Evaluation of zonemaster – a DNS verification tool

Abstract: The hierarchal distributed database, Domain Name System (DNS) provides name resolution for network applications, which is vital for the functionality of the Internet. An important part of the system design is to distribute the administration by delegation of domains. To maintain the availability of domains it is important that configuration is accurately per-formed. Zonemaster is a tool used for validating the quality of a DNS delegation by testing of misconfigurations. This thesis evaluates Zonemaster and how it relates to other DNS tools. The evaluation was conducted by identifying and designing configuration errors re-garding DNS delegation. These errors were tested by each tool. Their responses together with the extent of documentation regarding test specification was analyzed. The analyzed data was then divided into three categories: number of implemented tests, detected errors and if the test specification referred to a reliable source. The results showed that Zonemas-ter had all the tests implemented, detected and referred to 91,7% of them.