DNSCrypt Guide: 5 Best Tips to Secure DNS Servers

DNSCrypt is an amazing tool that can help you to avail full DNS protection.

DNSCrypt is an amazing tool that can help you to avail full DNS protection. The utility ensures encrypted Internet browsing experience to keep snooping, spoofing, and man-in-the-middle attacks at bay. If you’re also concerned about managing your DNS security, then read the article to know some useful tips that can help you to secure DNS servers.

The Internet is one such platform that was never secure for innocent users and it will never get changed. Since new virtual threats, cyber issues, and Internet security problems are arising every day, you need to apply some precautionary tips to escape from them. Previously, OpenDNS, a free service, became popular for offering faster and highly-secured way to resolve domain names. But recently, the organization has rolled out the new piece of software- DNSCrypt that can help you to secure your entire web browsing experience. The tool protects user against vulnerabilities presented by ‘DNS leaks,’ and it encrypts DNS traffic to keep hackers or a man-in-the-middle attacks away from your servers. Loopholes in the DNS software can lead to numerous security problems, so read below to know the effective ways to lock down DNS servers:

1.       Apply DNS Forwarders for Unreliable Requests

A DNS forwarder is a strong and reliable DNS server that has the capability to handle DNS queries. Users can offload the processing duties by forwarding the query to the DNS forwarder. Additionally, establishing another Domain Name Server can also benefit users by handling potentially larger DNS cache. Since the forwarder can prevent server requests from interacting with Internet DNS servers, users can avoid some of the great Internet security risks. PC experts recommend applying a forwarder when the original server is hosting internal domain DNS resource records that demand more security than any other data or server host. Additionally, you can also configure the internal DNS server in such a way that it should use the forwarder for all unreliable requests and queries.

2.       Use DNS Resolvers to Resolve Internet Host Names

You can use a DNS resolver to resolve names for domains for which the DNS server is not reliable. For example, you might deploy an internal DNS server and command it to manage your internal network domain. When a client on your network uses DNS server to resolve the domain name, the resolver performs recursion and contact other DNS servers to obtain the answer. The DNS resolver resolves Internet host names and could become a caching-only DNS server. It is important to consider that the resolver isn't authorized for any DNS domains. You can provide internal, external, or even both types of access to manage web traffic queries beyond administrative controls.

3.       Use Caching-Only DNS Server to Improve DNS Response Time

A caching-only DNS server is not authorized for any DNS domains but it is configured to perform the recursion. The server can also get used as a forwarder. When it receives a response, it automatically caches the result and returns the answer to the DNS query issuing system. Over the time, the server can have a large cache of DNS responses that can efficiently improve DNS response time. Since these servers can get transformed into forwarders, you can apply them in organizations to improve the DNS security and manage everything under your administrative control.

4.       Apply DNS Advertisers for Authoritative Domains

A DNS advertiser resolves queries for domains and handles the authoritative web traffic. The server only answers queries for domains that are authoritative. Additionally, it is imperative to consider that the advertisers will not perform recursion for any web queries. The capability of not performing recursion for others ensures that no other user can use your public DNS server to resolve other domain names.

5.       Protect DNS From Cache Pollution

Undoubtedly, DNS cache pollution is the main reason for ever-growing common virtual problems. Most of the DNS servers keep the records of the results of DNS queries before forwarding answers to their respective hosts. It is true that DNS cache can improve DNS query performance, but may need to face major DNS security consequences, when it gets polluted with bogus DNS entries. Infected DNS servers may forward DNS queries to malicious websites instead of the sites that a user intends to visit. You can prevent your DNS servers from getting cache polluted by configuring cache pollution settings and applying advanced tweaks to prevent such infections.

Conclusion

There is no second thought in the fact that the DNSCrypt encrypts the web traffic queries in the similar way SSL helps in HTTPS encryption. Availing advanced DNS security is not all difficult, but you will need to apply some tweaks and tips to ensure full DNS protection. Using encrypted internet browsing not only helps to keep your user data, online information, and crucial files safe, but also secure DNS servers to prevent future cyber attacks. If you think that your details, login information, and other cyber profiles require additional protection from virtual threats, then installing the DNSCrypt protocol is worth.

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