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    Insanely weird issue with DNS resolution to www.cdc.gov

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved DHCP and DNS
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    • D
      DrPhil @gregarios
      last edited by DrPhil

      I stumbled on this thread because I was having the same issue right now. I use openDNS on DNS resolver (unbound) on Pfsense (Netgate device).

      I used JohnPoz domain override suggestion as a band aid, and it works. For other non-sophisticated home users like myself, here's an example of how to do it on the WebGUI.

      Services / DNS Resolver / General Settings

      54daabdb-e4d6-4714-9747-75dba37c3d7f-image.png

      "8.8.8.8" is Google's DNS and for some reason tolerates the incorrect DNS setup at cdc.gov (as described in this thread by people who understand such stuff).

      GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GertjanG
        Gertjan @DrPhil
        last edited by

        @drphil :

        https://cachecheck.opendns.com/

        cdc.gov
        and
        www.cdc.gov

        did resolve for me.

        Maybe your own 'opendns' settings are to strict ?

        No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
        Edit : and where are the logs ??

        G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • G
          gregarios @Gertjan
          last edited by

          @gertjan My openDNS settings are set correctly since directly using them from my computer works fine. Only when the router uses forwarding does it not work.

          GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • GertjanG
            Gertjan @gregarios
            last edited by

            @gregarios said in Insanely weird issue with DNS resolution to www.cdc.gov:

            @gertjan My openDNS settings are set correctly since directly using them from my computer works fine. Only when the router uses forwarding does it not work.

            The 'DNS' settings might be ok.
            But OpenDNS - chekc your OpenDNS account - can use 'filters' like : nothing, no adds - no spam - no sex - no bitcoin - no whatever.

            Again, check the (non filtered) OpenDNS resolver manually : https://cachecheck.opendns.com/
            It resolves.

            Depending on what you use as for a filtering
            If your not uses any filtering on the OpenDNS side, then why use OpenDNS ? Use the real, build in stuff, : the official 13 root servers == use the resolver as your Resolver. Easy to set up, easy to maintain. Plain works.

            Btw : Finally, the admins of cdc.org finally ditched DNSSEC support.
            https://dnsviz.net/d/www.cdc.org/dnssec/

            No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
            Edit : and where are the logs ??

            G D 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • G
              gregarios @Gertjan
              last edited by gregarios

              @gertjan As I said... my setting on the router and my computer are correct. I have tested it by connecting successfully to the CDC using OpenDNS numbers on my computer. If I use the router's DNS that forwards to the same OpenDNS IP addresses, it does not work. If my filters were too strict it would not work when I connected to it from my computer.

              I'll have to retest this though since now CDC has dropped their DNSSEC. Yesterday it was active and in error mode.

              GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • GertjanG
                Gertjan @gregarios
                last edited by Gertjan

                @gregarios said in Insanely weird issue with DNS resolution to www.cdc.gov:

                I'll have to retest this though since now CDC has dropped their DNSSEC. Yesterday it was active and in error mode.

                I saw the same thing.
                First time it look clean like that : just a non DNSSEC domain.

                No DNSSEC errors.

                OpenDNS is a Resolver, you have to check with their policies, but I can image that if a domain announces "I have DNSSEC" that it should be implemented correctly. If not, well, it should fail.

                If you were using the Resolver as a resolver, you could use an option in the custom box that excludes cdc.gov from any DNSSEC issues.
                Maybe OpenDNS offers also such a possibility.

                edit : Oh sh*t. OpenDNS has become less 'open' : it's bought by Cisco .... well. What to say : great ! (?)

                No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                Edit : and where are the logs ??

                johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • johnpozJ
                  johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Gertjan
                  last edited by

                  I have not seen that - they still have a shit ton of errors.. If you do not know how to do dnssec - then you shouldn't even attempt to do it.. Which is what I suggest they should do.. Since clearly they have no idea how to do it correctly.

                  Its still a horrible mess as of test just did
                  2021-05-17 09:56:53 UTC

                  An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                  If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                  Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                  SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                  GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • GertjanG
                    Gertjan @johnpoz
                    last edited by

                    @johnpoz :

                    Strange, asked a new "Analysis" this morning, and it looked some what ok.

                    Re tested again just now, and it's pure BS again !

                    9f6ad298-73d1-470c-93ee-e547aed5e70a-image.png

                    Now, I'm just a European guy, and I know one has to go to "cdc" when things go bad ( learned this from the Walking Dead ? ).
                    It looks like an important governmental agency to me.

                    edit : oh, wait : www.irs.gov isn't any better. And no one is complaining ..... 😵

                    No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                    Edit : and where are the logs ??

                    G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • G
                      gregarios @Gertjan
                      last edited by

                      Just more proof the currnt U.S. government doesn't react in the slightest to any "warnings" — only flat-out catastrophic failure.

                      GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • GertjanG
                        Gertjan @gregarios
                        last edited by Gertjan

                        @gregarios
                        It's just an admin ** messing up.
                        I don't think using or adding DNSSEC is a governmental decision.
                        And give them some time, this issue started more then a year ago, not everybody (admins) have been replaced yet ;)

                        ** On both sides : pfSense, using default DNS settings, works just fine.

                        No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                        Edit : and where are the logs ??

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • D
                          DrPhil @Gertjan
                          last edited by

                          @gertjan

                          To answer your question

                          If your not uses any filtering on the OpenDNS side, then why use OpenDNS ?

                          I am using their free family filter DNS. 208.67.222.123.
                          (I am a home user and need the filtering).

                          Use the real, build in stuff, : the official 13 root servers == use the resolver as your Resolver. Easy to set up, easy to maintain. Plain works.

                          I would love to. Is there an easy way to setup a filter that I don't have to maintain on an ongoing basis? I am willing to put in the time / effort upfront. I tried pfBlockerNG, but didn't like the experience and gave up.

                          Btw : Finally, the admins of cdc.org finally ditched DNSSEC support.
                          https://dnsviz.net/d/www.cdc.org/dnssec/

                          Whatever they did, isn't working for me yet. And I have a feeling it's not OpenDNS filtering that's causing the issue but an incorrect setup on CDC's side. (could it be that you're looking at cdc.org instead of cdc.gov?)

                          oh, wait : www.irs.gov isn't any better. And no one is complaining

                          irs.gov is working fine for me (through my openDNS setup). Whatever is making cdc.gov fail, it does not share with irs.gov

                          johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • johnpozJ
                            johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @DrPhil
                            last edited by johnpoz

                            @drphil said in Insanely weird issue with DNS resolution to www.cdc.gov:

                            irs.gov

                            I don't show any issues with irs.gov

                            irs.png

                            Now I have not personally seen any issues with accessing cdc.gov - not something I go to every hour or even every day, or week even, etc. But their dnssec is not optimal that is for sure - could it cause issues, possible for sure depending on the resolver, and what specific NS they end up talking to, etc.

                            It is disappointing to see such a mess that is for sure.. But I am not doing anything specific to not do dnssec for that domain, nor anything that would forward requests for that domain to some other resolver.

                            cdc.png

                            Issues in accessing it from where your at on the globe could have nothing to do with their mess that is their dnssec deployment.. But there was mention of cloudflare trying to mitigate their problems on cloudflares end, etc.

                            If for whatever reason your having issues resolving - its easy enough to set unbound to not do dnssec for that domain, or another option is a domain override for the domain to something like cloudflare or googledns, etc.

                            Its quite possible that their have been issues with ddos attacks or other congestion problems accessing their site.. I am quite sure since covid, there are enough crazies in the world that would like to attack resources in any manner possible, etc.

                            As with all problems when trying to access it - you need to troubleshoot it with the specifics. Disable all of dnssec is not as solution - could it be a troubleshooting aid, ok.. I would look more into the specifics if I thought dnssec was a problem vs just system wide disable.. But for some with less understanding, that is a valid option. I personally would not suggest they leave it like that for the sake of 1 site.. And just set that domain to not do dnssec, until such time that have fully corrected what is clearly an not optimal configuration.. From what I see they are signing stuff with alg 7 which the spec clearly says not to do. And they are also doing sha-1 also no longer valid. And they clearly seem to be missing some NS entries that are delegation but not in the authority.. I would say their whole setup is just borked ;)

                            An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                            If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                            Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                            SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                            GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • GertjanG
                              Gertjan @johnpoz
                              last edited by Gertjan

                              @johnpoz said in Insanely weird issue with DNS resolution to www.cdc.gov:

                              @drphil said in Insanely weird issue with DNS resolution to www.cdc.gov:

                              irs.gov

                              I don't show any issues with irs.gov

                              irs.png

                              I knew it.
                              The "last update" is stored on a 'per user' history list.

                              I saw your last 'udate scan' , and I checked again without updating :
                              This is what I saw :

                              b8dfa534-b75a-45bc-994f-f3c6a596eab7-image.png

                              So, my last update is not your last update : they are stored with our IP's ( ?) so we all have our own individual history of events.

                              These are actually really usefull, and can't get disrupted by other who scan the same domain :

                              1e0c01eb-5953-4c79-b6ee-ad8e552cf37d-image.png

                              Updating it shows the same thing for me : warnings and insecure :

                              7f9a21dc-bccc-44bd-96d0-37c4072242f0-image.png

                              Btw : dnsviz.net must have some huge database behind the screens. Sometimes they do announce that they have database == user history, issues.

                              .....is just borked ;)

                              Same thing for me.
                              If I need to access these sites, and DNSSEC stops me from doing so, and I know that these sites really can't be forged **, I just put them on the "DNSSEC exclusion list", and, because they are listed now, check ones in a while if I can remove them from my list.

                              To @all ; when I say "list" I mean : I've read the manual](https://www.nlnetlabs.nl/documentation/unbound/howto-turnoff-dnssec/).
                              So, example ::

                              a0256481-8960-4705-b065-bf5438fa85ea-image.png

                              Sites like https://dnsviz.net should be part of the box with basic tools that any (DNS) (pfSense) admin uses.

                              ** well, just hope ...

                              No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                              Edit : and where are the logs ??

                              johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • johnpozJ
                                johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @Gertjan
                                last edited by

                                @gertjan Not sure about all that.. I just looked and I am seeing warnings with www.irs.gov, but not with just irs.gov

                                An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • S
                                  stompro
                                  last edited by

                                  Hello, we just ran into this today.

                                  Unbound as a forwarder using OpenDNS (Cisco Umbrella DNS Essentials subscription).

                                  I don't see any red errors on the https://dnsviz.net/d/www.cdc.gov/dnssec/ site.

                                  Thanks for all the resources here for figuring out how to bypass the errors. The 'domain-insecure: "cdc.gov"' bypass seems to work for us also.

                                  I'll send a note to the CDC IT contact that popped up in this thread.

                                  Josh

                                  Hardware used: Alix 2D13 X 10, APU2D4 X 10, SG-2200 X 10, SG-2440 X 4

                                  johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • johnpozJ
                                    johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @stompro
                                    last edited by johnpoz

                                    @stompro said in Insanely weird issue with DNS resolution to www.cdc.gov:

                                    www.cdc.gov

                                    I still show that domain a mess from dnssec point of view..

                                    cdc.jpg

                                    Unbound as a forwarder using OpenDNS

                                    If your forwarding with unbound, you should not have dnssec checked. Where you forward to does dnssec or it doesn't.. That checkmark telling unbound to do dnssec isn't going to do anything other than problems...

                                    An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                    If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                    Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                    SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                                    S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • S
                                      stompro @johnpoz
                                      last edited by

                                      I wasn't sure if warnings were a problem or not. Some of the other screenshots were filled with red errors... which is what I though the real problem was.

                                      @johnpoz said in Insanely weird issue with DNS resolution to www.cdc.gov:

                                      If your forwarding with unbound, you should not have dnssec checked. Where you forward to does dnssec or it doesn't.. That checkmark telling unbound to do dnssec isn't going to do anything other than problems...

                                      Thank you for saying this again so it would get through to me.

                                      So if the servers that I'm using to forward my request to do not support dnssec... then unbound doesn't do any extra checks on the returned information if dnssec is checked? There is no possible benefit there?

                                      And if the upstream dns server does do dnssec, then it has already performed the extra checks, so the unbound setting is redundant?

                                      Am I understanding that correctly?
                                      Josh

                                      Hardware used: Alix 2D13 X 10, APU2D4 X 10, SG-2200 X 10, SG-2440 X 4

                                      johnpozJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • johnpozJ
                                        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator @stompro
                                        last edited by

                                        @stompro asking who your forwarding for dnssec info gets you nothing.. They could send you whatever they have cached, etc.

                                        For dnssec to be valid you need to directly talk to the authoritative name servers and validate the info, etc.

                                        Its just going to be extra queries and bandwidth for no actual real benefit.. And could cause problems..

                                        There is zero reason to have your dns software ask for dnssec info if its not actually resolving..

                                        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                                        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                                        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                                        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

                                        S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • S
                                          stompro @johnpoz
                                          last edited by

                                          @johnpoz said in Insanely weird issue with DNS resolution to www.cdc.gov:

                                          For dnssec to be valid you need to directly talk to the authoritative name servers and validate the info, etc.
                                          Its just going to be extra queries and bandwidth for no actual real benefit.. And could cause problems..
                                          There is zero reason to have your dns software ask for dnssec info if its not actually resolving..

                                          Thank you for the extra explanation. I'll fix all my installs to uncheck the "DNSSEC" unbound config option.

                                          Hardware used: Alix 2D13 X 10, APU2D4 X 10, SG-2200 X 10, SG-2440 X 4

                                          GertjanG 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • GertjanG
                                            Gertjan @stompro
                                            last edited by

                                            @stompro

                                            Keep in mind that you are forwarding to ... a resolver.
                                            That resolver probably does DNSSEC checks, and the cdc announced it supports DNSSEC.
                                            If there was more then a warning, this an error, and the errors concerns a DNS record you were askinf for, protection kicks in : no answer or NXDOMAIN.
                                            You think : my DNS is bad.
                                            The reality is : the zone cdc is bad.
                                            You have just one choice : use a resolver without DNSSEC. So now cdc records as any other DNS can be spoofed etc. I hope this "cdc" site isn't important for you.

                                            can you imagine what happens when facebook start to implement DNSSEC, and they f*ck up on their side ?

                                            No "help me" PM's please. Use the forum, the community will thank you.
                                            Edit : and where are the logs ??

                                            johnpozJ S 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
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