DNSSECenabled

DNSSECenabled refers to domains, zones, or resolvers that implement DNSSEC, the Domain Name System Security Extensions. DNSSECenabled infrastructure publishes cryptographic signatures for DNS data, allowing resolvers that support DNSSEC to validate that responses have not been tampered with and come from an authoritative source. It does not provide confidentiality; it provides integrity and authentication for DNS data.

DNSSEC works by signing zone data with a pair of keys: a zone signing key and a key signing key. DNSKEY records publish public keys, while RRSIG records carry signatures for DNS records. At the parent zone, a DS record links the child zone to its signer, creating a chain of trust from the root to the authoritative zone. Resolvers with a trusted root key can verify signatures and accept or reject DNS responses accordingly. If validation succeeds, cached data is trusted; if not, validation can fail or be treated as insecure depending on resolver policy.

Deployment considerations include key management, signing the zone, and configuring key rollover. The parent zone must publish the DS record for the signed zone, and registrars or registries must support adding or updating DS data. Interoperability, algorithm support, and resolver trust anchors are important. Misconfigurations, such as missing DS records or expired keys, can cause widespread validation failures.

Benefits of DNSSECenabled configurations include protection against DNS spoofing and cache poisoning, providing data integrity and origin authentication for DNS data. Limitations include the lack of confidentiality, potential performance overhead, and the need for coordinated management across the root, TLDs, and downstream zones. Verification tools (for example, dig +dnssec) help confirm proper signing and chain-of-trust establishment.