Internet-Draft DNS Root Zone Publication List Guideline January 2026
Hardaker Expires 24 July 2026 [Page]
Workgroup:
Domain Name System Operations
Internet-Draft:
draft-hardaker-dnsop-root-zone-pub-list-guidelines-00
Published:
Intended Status:
Informational
Expires:
Author:
W. Hardaker
Google, Inc.

Guidelines for IANA DNS Root Zone Publication List Providers

Abstract

This document describes guidelines for entities that wish to publish a list of URLs from where the contents of the IANA DNS root zone may be obtained. These guidelines are specifically provided as guidance to IANA, but these suggestions may be applicable to any entity wishing to build a list of IANA DNS root zone sources for their own purposes.

About This Document

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

The latest revision of this draft can be found at https://github.io/hardker/draft-hardaker-dnsop-root-zone-publication-list-guidelines/draft-hardaker-dnsop-root-zone-publication-list-guidelines.html. Status information for this document may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-hardaker-dnsop-root-zone-pub-list-guidelines/.

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-root-zone-publication-list-guidelines.

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 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

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."

This Internet-Draft will expire on 24 July 2026.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

This document describes guidelines for entities that wish to publish a list of URLs from where the contents of the IANA DNS root zone may be obtained. These guidelines are specifically provided as guidance to IANA, but these suggestions may be applicable to any entity wishing to build a list of IANA DNS root zone sources for their own purposes.

When implementing a LocalRoot or similar service, as described in [draft-wkumari-dnsop-localroot-bcp], the contents of the DNS root zone need to be obtained. Because the contents of the IANA DNS root zone are crytographically verifiable, it may be obtained from any source assuming integrity verification has been performed.

Entities, such as IANA, will need to publish a list of acceptable sources that LocalRoot enabled resolvers can use to routinely fetch and serve or cache the contents of the IANA DNS root zone. The guidelines in this document are intended to provide advice to IANA or any other entity wishing to build such a list of sources.

A separate document [draft-hardaker-dnsop-iana-root-zone-publication-points] describes the format of the IANA published list, along with IANA considerations that request the list's publication.

2. Conventions and Definitions

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.

3. Guidelines for building a IANA DNS root zone publication list

The following describes the community established guidelines when developing a list of IANA DNS root zone publication points:

4. Security Considerations

TBD

5. IANA Considerations

IANA may wish to carefully consider the suggestions in this document when building a list of IANA DNS root zone publication points.

6. References

6.1. Normative References

[draft-wkumari-dnsop-localroot-bcp]
"Running a Root Server Local to a Resolver", n.d., <draft-hardaker-dnsop-dns-xfr-scheme>.
[RFC2119]
Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119>.
[RFC3986]
Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, RFC 3986, DOI 10.17487/RFC3986, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986>.
[RFC4395]
Hansen, T., Hardie, T., and L. Masinter, "Guidelines and Registration Procedures for New URI Schemes", RFC 4395, DOI 10.17487/RFC4395, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4395>.
[RFC5234]
Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, DOI 10.17487/RFC5234, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5234>.
[RFC5936]
Lewis, E. and A. Hoenes, Ed., "DNS Zone Transfer Protocol (AXFR)", RFC 5936, DOI 10.17487/RFC5936, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5936>.
[RFC8174]
Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8174>.
[RFC8499]
Hoffman, P., Sullivan, A., and K. Fujiwara, "DNS Terminology", RFC 8499, DOI 10.17487/RFC8499, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc8499>.
[RFC9103]
Toorop, W., Dickinson, S., Sahib, S., Aras, P., and A. Mankin, "DNS Zone Transfer over TLS", RFC 9103, DOI 10.17487/RFC9103, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9103>.

6.2. Informative References

[draft-hardaker-dnsop-iana-root-zone-publication-points]
"A format for publishing a list of sources of IANA root zone data", n.d., <https://github.com/hardaker/draft-hardaker-dnsop-iana-root-zone-publication-points>.
[RFC7766]
Dickinson, J., Dickinson, S., Bellis, R., Mankin, A., and D. Wessels, "DNS Transport over TCP - Implementation Requirements", RFC 7766, DOI 10.17487/RFC7766, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7766>.

Acknowledgments

TBD

Author's Address

Wes Hardaker
Google, Inc.