RFC 2181 (rfc2181) - Page 3 of 15

Clarifications to the DNS Specification

RFC 2181        Clarifications to the DNS Specification        July 1997


3. Terminology

   This memo does not use the oft used expressions MUST, SHOULD, MAY, or
   their negative forms.  In some sections it may seem that a
   specification is worded mildly, and hence some may infer that the
   specification is optional.  That is not correct.  Anywhere that this
   memo suggests that some action should be carried out, or must be
   carried out, or that some behaviour is acceptable, or not, that is to
   be considered as a fundamental aspect of this specification,
   regardless of the specific words used.  If some behaviour or action
   is truly optional, that will be clearly specified by the text.

4. Server Reply Source Address Selection

   Most, if not all, DNS clients, expect the address from which a reply
   is received to be the same address as that to which the query
   eliciting the reply was sent.  This is true for servers acting as
   clients for the purposes of recursive query resolution, as well as
   simple resolver clients.  The address, along with the identifier (ID)
   in the reply is used for disambiguating replies, and filtering
   spurious responses.  This may, or may not, have been intended when
   the DNS was designed, but is now a fact of life.

   Some multi-homed hosts running DNS servers generate a reply using a
   source address that is not the same as the destination address from
   the client's request packet.  Such replies will be discarded by the
   client because the source address of the reply does not match that of
   a host to which the client sent the original request.  That is, it
   appears to be an unsolicited response.

4.1. UDP Source Address Selection

   To avoid these problems, servers when responding to queries using UDP
   must cause the reply to be sent with the source address field in the
   IP header set to the address that was in the destination address
   field of the IP header of the packet containing the query causing the
   response.  If this would cause the response to be sent from an IP
   address that is not permitted for this purpose, then the response may
   be sent from any legal IP address allocated to the server.  That
   address should be chosen to maximise the possibility that the client
   will be able to use it for further queries.  Servers configured in
   such a way that not all their addresses are equally reachable from
   all potential clients need take particular care when responding to
   queries sent to anycast, multicast, or similar, addresses.







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