3 - Adding more Record Types

Let's use our program to do a lookup for ''yahoo.com''.

let qname = "www.yahoo.com";

Running it yields:

DnsHeader {
    id: 6666,
    recursion_desired: true,
    truncated_message: false,
    authoritative_answer: false,
    opcode: 0,
    response: true,
    rescode: NOERROR,
    checking_disabled: false,
    authed_data: false,
    z: false,
    recursion_available: true,
    questions: 1,
    answers: 3,
    authoritative_entries: 0,
    resource_entries: 0
}
DnsQuestion {
    name: "www.yahoo.com",
    qtype: A
}
UNKNOWN {
    domain: "www.yahoo.com",
    qtype: 5,
    data_len: 15,
    ttl: 259
}
A {
    domain: "fd-fp3.wg1.b.yahoo.com",
    addr: 46.228.47.115,
    ttl: 19
}
A {
    domain: "fd-fp3.wg1.b.yahoo.com",
    addr: 46.228.47.114,
    ttl: 19
}

That's odd -- we're getting an UNKNOWN record as well as two A records. The UNKNOWN record, with query type 5 is a CNAME. There are quite a few DNS record types, many of which doesn't see any use in practice. That said, let's have a look at a few essential ones:

ID	Name	Description	Encoding
1	A	Alias - Mapping names to IP addresses	Preamble + Four bytes for IPv4 adress
2	NS	Name Server - The DNS server address for a domain	Preamble + Label Sequence
5	CNAME	Canonical Name - Maps names to names	Preamble + Label Sequence
15	MX	Mail eXchange - The host of the mail server for a domain	Preamble + 2-bytes for priority + Label Sequence
28	AAAA	IPv6 alias	Premable + Sixteen bytes for IPv6 adress

Extending QueryType with more record types

Let's go ahead and add them to our code! First we'll update our QueryType enum:

#[derive(PartialEq,Eq,Debug,Clone,Hash,Copy)]
pub enum QueryType {
    UNKNOWN(u16),
    A, // 1
    NS, // 2
    CNAME, // 5
    MX, // 15
    AAAA, // 28
}

We'll also need to change our utility functions.

impl QueryType {
    pub fn to_num(&self) -> u16 {
        match *self {
            QueryType::UNKNOWN(x) => x,
            QueryType::A => 1,
            QueryType::NS => 2,
            QueryType::CNAME => 5,
            QueryType::MX => 15,
            QueryType::AAAA => 28,
        }
    }

    pub fn from_num(num: u16) -> QueryType {
        match num {
            1 => QueryType::A,
            2 => QueryType::NS,
            5 => QueryType::CNAME,
            15 => QueryType::MX,
            28 => QueryType::AAAA,
            _ => QueryType::UNKNOWN(num)
        }
    }
}

Extending DnsRecord for reading new record types

Now we need a way of holding the data for these records, so we'll make some modifications to DnsRecord.

#[derive(Debug,Clone,PartialEq,Eq,Hash,PartialOrd,Ord)]
#[allow(dead_code)]
pub enum DnsRecord {
    UNKNOWN {
        domain: String,
        qtype: u16,
        data_len: u16,
        ttl: u32
    }, // 0
    A {
        domain: String,
        addr: Ipv4Addr,
        ttl: u32
    }, // 1
    NS {
        domain: String,
        host: String,
        ttl: u32
    }, // 2
    CNAME {
        domain: String,
        host: String,
        ttl: u32
    }, // 5
    MX {
        domain: String,
        priority: u16,
        host: String,
        ttl: u32
    }, // 15
    AAAA {
        domain: String,
        addr: Ipv6Addr,
        ttl: u32
    }, // 28
}

Here comes the bulk of the work. We'll need to extend the functions for writing and reading records. Starting with read, we amend it with additional code for each record type. First off, we've got the common preamble:

pub fn read(buffer: &mut BytePacketBuffer) -> Result<DnsRecord> {
    let mut domain = String::new();
    try!(buffer.read_qname(&mut domain));

    let qtype_num = try!(buffer.read_u16());
    let qtype = QueryType::from_num(qtype_num);
    let _ = try!(buffer.read_u16());
    let ttl = try!(buffer.read_u32());
    let data_len = try!(buffer.read_u16());

    match qtype {

        // Handle each record type separately, starting with the A record
        // type which remains the same as before.
        QueryType::A  => {
            let raw_addr = try!(buffer.read_u32());
            let addr = Ipv4Addr::new(((raw_addr >> 24) & 0xFF) as u8,
                                     ((raw_addr >> 16) & 0xFF) as u8,
                                     ((raw_addr >> 8) & 0xFF) as u8,
                                     ((raw_addr >> 0) & 0xFF) as u8);

            Ok(DnsRecord::A {
                domain: domain,
                addr: addr,
                ttl: ttl
            })
        },

        // The AAAA record type follows the same logic, but with more numbers to keep
        // track off.
        QueryType::AAAA => {
            let raw_addr1 = try!(buffer.read_u32());
            let raw_addr2 = try!(buffer.read_u32());
            let raw_addr3 = try!(buffer.read_u32());
            let raw_addr4 = try!(buffer.read_u32());
            let addr = Ipv6Addr::new(((raw_addr1 >> 16) & 0xFFFF) as u16,
                                     ((raw_addr1 >> 0) & 0xFFFF) as u16,
                                     ((raw_addr2 >> 16) & 0xFFFF) as u16,
                                     ((raw_addr2 >> 0) & 0xFFFF) as u16,
                                     ((raw_addr3 >> 16) & 0xFFFF) as u16,
                                     ((raw_addr3 >> 0) & 0xFFFF) as u16,
                                     ((raw_addr4 >> 16) & 0xFFFF) as u16,
                                     ((raw_addr4 >> 0) & 0xFFFF) as u16);

            Ok(DnsRecord::AAAA {
                domain: domain,
                addr: addr,
                ttl: ttl
            })
        },

        // NS and CNAME both have the same structure.
        QueryType::NS => {
            let mut ns = String::new();
            try!(buffer.read_qname(&mut ns));

            Ok(DnsRecord::NS {
                domain: domain,
                host: ns,
                ttl: ttl
            })
        },

        QueryType::CNAME => {
            let mut cname = String::new();
            try!(buffer.read_qname(&mut cname));

            Ok(DnsRecord::CNAME {
                domain: domain,
                host: cname,
                ttl: ttl
            })
        },

        // MX is almost like the previous two, but with one extra field for priority.
        QueryType::MX => {
            let priority = try!(buffer.read_u16());
            let mut mx = String::new();
            try!(buffer.read_qname(&mut mx));

            Ok(DnsRecord::MX {
                domain: domain,
                priority: priority,
                host: mx,
                ttl: ttl
            })
        },

        // And we end with some code for handling unknown record types, as before.
        QueryType::UNKNOWN(_) => {
            try!(buffer.step(data_len as usize));

            Ok(DnsRecord::UNKNOWN {
                domain: domain,
                qtype: qtype_num,
                data_len: data_len,
                ttl: ttl
            })
        }
    }
}

It's a bit of a mouthful, but there are no especially complicated records in their own right -- it's seeing them all together that makes it look a bit unwieldy.

Extending BytePacketBuffer for setting values in place

Before we move on to writing records, we'll have to add two more functions to BytePacketBuffer:

impl BytePacketBuffer {

    - snip -

    fn set(&mut self, pos: usize, val: u8) -> Result<()> {
        self.buf[pos] = val;

        Ok(())
    }

    fn set_u16(&mut self, pos: usize, val: u16) -> Result<()> {
        try!(self.set(pos,(val >> 8) as u8));
        try!(self.set(pos+1,(val & 0xFF) as u8));

        Ok(())
    }

}

Extending DnsRecord for writing new record types

Now we can amend DnsRecord::write. Here's our new function:

pub fn write(&self, buffer: &mut BytePacketBuffer) -> Result<usize> {

    let start_pos = buffer.pos();

    match *self {
        DnsRecord::A { ref domain, ref addr, ttl } => {
            try!(buffer.write_qname(domain));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(QueryType::A.to_num()));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(1));
            try!(buffer.write_u32(ttl));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(4));

            let octets = addr.octets();
            try!(buffer.write_u8(octets[0]));
            try!(buffer.write_u8(octets[1]));
            try!(buffer.write_u8(octets[2]));
            try!(buffer.write_u8(octets[3]));
        },
        DnsRecord::NS { ref domain, ref host, ttl } => {
            try!(buffer.write_qname(domain));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(QueryType::NS.to_num()));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(1));
            try!(buffer.write_u32(ttl));

            let pos = buffer.pos();
            try!(buffer.write_u16(0));

            try!(buffer.write_qname(host));

            let size = buffer.pos() - (pos + 2);
            try!(buffer.set_u16(pos, size as u16));
        },
        DnsRecord::CNAME { ref domain, ref host, ttl } => {
            try!(buffer.write_qname(domain));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(QueryType::CNAME.to_num()));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(1));
            try!(buffer.write_u32(ttl));

            let pos = buffer.pos();
            try!(buffer.write_u16(0));

            try!(buffer.write_qname(host));

            let size = buffer.pos() - (pos + 2);
            try!(buffer.set_u16(pos, size as u16));
        },
        DnsRecord::MX { ref domain, priority, ref host, ttl } => {
            try!(buffer.write_qname(domain));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(QueryType::MX.to_num()));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(1));
            try!(buffer.write_u32(ttl));

            let pos = buffer.pos();
            try!(buffer.write_u16(0));

            try!(buffer.write_u16(priority));
            try!(buffer.write_qname(host));

            let size = buffer.pos() - (pos + 2);
            try!(buffer.set_u16(pos, size as u16));
        },
        DnsRecord::AAAA { ref domain, ref addr, ttl } => {
            try!(buffer.write_qname(domain));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(QueryType::AAAA.to_num()));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(1));
            try!(buffer.write_u32(ttl));
            try!(buffer.write_u16(16));

            for octet in &addr.segments() {
                try!(buffer.write_u16(*octet));
            }
        },
        DnsRecord::UNKNOWN { .. } => {
            println!("Skipping record: {:?}", self);
        }
    }

    Ok(buffer.pos() - start_pos)
}

Again, quite a bit of extra code, but thankfully the last thing we've got to do. We're still not using the write part, but it'll come in handy once we write our server.

Testing the new record types

Now we're ready to retry our ''yahoo.com'' query:

DnsHeader {
    id: 6666,
    recursion_desired: true,
    truncated_message: false,
    authoritative_answer: false,
    opcode: 0,
    response: true,
    rescode: NOERROR,
    checking_disabled: false,
    authed_data: false,
    z: false,
    recursion_available: true,
    questions: 1,
    answers: 3,
    authoritative_entries: 0,
    resource_entries: 0
}
DnsQuestion {
    name: "www.yahoo.com",
    qtype: A
}
CNAME {
    domain: "www.yahoo.com",
    host: "fd-fp3.wg1.b.yahoo.com",
    ttl: 3
}
A {
    domain: "fd-fp3.wg1.b.yahoo.com",
    addr: 46.228.47.115,
    ttl: 19
}
A {
    domain: "fd-fp3.wg1.b.yahoo.com",
    addr: 46.228.47.114,
    ttl: 19
}

For good measure, let's try doing an MX lookup as well:

let qname = "yahoo.com";
let qtype = QueryType::MX;

Which yields:

- snip -
DnsQuestion {
    name: "yahoo.com",
    qtype: MX
}
MX {
    domain: "yahoo.com",
    priority: 1,
    host: "mta6.am0.yahoodns.net",
    ttl: 1794
}
MX {
    domain: "yahoo.com",
    priority: 1,
    host: "mta7.am0.yahoodns.net",
    ttl: 1794
}
MX {
    domain: "yahoo.com",
    priority: 1,
    host: "mta5.am0.yahoodns.net",
    ttl: 1794
}

Next up: Chapter 4 - Baby's first DNS server

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