Today on ##linux-india at irc.freenode.net people were discussing about DNS and the recent DNS security issue and it’s implications and solutions. So, I decided to try out the test for my ISP’s nameservers, the default nameservers that I use. The test can be found on Kaminsky’s Website.
The test confirmed that my ISP’s nameservers aren’t patched, so I decided to finally configure my dnsmasq finally and again use local DNS servers. But, the dnsmasq configuration is too lengthy and complicated for this purpose. It’s a great software if you want to have a lot of function like tftp boot, dhcp and such. But, in my case I just need a caching DNS server so decided it was either bind which I always use or try maradns, as suggested by someone on the channel.
Since, I have gone with bind in the past I decided to go with maradns, which I heard is easy to configure and is supposedly as secure as djbdns. So maradns it was. I downloaded the latest release from their download page as no binaries are available in arch repos.
So, let’s start with the process, now that you’ve downloaded the binary. This will work, only for linux. Please check the README files and documentation for further details and different platforms.
First untar the downloaded file, in my case the tar.bz2 file
tar xjvf maradns-1.3.07.08.tar.bz2 cd maradns-1.3.07.08
Then run
./configure make
Now, your binaries have been created and you’re ready to test out the DNS server
Note:-You need to be root henceforth
mv server/maradns /usr/local/sbin mv tools/duende /usr/local/sbin mkdir /etc/maradns touch /etc/mararc
Now open the /etc/mararc file in your favourite text editor and add the following
ipv4_bind_addresses = “127.0.0.1” chroot_dir = “/etc/maradns” recursive_acl = “127.0.0.1”
Now start maradns
/usr/local/sbin/maradns
Then test it
dig @127.0.0.1 example.com
If it returns a reply, you’re good to go 🙂 If not, post the errors I will be glad to help out.
Now, try running it in daemon mode
killall maradns /usr/local/sbin/duedne /usr/local/sbin/maradns
If all is fine till here then we can proceed to actually install maradns.
First cd to the maradns directory, where the source is place then run
make install
Now, we need to add /usr/local/sbin and /usr/local/bin to our PATH variable
add the following to your bashrc
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin/:/usr/local/bin
That’s it, you’re done! Your server is ready to run.
TODO :- Find init scripts for starting it at boot time. My distro is arch. If anyone can supply me one I will be thankful.
PS :-
If you want the server to listen to multiple IP’s add them in a comma separated list inside the quotes for ipv4_bind_addresses. Check http://www.maradns.org/tutorial/recursive.html
Lots of nice stuff can be found at http://www.maradns.org/tutorial/tutorial.html
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