Homework 5: Recursive DNS Resolver

This assignment is due at 11:59pm on Wednesday, April 22.
You can download the homework zip archive here.

Your goal is to recreate the functionality of a recursive DNS resolver. Your program will not be allowed to perform any recursive queries (i.e. request that another server perform recursion for it); it must perform all recursion itself.

Getting Setup

Most of what you’ll need in this assignment is included in the resolve.py skeleton file included in this archive. You’ll need to install the dnspython library though. You can do so using pip. In most cases you can do so by running one of the following commands on your system:

  • pip3 install dnspython
  • pip install dnspython
  • python -m pip install dnspython

You’re responsible for getting dnspython installed on your system. If you have any problems getting the library installed, please ask on Piazza.

The Assignment

You’ll find a resolve.py file in your repo. This file contains code that approximates the functionality of the host program. The program takes a domain name, and returns a summary of DNS information about the domain. For example, given the domain “yahoo.com”, host returns the “A”, “AAAA” and “MX” records for the domain. You can test this out by running the resolve.py command as so: python resolve.py yahoo.com.

You can lookup multiple domains in the same execution by passing multiple domains to the program (e.g. python resolve.py first.com second.edu third.org).

resolve.py currently queries a DNS server (8.8.8.8) to find information about domains. That DNS server handles the recursive part of DNS for you (i.e. 8.8.8.8 by default doesn’t know where to find yahoo.com, so it asks a root server, and the root server tells 8.8.8.8 where to find information about .com, so then 8.8.8.8 asks the new server where to find yahoo.com, etc.)

Your task in this assignment is to implement this recursive functionality on your own. When your version of resolve.py is run, it will not query 8.8.8.8 (or any other recursive resolver). Your resolve.py will query a root server itself, as well as performing any further needed queries.

The IP addresses of the root servers are hard coded into the resolve.py in the global ROOT_SERVERS list. Your program should start by querying one of these servers. A very good first step in your solution will be to find where 8.8.8.8 is in the code currently, and make sure you instead query one of the root servers.

Handling Errors

Your code should be able to handle cases where DNS servers are down or slow to respond. The rules governing DNS and how to handle errors are very complex. For the purposes of this assignment, we’ll be using a simplified set of rules for handling errors.

  • Use a timeout value of 3 seconds for all queries. Any request taking more than 3 seconds to respond should be treated as non-responsive.
  • You should exhaustively try all available servers when trying to answer a query. For example, if a request to a root server gives you 13 servers for the “.com” zone, you should try each of those 13 servers before giving up.
  • If you receive an error or non-response from a server, you should not retry the server. Only query each server once.
  • Only query servers over IPv4. You should not query servers over IPv6 when trying to resolve domains.

Your code should never throw an exception. Dumping a stacktrace is not an appropriate response for any query. If you are unable to get a result for a domain, your code should not print anything out.

If you have any questions regarding how to handle errors and non-responsive servers, please ask on Piazza.

Grading

  • 5 points each: Perform A record lookups without querying a recursive nameserver (two tests, for a total of 10 possible points).
  • 2 points: Perform lookups in the case of CNAME restarts (e.g. www.internic.net). Note that your code should run succesfully even when the CNAME returns no “Additional” section.
  • 2 points: Perform lookups of “unglued” nameservers (e.g. www.yahoo.com.tw)
  • 4 points: Correctly handle errors, so that your code correctly deals with non-responsive or slow servers.
  • 3 points: Implement a caching system, so that exact duplicate lookups for the same domain do not result in additional queries. (e.g. running python resolve.py uic.edu uic.edu, sould result in the same number of queries as running python resolve.py uic.edu).
  • 3 points: Implement a more sophisticated caching system, that caches intermediate results too. (e.g. if you run python resolve.py uic.edu illinois.edu, you sould only query for edu once).
  • 1 point: PEP 8 compliant code that earns at least 10 of the above points.

There are 25 possible points. This homework will be graded out of 20 points.

Submission Instructions

You will be making the submission for this homework through github.

You will be making changes to resolve.py and that is the only file that will be submitted for grading through github:

To submit your work, run git commit -a and git push. Like previously, you are allowed to make multiple submissions. The most recent submission before the deadline will be graded.

Due Date and Logistics

  • This assignment is due at the at 11:59 pm on Wednesday, April 22.

  • If you have any questions please use the Piazza discussion forum.