnsop@ietf.org), which
   is archived at https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/dnsop/.
   Subscribe at https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/dnsop/.

   Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at
   https://github.com/https://github.com/hardaker/draft-hardaker-dnsop-
   iana-root-zone-publication-points.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
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   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."




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   This Internet-Draft will expire on 23 July 2026.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2026 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 (https://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
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   provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  IANA maintained list of root zone publication points  . . . .   2
     2.1.  Root zone publication points  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Operational Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   4.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   6.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     6.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     6.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6

1.  Introduction

   DNS recursive resolvers implementing functionality such as LocalRoot
   [draft-wkumari-dnsop-localroot-bcp] need to obtain the contents of
   the IANA DNS root zone on a regular basis.  This document describes a
   machine readable format that can be used by IANA to publish a list of
   sources that can be used for obtaining the contents of the IANA DNS
   Root Zone.

2.  IANA maintained list of root zone publication points

   The list of IANA root zone data publication points, available at TBD-
   URL, may be used to discover where the IANA root zone data can be
   fetched from.







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   It is expected that this will be used as described in
   [draft-wkumari-dnsop-localroot-bcp], and may be used by the resolver
   software directly, or by the operating system a resolver is deployed
   on, or by a network operator when configuring a resolver.

   The contents of the IANA DNS root publication points file MUST be
   verifiable as to its integrity as having come from IANA and MUST be
   verifiable as being complete.

2.1.  Root zone publication points

   NOTE: this is but an example format that is expected to spur
   discussions within IETF working groups like DNSOP.  Whether this is a
   list in a simple line-delimited format like below or signed JSON or
   signed PGP or ... is subject to debate.

   The IANA root zone data publication points file is structured into
   two distinct segments, divided by a line consisting of four dashes
   followed by a newline ("----\n").  The first segment contains a list
   of URLs, one per line.  The second segment provides a signature or
   cryptographic checksum.

   While this specific format was originally designed for IANA's
   maintained list of root zone publication points, it may also be used
   by other publication point aggregation lists.

   The list may include URLs using any protocol capable of transferring
   DNS zone data, including HTTPS [RFC9110], AXFR
   [draft-hardaker-dnsop-dns-xfr-scheme], XoT
   [draft-hardaker-dnsop-dns-xfr-scheme], etc.

   Each URL MUST occur on its own line.  Lines beginning with the "#"
   character are considered comments and MUST be ignored.  Leading and
   trailing whitespace on each line SHOULD be ignored.

   Any URLs that reference an unknown transfer protocol in the LocalRoot
   implementations SHOULD be discarded.  If after filtering the list
   there are no acceptable list elements left, the resolver MUST revert
   to using regular DNS queries to the IANA root zone instead of
   operating as a LocalRoot.

   The first line of the cryptographic checksum section will contain a
   checksum or signature type string specifying what the remaining lines
   in the checksum or signature section will contain.  (Ed note: this
   section is underspecified.  We expect to refine this as we get
   feedback from the working group.)





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   A minimal example publication point file, containing a single AXFR
   publication point with a target of b.root-servers.net:

   axfr:b.root-servers.net/.
   ----
   SHA256
   67d687eb21e59321dbb8115c51d1b4ddbd6634362859d130ed77b47a4410656c

   Future note: this should eventually be a signature from an identity,
   regardless of format, that can be traced back to IANA being the
   authoritative publisher and not just a simple checksum.

3.  Operational Considerations

   Implementations SHOULD optimize retrieval to minimize impacts on the
   server.  Because the list is not expected to change frequently,
   implementations SHOULD refrain from querying IANA's source more than
   once a week.

   TBD

4.  Security Considerations

   It is critical that LocalRoot implementations (or other any code
   bases) making use of the publication point list format described in
   this document verify the contents using the encoded checksum to
   ensure it has not been tampered with.

   TBD

5.  IANA Considerations

   TBD: describe the request for IANA to support a list of root server
   publication points at TBD-URL.

6.  References

6.1.  Normative References

   [BCP237]   Best Current Practice 237,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp237>.
              At the time of writing, this BCP comprises the following:

              Hoffman, P., "DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC)", BCP 237,
              RFC 9364, DOI 10.17487/RFC9364, February 2023,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9364>.





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   [RFC4033]  Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
              Rose, "DNS Security Introduction and Requirements",
              RFC 4033, DOI 10.17487/RFC4033, March 2005,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4033>.

   [RFC8976]  Wessels, D., Barber, P., Weinberg, M., Kumari, W., and W.
              Hardaker, "Message Digest for DNS Zones", RFC 8976,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8976, February 2021,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8976>.

6.2.  Informative References

   [draft-hardaker-dnsop-dns-xfr-scheme]
              "The DNS XFR URI Schemes", n.d.,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-hardaker-dnsop-
              dns-xfr-scheme/>.

   [draft-hardaker-dnsop-root-zone-publication-list-guidelines]
              "Guidelines for IANA DNS Root Zone Publication List
              Providers", n.d., <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-
              hardaker-dnsop-root-zone-publication-list-guidelines>.

   [draft-wkumari-dnsop-localroot-bcp]
              "Populating resolvers with the root zone", n.d.,
              <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-wkumari-dnsop-
              localroot-bcp/>.

   [NOROOTS]  "On Eliminating Root Nameservers from the DNS", n.d.,
              <https://www.icir.org/mallman/pubs/All19b/All19b.pdf>.

   [RFC5936]  Lewis, E. and A. Hoenes, Ed., "DNS Zone Transfer Protocol
              (AXFR)", RFC 5936, DOI 10.17487/RFC5936, June 2010,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5936>.

   [RFC7766]  Dickinson, J., Dickinson, S., Bellis, R., Mankin, A., and
              D. Wessels, "DNS Transport over TCP - Implementation
              Requirements", RFC 7766, DOI 10.17487/RFC7766, March 2016,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7766>.

   [RFC9110]  Fielding, R., Ed., Nottingham, M., Ed., and J. Reschke,
              Ed., "HTTP Semantics", STD 97, RFC 9110,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC9110, June 2022,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110>.

Acknowledgments

   TBD




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Author's Address

   Wes Hardaker
   Google, Inc.
   Email: ietf@hardakers.net














































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