DNS

DMARC

(Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) It is designed to give email domain owners the ability to protect their domain from unauthorized use, commonly known as email spoofing.

Mail exchanger record (MX Record)

Specifies an SMTP email server for the domain, used to route outgoing emails to an email server.

Name Server records (NS Record)

Specifies that a DNS Zone, such as "example.com" is delegated to a specific Authoritative Name Server, and provides the address of the name server.

Certificate record (CERT Record)

Stores encryption certificates—PKIX, SPKI, PGP, and so on.

IP Version 6 Address record (AAAA Record)

Maps FQDN to a IPv6 address.

Canonical Name record (CNAME Record)

Maps FQDN to another FQDN. When a DNS client requests a record that contains a CNAME, which points to another hostname, the DNS resolution process is repeated with the new hostname.

Reverse-lookup Pointer records (PTR Record)

Maps IP address to FQDN (reverse DNS lookup).

DKIM

(DomainKeys Identified Mail) Is an email security standard designed to make sure messages aren't altered in transit between the sending and recipient servers. It uses public-key cryptography to sign email with a private key as it leaves a sending server. Recipient servers then use a public key published to a domain's DNS to verify the source of the message, and that the body of the message hasn't changed during transit. Once the signature is verified with the public key by the recipient server, the message passes DKIM and is considered authentic.

DNS Resolver

A DNS resolver (recursive resolver), is designed to receive DNS queries, which include a human-readable hostname such as "www.example.com", and is responsible for tracking the IP address for that hostname.

Non-Recursive Query

A non-recursive query is a query in which the DNS Resolver already knows the answer. It either immediately returns a DNS record because it already stores it in local cache, or queries a DNS Name Server which is authoritative for the record, meaning it definitely holds the correct IP for that hostname. In both cases, there is no need for additional rounds of queries (like in recursive or iterative queries). Rather, a response is immediately returned to the client.

Service Location (SRV Record)

A service location record, like MX but for other communication protocols. Allows you to use a different port.

Address Mapping record (A Record)

Also known as a DNS host record, maps a FQDN to a IPv4 address.

Authoritative DNS Server

Higher level servers in the DNS hierarchy define which DNS server is the "authoritative" name server for a specific hostname, meaning that it holds the up-to-date information for that hostname. The Authoritative Name Server is the last stop in the name server query—it takes the hostname and returns the correct IP address to the DNS Resolver (or if it cannot find the domain, returns the message NXDOMAIN).

Recursive Query

In a recursive query, a DNS client provides a hostname, and the DNS Resolver "must" provide an answer—it responds with either a relevant resource record, or an error message if it can't be found. The resolver starts a recursive query process, starting from the DNS Root Server, until it finds the Authoritative Name Server (for more on Authoritative Name Servers see DNS Server Types below) that holds the IP address and other information for the requested hostname.

Iterative Query

In an iterative query, a DNS client provides a hostname, and the DNS Resolver returns the best answer it can. If the DNS resolver has the relevant DNS records in its cache, it returns them. If not, it refers the DNS client to the Root Server, or another Authoritative Name Server which is nearest to the required DNS zone. The DNS client must then repeat the query directly against the DNS server it was referred to.

PGP

Pretty Good Privacy is an encryption program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting texts, e-mails, files, directories, and whole disk partitions and to increase the security of e-mail communications.

DNS Root Server

The root server is the first step in the journey from hostname to IP address. The DNS Root Server extracts the Top Level Domain (TLD) from the user's query — for example, www.example.com —... provides details for the .com TLD Name Server. In turn, that server will provide details for domains with the .com DNS zone, including "example.com". There are 13 root servers worldwide, indicated by the letters A through M, operated by organizations like the Internet Systems Consortium, Verisign, ICANN, the University of Maryland, and the U.S. Army Research Lab.

Start of Authority (SOA Record)

This record appears at the beginning of a DNS zone file, and indicates the Authoritative Name Server for the current DNS zone, contact details for the domain administrator, domain serial number, and information on how frequently DNS information for this zone should be refreshed.

Text Record (TXT Record)

Typically carries machine-readable data such as opportunistic encryption, sender policy framework, DKIM, DMARC, etc.