Cipher-Suite Negotiation for DNSSEC: Hop-by-Hop or End-to-End?

Abstract

To ensure the security and efficiency, cryptographic protocols such as Transport Layer Security and IPsec should let parties negotiate the use of the best cryptographic algorithms; this is referred to as cipher-suite negotiation. However, cipher-suite negotiation is lacking in DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), introducing several problems. To address these issues, the authors propose two designs: hop-by-hop and end-to-end cipher-suite negotiation. They compare these two approaches with respect to efficiency, ease of deployment, changes each would require of the existing infrastructure, and compatibility with the legacy DNS infrastructure and caches.