Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) Extension for Server Validation

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

This document describes an Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) extension for including server validation information for RDAP object classes, such as the Domain Object Class and the Nameserver Object Class in [RFC9083]. Server validations can be done for an extensible set of types, with examples including validating DNS resolution with the type "dns" and validating DNSSEC with the type "dnssec". The validations can be performed synchronously in the provisioning command or asynchronously based on a triggering command or a schedule. The server validation information is returned in an RDAP lookup response that includes for each validation type the current validation status and the date and time of the last validation.¶

This document is complementary to the Server Validation Extension for the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) [I-D.gould-regext-epp-server-validation], but registry operators do not need to implement that extension in their EPP server in order to implement this RDAP extension.¶

2. Conventions Used in This Document

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶

The example RDAP responses don't include all of the RDAP response members, but are only representative of the members that are relavant to this extension.¶

3. RDAP Conformance

Servers implementing this extension MUST include the string "serverValidation" in the "rdapConformance" ([RFC9083]) array of all relevant RDAP responses. The registration of the "serverValidation" extension identifier is described in Section 6.¶

4. "serverValidation_data" Member

The server validation information is conveyed via a new top-level object member named "serverValidation_data" within the object class that the server validations have been executed for. The "serverValidation_data" member includes a list of server validation objects, where there is up to one per type, containing the following members:¶

• type -- a REQUIRED type of server validation that is up to server policy. Example values include "dns" for validation of DNS resolution and "dnssec" for validation of DNSSEC.¶
• status -- a REQUIRED status of the server validation with the values of "success" to reflect that the last validation was successful and "failed" to reflect that the last validation failed.¶
• date -- An OPTIONAL date and time when the server validation was last executed.¶

• operation -- An OPTIONAL operation that triggered the validation. This element is not included if the server validation was performed asynchronously without a triggering transform operation. The possible enumerated list of operation values are:¶

  • create -- Create operation as defined in [RFC5730].¶
  • delete -- Delete operation as defined in [RFC5730] if the delete operation does not result in an immediate purge of the object.¶
  • renew -- Renew operation as defined in [RFC5730].¶
  • transfer -- Transfer operation as defined in [RFC5730] that MUST set the "op" member with one of the possible transfer type values that include "request", "approve", "cancel", or "reject".¶
  • update -- Update operation as defined in [RFC5730].¶
  • restore -- Restore operation as defined in [RFC3915] that MUST set the "op" member with one of the possible restore type values that include "request" or "report".¶
  • autoRenew -- Auto renew operation executed by the server.¶
  • autoDelete -- Auto delete operation executed by the server if the auto delete operation does not result in an immediate purge of the object.¶
  • custom -- Custom operation that MUST set the "op" attribute with the custom operation name. The custom operations supported is up to server policy.¶
• op -- An OPTIONAL custom operation name or sub-operation of the "operation" member.¶
• lastSuccess -- An OPTIONAL date and time when the server validation was last successful. This member should only be returned when the "status" member has the value of "failed" and there was a prior successful validation.¶
• firstFailed -- An OPTIONAL date and time when the server validation first failed. This element should only be returned when the "status" member has the value of "failed".¶
• lastFailed -- An OPTIONAL date and time when the server validation last failed. This member should only be returned when the "status" member has the value of "success" and there was a prior failed validation.¶
• reason -- An OPTIONAL array of server validation failure reasons when the "status" member has the value of "failed". If present, this element contains the server-specific text to help explain the reason for the failure.¶
• reasonLang -- An OPTIONAL langauge of the "reason" member text with a default value of "en" (English).¶

{
  "objectClassName": "domain",
  "handle": "XXX",
  "ldhName": "example.com",
  "rdapConformance": ["rdap_level_0", "serverValidation"],
  "serverValidation_data": [
    {
      "type": "dnssec",
      "status": "success",
      "date": "2026-01-01T12:22:53.0Z"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "objectClassName": "domain",
  "handle": "XXX",
  "ldhName": "example.com",
  "rdapConformance": ["rdap_level_0", "serverValidation"],
  "serverValidation_data": [
    {
      "type": "dnssec",
      "status": "failed",
      "date": "2026-01-03T07:21:33Z",
      "lastSuccess": "2025-12-11T07:20:00Z",
      "firstFailed": "2025-12-12T08:19:44Z",
      "reason": [
        "Matching DNSKEY not found for DS keyTag 12345"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

{
  "objectClassName": "domain",
  "handle": "XXX",
  "ldhName": "example.com",
  "rdapConformance": ["rdap_level_0", "serverValidation"],
  "serverValidation_data": [
    {
      "type": "dns",
      "status": "success",
      "date": "2026-01-01T12:22:53.0Z",
      "operation": "create"
    },
    {
      "type": "dnssec",
      "status": "success",
      "date": "2026-01-01T12:22:53.0Z",
      "operation": "create",
      "firstFailed": "2026-01-01T06:22:53.0Z"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "objectClassName": "domain",
  "handle": "XXX",
  "ldhName": "example.com",
  "rdapConformance": ["rdap_level_0", "serverValidation"],
  "serverValidation_data": [
    {
      "type": "dns",
      "status": "success",
      "date": "2026-01-01T12:22:53.0Z",
      "operation": "create"
    },
    {
      "type": "dnssec",
      "status": "failed",
      "date": "2026-01-01T12:22:53Z",
      "firstFailed": "2026-01-01T12:22:53Z",
      "operation": "create",
      "reason": [
        "Matching DNSKEY not found for DS keyTag 12345",
        "Insecure DNSKEY algorithm for DS keyTag 54321"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

{
  "objectClassName": "domain",
  "handle": "XXX",
  "ldhName": "example.com",
  "rdapConformance": ["rdap_level_0", "serverValidation"],
  "serverValidation_data": [
    {
      "type": "dnssec",
      "status": "success",
      "date": "2026-01-01T12:22:53.0Z",
      "operation": "custom",
      "op": "keyExchange"
    }
  ]
}

5. Extension Version Identifier

This extension supports the Point Versioning defined in [I-D.ietf-regext-rdap-versioning] with a Point Extension Version Identifier of "serverValidation-0.1". When there are interface changes to the extension, the Point Extension Version Identifier will be incremented, which may not match the draft version number. When the draft becomes a working group document and passes Working Group Last Call (WGLC), the Point Extension Version Identifier will be changed to "serverValidation-1.0".¶

6. IANA Considerations

7. Security Considerations

The extension described in this document does not provide any security services beyond those described by [RFC9083].¶

Authors' Addresses