Category glossary

DNS glossary — page 13

311 definitions associated with DNS.

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Truncation

The condition indicated by the TC bit when a response does not fit the allowed message size. Truncation should prompt retry over a transport that can carry the full response.

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TSIG

The common abbreviation for Transaction Signature, a shared-secret authentication mechanism for DNS messages. Current TSIG specification is RFC 8945.

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TTL

Abbreviation for Time to Live, the cache lifetime carried in each resource record. Records in one RRset should have a consistent TTL.

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TXT record

A Text record contains one or more character strings, each limited to 255 octets in wire format. TXT is used by many applications for verification, email policy, security, and metadata, with application-specific syntax.

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U-label

A Unicode form of an internationalized DNS label intended for user display and processing under IDNA rules. Its corresponding DNS-compatible A-label uses Punycode.

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Update prerequisite

A condition in a DNS UPDATE message that must be true before changes are applied, such as a name or RRset existing or not existing. Prerequisites support atomic conflict-aware updates.

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View

A server configuration that selects a set of zones, recursion behavior, or policy according to the client or request context. The same queried name can therefore receive different answers.

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Water torture

A common shortened name for DNS water torture, the random-subdomain attack that forces repeated cache misses and authoritative queries.

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Weight

The relative selection value among SRV records with the same priority. Higher weights should receive a proportionally larger share of selections, subject to client implementation.

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Wildcard

A DNS owner name whose leftmost label is an asterisk and that can synthesize answers for certain nonexistent names below it. Wildcards do not match every descendant blindly and are constrained by existing names and closest-encloser rules.

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Wildcard certificate

A TLS certificate containing a wildcard DNS name such as *.example.com. It normally matches one label at that position and does not replace DNS wildcard behavior.

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Wildcard expansion

The DNS server process that synthesizes an answer from a wildcard RRset when the query name does not exist and wildcard matching rules are satisfied. The synthesized owner name is the original QNAME.

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Wire format

The binary on-network representation of protocol messages, including field sizes, byte order, labels, options, and compression rules. Presentation formats such as zone files are not identical to wire format.

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Zone

A portion of the DNS namespace managed as a unit and served authoritatively. It contains data from its apex down to, but not including, delegated child zones.

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Zone apex

The top node of a zone, where its SOA and authoritative NS RRsets are stored. The apex cannot normally be a CNAME because required zone data must coexist there.

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Zone cut

The boundary between a parent zone and a delegated child zone. It is marked by a parent-side delegation NS RRset and child-side authoritative zone apex.

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Zone digest

A cryptographic digest over canonical zone data used to verify that a transferred or published zone is complete and unmodified. The ZONEMD record carries the digest at the zone apex.

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Zone enumeration

Discovery of many or all names in a zone through transfers, NSEC walking, certificate data, search engines, logs, or other sources. DNSSEC with NSEC can make systematic walking easier.

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Zone file

A text file in DNS master-file format containing directives and resource records for a zone. Authoritative data can also be stored in databases or generated dynamically.

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Zone transfer

Replication of authoritative zone data using AXFR for a full copy or IXFR for changes. Transfers use TCP and should be authenticated and access-controlled.

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Zone walking

Systematic enumeration of names in a DNSSEC-signed zone by following NSEC records or analyzing NSEC3 under favorable conditions. NSEC3 increases cost but does not guarantee confidentiality.

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ZONEMD record

A Message Digest Over Zone Data record that provides a digest of the zone contents. It can detect corruption or incomplete distribution but does not replace DNSSEC authentication of individual answers.

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