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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-27 10:05:51 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-27 10:05:51 +0000
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+===================
+DNS Resolver Module
+===================
+
+.. Contents:
+
+ - Overview.
+ - Compilation.
+ - Setting up.
+ - Usage.
+ - Mechanism.
+ - Debugging.
+
+
+Overview
+========
+
+The DNS resolver module provides a way for kernel services to make DNS queries
+by way of requesting a key of key type dns_resolver. These queries are
+upcalled to userspace through /sbin/request-key.
+
+These routines must be supported by userspace tools dns.upcall, cifs.upcall and
+request-key. It is under development and does not yet provide the full feature
+set. The features it does support include:
+
+ (*) Implements the dns_resolver key_type to contact userspace.
+
+It does not yet support the following AFS features:
+
+ (*) Dns query support for AFSDB resource record.
+
+This code is extracted from the CIFS filesystem.
+
+
+Compilation
+===========
+
+The module should be enabled by turning on the kernel configuration options::
+
+ CONFIG_DNS_RESOLVER - tristate "DNS Resolver support"
+
+
+Setting up
+==========
+
+To set up this facility, the /etc/request-key.conf file must be altered so that
+/sbin/request-key can appropriately direct the upcalls. For example, to handle
+basic dname to IPv4/IPv6 address resolution, the following line should be
+added::
+
+
+ #OP TYPE DESC CO-INFO PROGRAM ARG1 ARG2 ARG3 ...
+ #====== ============ ======= ======= ==========================
+ create dns_resolver * * /usr/sbin/cifs.upcall %k
+
+To direct a query for query type 'foo', a line of the following should be added
+before the more general line given above as the first match is the one taken::
+
+ create dns_resolver foo:* * /usr/sbin/dns.foo %k
+
+
+Usage
+=====
+
+To make use of this facility, one of the following functions that are
+implemented in the module can be called after doing::
+
+ #include <linux/dns_resolver.h>
+
+ ::
+
+ int dns_query(const char *type, const char *name, size_t namelen,
+ const char *options, char **_result, time_t *_expiry);
+
+ This is the basic access function. It looks for a cached DNS query and if
+ it doesn't find it, it upcalls to userspace to make a new DNS query, which
+ may then be cached. The key description is constructed as a string of the
+ form::
+
+ [<type>:]<name>
+
+ where <type> optionally specifies the particular upcall program to invoke,
+ and thus the type of query to do, and <name> specifies the string to be
+ looked up. The default query type is a straight hostname to IP address
+ set lookup.
+
+ The name parameter is not required to be a NUL-terminated string, and its
+ length should be given by the namelen argument.
+
+ The options parameter may be NULL or it may be a set of options
+ appropriate to the query type.
+
+ The return value is a string appropriate to the query type. For instance,
+ for the default query type it is just a list of comma-separated IPv4 and
+ IPv6 addresses. The caller must free the result.
+
+ The length of the result string is returned on success, and a negative
+ error code is returned otherwise. -EKEYREJECTED will be returned if the
+ DNS lookup failed.
+
+ If _expiry is non-NULL, the expiry time (TTL) of the result will be
+ returned also.
+
+The kernel maintains an internal keyring in which it caches looked up keys.
+This can be cleared by any process that has the CAP_SYS_ADMIN capability by
+the use of KEYCTL_KEYRING_CLEAR on the keyring ID.
+
+
+Reading DNS Keys from Userspace
+===============================
+
+Keys of dns_resolver type can be read from userspace using keyctl_read() or
+"keyctl read/print/pipe".
+
+
+Mechanism
+=========
+
+The dnsresolver module registers a key type called "dns_resolver". Keys of
+this type are used to transport and cache DNS lookup results from userspace.
+
+When dns_query() is invoked, it calls request_key() to search the local
+keyrings for a cached DNS result. If that fails to find one, it upcalls to
+userspace to get a new result.
+
+Upcalls to userspace are made through the request_key() upcall vector, and are
+directed by means of configuration lines in /etc/request-key.conf that tell
+/sbin/request-key what program to run to instantiate the key.
+
+The upcall handler program is responsible for querying the DNS, processing the
+result into a form suitable for passing to the keyctl_instantiate_key()
+routine. This then passes the data to dns_resolver_instantiate() which strips
+off and processes any options included in the data, and then attaches the
+remainder of the string to the key as its payload.
+
+The upcall handler program should set the expiry time on the key to that of the
+lowest TTL of all the records it has extracted a result from. This means that
+the key will be discarded and recreated when the data it holds has expired.
+
+dns_query() returns a copy of the value attached to the key, or an error if
+that is indicated instead.
+
+See <file:Documentation/security/keys/request-key.rst> for further
+information about request-key function.
+
+
+Debugging
+=========
+
+Debugging messages can be turned on dynamically by writing a 1 into the
+following file::
+
+ /sys/module/dnsresolver/parameters/debug