Hi Andrew!

On 24 Jun 2025, at 12:20, Andrew McConachie <[email protected]> wrote:

> But a device can also not cache an answer if the name is not present in the 
> parent zone.

Ah, so this is not actually true. A device can cache a negative response from 
the parent zone, see RFC 2308.

> Adding a zone cut to nowhere doesn’t stop a device from caching some RRSet.

It stops a device from caching the non-existence of a name, because a referral 
response is a signal that the name exists (unlike a NODATA response or an 
NXDOMAIN response, with or without DNSSEC).

> Regarding the DNSSEC trust chain, it’s broken with both a zone cut to nowhere 
> and a non-existent name.

In some cases, the point is to break the chain of trust. An insecure delegation 
to nowhere is thought by some to be useful in the case of .INTERNAL, for 
example, so that there is no signed proof of non-existence of the INTERNAL 
domain possible from a root server that might contradict the existence of the 
INTERNAL domain in a private namespace.

In other cases, the opportunity is to preserve a chain of trust. A secure 
delegation to nowhere for INTERNAL.COMPANY.EXAMPLE zone might be installed in 
the global-scope COMPANY.EXAMPLE zone; the DS RRSet installed in public might 
match the KSKs used to sign the DNSKEY RRSet at the INTERNAL.COMPANY.EXAMPLE 
zone which is visible in a private network. This might allow devices to be able 
to get secure responses from internal-network nameservers without needing keys 
to be distributed through mobile device management systems.

> I guess the point this draft makes is that a signed lame delegation is better 
> than a signed proof of non-existence. Either way the private resolver or 
> private authoritative will have to ‘fake’ some DNSSEC data, because there can 
> never be a ‘real’ signed DS RR in the parent zone.

See above for a real-world example of when such a secure delegation to nowhere 
might be useful.

> I’m still left with the question of: Why is a (signed/unsigned) 
> lame-delegation better than (signed/unsigned) non-existence?


Because non-existence is a cacheable signal and unreachable is not.


Joe

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