DNS-based OpenPGP Keyserver for CryptNET

What is this?

This is a DNS server front-end to the CryptNET OpenPGP keyserver, used by GnuPG clients.

If you do not know what CryptNET Keyserver, DNS-based key servers, or GnuPG is, I suggest using the following resources.

• CryptNET Keyserver
• GnuPG homepage
• Specification for DNS-based Certificate distribution
• GNU Privacy Guard DNS keyserver client

News

• 2004-06-12 There is a web interface to the DNS keyserver up and running on http://pgpdns.josefsson.org/dns/.
• 2004-06-12 Updated the server for CKS 0.1.5. CKS-DNS is now part of CKS, and will be running on "dnskeys-ns.josefsson.org" serving the zone "*PGPKEY*.dnskeys.josefsson.org".
• 2002-08-05 Wrote an IETF draft documenting how this works
• 2002-08-03 Version 0.1 released. Missing for 1.0 is key upload, support for keys larger than 64kb, and handling of more than one outstanding query.

Download and Installation

You can grab the tarball [PGP], which includes the script and this HTML page.

It is a Perl script, and it needs at least two perl packages:

• Net::DNS v0.25 or later.
• DBI, including the Postgres interface.

If you run Debian, simply do something like:

# apt-get install libnet-dns-perl libdbd-pgsql libdbi-perl libdbd-pg-perl

Usage

Make sure the CryptNET Postgres database is running, and invoke it simply as:

# ./cks-dns

It needs root for binding to port 53. Dropping its privileges is a todo. Some command line parameters:

--port 4711

Specify port to listen on.

--listen 3.4.5.6

Specify interface address to listen on.

--verbose

Print debugging info.

--db openpgp_keys

Chose database name to use, default is "pgp_keys".

--user www-data

Chose database user, default is "httpd".

That's it. If it isn't, it is a bug, please let me know.

Testing it

jas@latte:~/src/cks-dns$ dig 3F9061AB.dnskeys.josefsson.org cert
;; Truncated, retrying in TCP mode.
 
; <<>> DiG 9.2.4rc2 <<>> 3F9061AB.dnskeys.josefsson.org cert
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 15829
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;3F9061AB.dnskeys.josefsson.org.        IN      CERT
 
;; ANSWER SECTION:
3F9061AB.dnskeys.josefsson.org. 2786 IN CERT    PGP 0 0 mQENAzXcqfYAAAEIAKNQSEcCND0rl/LZHpYF0cdRmGhXii7lsmGWnvc7 OK/ARsZOX4A32R4Byblc4tfHd+i6gYcilR3OEFGU4jkJK1ShnRJFmm3B cywKPx4xJ86kYCDEE3hatbhMaDbrK3MZCVtoh4cZDPTdK4gJgzaFd8AB pS24F9jzz/y0plUr5RUZQIPOi96q1w3GMHjoQMahOAZ/0JgUI08c6BkF USNs4mCnfzMAeC1db6a8F1iC7exFpQZogH3ubZfJoHvz6adxtB8CTqus glS90MPW3+Gx52mLtPmvY7e1DXTJGXG3g40gLPFdeSNifYTyJXwwylsj UYqF9uZEPFpEbr7kJj+QYasABRG0J01pY2hhZWwgU3RlaW5lciA8bTEu c3RlaW5lckB2b24udWxtLmRlPokBFQMFEDXcqfZuvuQmP5BhqwEBqHwH /3jIc+BQaeokSkJo7rWRFYNTo5hyb33rIa+ffvy+5WPCwVqR3W7tWBmj kTbH+cLovfaj6tx4OgWhAHy4gvg9QId1qqLM3l5YRl8kloDkTVcu+jO5 OaWwS8ot4+mEy9kjuUn+Hyu9/HBC0jLd56hBGKbbfKDmT7pXrNFa0AFf y9mpN/aUSqsBXhI37OQvOwNTJE2MlAjiIdK2vfjyXmLnAdelnac9xpUf P36VfkboSnPgOxIBgibuNgdcN2Tk4jimXzPRLjynwz+bsHv2Zs4ZTQzG HyrQKOVMPfQeuI5UE6PlgMbgDOBTKueG5vL4fqF9SfWo6/jzTmWsilo0 zPT/FquIRgQQEQIABgUCNdyqHQAKCRBtIB6DD3RY6laEAKCpEL+peLOt uA11NnQr3OFnz9+/dwCgnhPNEVirVIH6nzQPMAny/CY9P8u0Kk1pY2hh ZWwgU3RlaW5lciA8c3RlaW5lckBpbmZvLXByb2R1Y3RzLmRlPokBFQMF EDXcruduvuQmP5BhqwEBDk4IAJPMfYIPiPBjWRnfT583BqGiLm/oJTok oZ+KXlx2qsR9KpDgD+Fpl0c+DMgxdPd5rOGQXf2B2W3AfoMLf5SYuTW4 PW0wFL87dealpol0ysx46VdnssgDJTP+K3lZXrVGxzJjN6YOH9hY7ajM I/oJcHHZ4DHm6aJ/lfUtac6P/DNP0ofgYugp5qoPoMlquzibSL+m4rK5 oBJuxYVLSg/+tsvk7iBPVbHRIxdJ8SrTcY1+ZlSnsA7PL8wPo9SVsYlg CrWq+AU9p03GFWsk3i1XGrOYSdiFrajehXInU/dz9k77iGMztqvDfJlG mzY4JCbAJLNgfvPEzd+hChwsAw2EtP6IRgQQEQIABgUCNdyvSwAKCRBt IB6DD3RY6vvEAJ0TR/OxxXJUPq/02mUzpWH2emKrGwCg2GIxhwDQJ86O EDkbm0+NUOvo6Qu0LU1pY2hhZWwgU3RlaW5lciA8TWljaGFlbF9TdGVp bmVyQHQtb25saW5lLmRlPokBFQMFEDXcrwJuvuQmP5BhqwEBUQMH/1Yr qt4l8ljx5DJf15ZjpnHRJH15ExWLWFeRi63O0sY/zi2DA7D0Xxq4i8MA 35NdAlxIOq9Sv36qJtsk0nIjhyWA7WgwA8F+GboGkWHti4j5ky40AiGh kSdNbCGbeLB7FLnzOGNupqGLRQnA2X2eNhLr4fJ1R9ADBNkRCyr1b7NK zB118QEHef0ZGaprMIebF6XJe7KmzSfvIYWvLP6M8GwYnS3GLTD2lRIS oYXVEsQvaettTIM6gAjALkFAdkAEGb0RTVNfFFKHaoWV21141S58gLRT mGlb1dN6TkBytec81fRo7jEwOVDd2gE7rt3sqcOYdLALoEQHdYaHeiUo zQOIRgQQEQIABgUCNdyvVAAKCRBtIB6DD3RY6j42AJ96SQ340nQrC+lu T/gvVt+zntmahQCeP2u0op6QDnsFdImjQ4UKdADa+9S0ME1pY2hhZWwg U3RlaW5lciA8TWljaGFlbF9TdGVpbmVyQGNvbXB1c2VydmUuY29tPokB FQMFEDXcryJuvuQmP5BhqwEBz4AH/3desEuulJDBl/QJAljMSfYlDR6x pa6xgs9CekQRfaR2QpPgaDv+x814EgpUb9uU3NF3eaJURPcBR+iH8Dyq hM+A9ac1leDCwi+HQubd6PNqf6P6X0zN8bz+f4J7OnCIsvPSVRKEkRLN KqLf7vnVvuzH5W0T5FdxwQYgDGQ7WJo9XhmvXHk3IM/uqAbwV5sszZs2 7MrR8atqJGScpNRrqufBOZdctibbdaODrZ28CyvB2FmQiyxJws+5hCbk xkD8RfDryTRWHOErGEdm+SIpWMm+0q9ZNqcz/wkpwvO12p+KGRAscFCe jv19Oa6s2QVbidG5YcE1aj+0/t6m9ltmnE2IRgQQEQIABgUCNdyvXAAK CRBtIB6DD3RY6lcfAKCa+UALdteSFrb9Bw/gWTsY3NLTqwCg4PXMAvUu /wczQ6ETkP1+BmzA6oo=
 
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
dnskeys.josefsson.org.  2394    IN      NS      dnskeys-ns.josefsson.org.
 
;; Query time: 23 msec
;; SERVER: 212.181.54.2#53(212.181.54.2)
;; WHEN: Sat Jun 12 02:31:50 2004
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 1952
 
jas@latte:~/src/cks-dns$

Contact information

You can contact the author at simon@josefsson.org. Unless the list managers objects, I'd prefer discussion to occur on the gnupg-devel mailinglist or the cks-devl mailinglist

Features

• Retrieve OpenPGP keys
• Using DNS means keys often are cached in DNS caches closer to clients
• Using DNS means there can be many servers in a fail-over fashion throughout the world
• Using DNS often means the closest server in the world is chosen (round-trip calculations made by DNS resolver software)

The client software used against this server is gpgkeys_jkp.

TTY Screenshots

$Id: index.html,v 1.11 2004/06/12 17:05:18 jas Exp $
Net::DNS 0.46
port=53 database=pgp_keys user=root
creating TCP socket...done.
creating UDP socket...done.
waiting for connections...UDP connection from 212.181.54.2:49156
query 11084: (DFAC4BA1.dnskeys.josefsson.org, IN, CERT)...Sat Jun 12 02:17:53 2004
keyid DFAC4BA1
NXDOMAIN
writing response...done
waiting for connections...UDP connection from 212.181.54.2:49156
query 51298: (3F9061AB.dnskeys.josefsson.org, IN, CERT)...Sat Jun 12 02:18:17 2004
keyid 3F9061AB
fingerprint 37679D0DD7BB393E94A95D1E3EFF7F01
ecsum vMz8
oid 10483959
rr 3F9061AB.dnskeys.josefsson.org 3600 IN CERT PGP 0 0 mQENAzXcqfYAAAEIAKNQ...
NOERROR
writing response...done
waiting for connections...
^C

PGP Keyserver?

Chosing CryptNet as the underlying PGP key server wasn't a trivial chose. I'm sure the alternatives are all Fine And Dandy software. Here are my motivation for not chosing any of the other possible candidates.

SKS

I don't like Berkely DB, I don't like OCAML, but the main motivation was the lack of documentation.

OpenKeyServer

Non-free license.

PKS

Obnoxious old-style BSD license.