[lacnog] Upcoming changes to the DNSSEC root trust anchor

[Andres Pavez]

Dear Colleagues,

We are reaching out to inform you of important changes to the DNSSEC trust anchor in the root zone. If you manage a validating DNS resolver or a tool that interacts with the DNS root zone you might need to change your software to handle the changes. This letter provides a summary of the upcoming changes and gives pointers to resources that describe them in detail.

*Upcoming addition of the KSK-2024 trust anchor*

On January 11, 2025, a new trust anchor, codenamed KSK-2024, will appear in the root zone for the global DNS. This key was generated earlier this year and will co-exist with the current trust anchor, codenamed KSK-2017. The new DNSKEY record is:

. 172800 IN DNSKEY 257 3 8 AwEAAa96jeuknZlaeSrvyAJj6ZHv28hhOKkx3rLGXVaC6rXTsDc449/c idltpkyGwCJNnOAlFNKF2jBosZBU5eeHspaQWOmOElZsjICMQMC3aeHb GiShvZsx4wMYSjH8e7Vrhbu6irwCzVBApESjbUdpWWmEnhathWu1jo+s iFUiRAAxm9qyJNg/wOZqqzL/dL/q8PkcRU5oUKEpUge71M3ej2/7CPqp dVwuMoTvoB+ZOT4YeGyxMvHmbrxlFzGOHOijtzN+u1TQNatX2XBuzZNQ 1K+s2CXkPIZo7s6JgZyvaBevYtxPvYLw4z9mR7K2vaF18UYH9Z9GNUUe 
ayffKC73PYc=

As a result of this addition, some DNS responses may be larger during the transition period. If your software uses the RFC 5011 process for managing trust anchors, KSK-2024 will be automatically trusted about one month after its introduction to the root zone. There are two important planned dates:

* October 11, 2026: KSK-2024 will begin signing the root zone.
* January 11, 2027: KSK-2017 is scheduled to be revoked.

For a detailed description of the rollover process, please refer to https://www.iana.org/dnssec/files 

*New trust anchor file*

IANA has issued a new trust anchor file using the updated XML format described in https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-dnsop-rfc7958bis/ , which has recently been approved to be published as an RFC. The new trust anchor file contains additional data that was not provided in previous versions of the file.

If your software or processes use the IANA trust anchor file (published at https://data.iana.org/root-anchors/root-anchors.xml ), you should ensure you have processes to retrieve it regularly (such as weekly) and check your systems can process the revised format of the file.

*Keep in touch*

Operational announcements regarding trust anchors and rollovers are published on the root-dnssec-announce mailing list at https://lists.icann.org/postorius/lists/root-dnssec-announce.icann.org/ . A separate ksk-rollover mailing list is a forum for discussion specific to rollovers can be found at https://lists.icann.org/postorius/lists/ksk-rollover.icann.org/ .

Best regards,
-- 
Andres Pavez 
Cryptographic Key Manager