COREDNS-REWRITE(7)

NAME
rewrite - performs internal message rewriting.

DESCRIPTION
Rewrites are invisible to the client. There are simple rewrites (fast) and complex rewrites (slower), but they're powerful enough to accommodate most dynamic back-end applications.

SYNTAX
A simplified/easy to digest syntax for rewrite is... ~~~ rewrite [continue|stop] FIELD [FROM TO|FROM TTL] ~~~

•   FIELD indicates what part of the request/response is being re-written.

•   type - the type field of the request will be rewritten. FROM/TO must be a DNS record type (A, MX, etc); e.g., to rewrite ANY queries to HINFO, use rewrite type ANY HINFO.

•   class - the class of the message will be rewritten. FROM/TO must be a DNS class type (IN, CH, or HS) e.g., to rewrite CH queries to IN use rewrite class CH IN.

•   name - the query name in the request is rewritten; by default this is a full match of the name, e.g., rewrite name example.net example.org. Other match types are supported, see the Name Field Rewrites section below.

•   answer name - the query name in the response is rewritten. This option has special restrictions and requirements, in particular it must always combined with a name rewrite. See below in the Response Rewrites section.

•   edns0 - an EDNS0 option can be appended to the request as described below in the EDNS0 Options section.

•   ttl - the TTL value in the response is rewritten.

•   FROM is the name (exact, suffix, prefix, substring, or regex) or type to match

•   TO is the destination name or type to rewrite to

•   TTL is the number of seconds to set the TTL value to

If you specify multiple rules and an incoming query matches on multiple rules, the rewrite will behave as following * continue will continue apply the next rule in the rule list. * stop will consider the current rule is the last rule and will not continue. Default behaviour for not specifying this rule processing mode is stop

  NAME FIELD REWRITES
The rewrite plugin offers the ability to match on the name in the question section of a DNS request. The match could be exact, substring, or based on a prefix, suffix, or regular expression. If the newly used name is not a legal domain name the plugin returns an error to the client.

The syntax for the name re-writing is as follows:

    rewrite [continue|stop] name [exact|prefix|suffix|substring|regex] STRING STRING

The match type, i.e. exact, substring, etc., triggers re-write:

•   exact (default): on exact match of the name in the question section of a request

•   substring: on a partial match of the name in the question section of a request

•   prefix: when the name begins with the matching string

•   suffix: when the name ends with the matching string

•   regex: when the name in the question section of a request matches a regular expression

If the match type is omitted, the exact match type is being assumed.

The following instruction allows re-writing the name in the query that contains service.us-west-1.example.org substring.

    rewrite name substring service.us-west-1.example.org service.us-west-1.consul

Thus:

•   Incoming Request Name: ftp.service.us-west-1.example.org

•   Re-written Request Name: ftp.service.us-west-1.consul

The following instruction uses regular expressions. The name in a request matching (.*)-(us-west-1)\.example\.org regular expression is being replaces with {1}.service.{2}.consul, where {1} and {2} are regular expression match groups.

    rewrite name regex (.*)-(us-west-1)\.example\.org {1}.service.{2}.consul

Thus:

•   Incoming Request Name: ftp-us-west-1.example.org

•   Re-written Request Name: ftp.service.us-west-1.consul

The following example rewrites the schmoogle.com suffix to google.com.

    rewrite name suffix .schmoogle.com. .google.com.

  RESPONSE REWRITES
When re-writing incoming DNS requests' names, CoreDNS re-writes the QUESTION SECTION section of the requests. It may be necessary to re-write the ANSWER SECTION of the requests, because some DNS resolvers would treat the mismatch between QUESTION SECTION and ANSWER SECTION as a man-in-the-middle attack (MITM).

For example, a user tries to resolve ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks. The CoreDNS configuration file has the following rule:

    rewrite name regex (.*)-(us-west-1)\.coredns\.rocks {1}.service.{2}.consul

CoreDNS instance re-wrote the request to ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks with ftp.service.us-west-1.consul and ultimately resolved it to 3 records. The resolved records, see ANSWER SECTION, were not from coredns.rocks, but rather from service.us-west-1.consul.

    $ dig @10.1.1.1 ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks
    ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> @10.1.1.1 ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks
    ; (1 server found)
    ;; global options: +cmd
    ;; Got answer:
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 8619
    ;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
    ;ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks. IN A
    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    ftp.service.us-west-1.consul. 0    IN A    10.10.10.10
    ftp.service.us-west-1.consul. 0    IN A    10.20.20.20
    ftp.service.us-west-1.consul. 0    IN A    10.30.30.30

The above is the mismatch.

The following configuration snippet allows for the re-writing of the ANSWER SECTION, provided that the QUESTION SECTION was re-written:

        rewrite stop {
            name regex (.*)-(us-west-1)\.coredns\.rocks {1}.service.{2}.consul
            answer name (.*)\.service\.(us-west-1)\.consul {1}-{2}.coredns.rocks
        }

Now, the ANSWER SECTION matches the QUESTION SECTION:

    $ dig @10.1.1.1 ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks
    ; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> @10.1.1.1 ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks
    ; (1 server found)
    ;; global options: +cmd
    ;; Got answer:
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 8619
    ;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
    ;ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks. IN A
    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks. 0    IN A    10.10.10.10
    ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks. 0    IN A    10.20.20.20
    ftp-us-west-1.coredns.rocks. 0    IN A    10.30.30.30

The syntax for the rewrite of DNS request and response is as follows:

    rewrite [continue|stop] {
        name regex STRING STRING
        answer name STRING STRING
    }

Note that the above syntax is strict. For response rewrites only name rules are allowed to match the question section, and only by match type regex. The answer rewrite must be after the name, as ordered in the syntax example. There must only be two lines (a name follwed by an answer) in the brackets, additional rules are not supported.

An alternate syntax for the rewrite of DNS request and response is as follows:

    rewrite [continue|stop] name regex STRING STRING answer name STRING STRING

When using exact name rewrite rules, answer gets re-written automatically, and there is no need defining answer name instruction. The below rule rewrites the name in a request from RED to BLUE, and subsequently rewrites the name in a corresponding response from BLUE to RED. The client in the request would see only RED and no BLUE.

    rewrite [continue|stop] name exact RED BLUE

  TTL FIELD REWRITES
At times, the need for rewriting TTL value could arise. For example, a DNS server may prevent caching by setting TTL as low as zero (0). An administrator may want to increase the TTL to prevent caching, e.g. to 15 seconds.

In the below example, the TTL in the answers for coredns.rocks domain are being set to 15:

        rewrite continue {
            ttl regex (.*)\.coredns\.rocks 15
        }

By the same token, an administrator may use this feature to force caching by setting TTL value really low.

The syntax for the TTL rewrite rule is as follows. The meaning of exact|prefix|suffix|substring|regex is the same as with the name rewrite rules.

    rewrite [continue|stop] ttl [exact|prefix|suffix|substring|regex] STRING SECONDS

EDNS0 OPTIONS
Using FIELD edns0, you can set, append, or replace specific EDNS0 options on the request.

•   replace will modify any "matching" option with the specified option. The criteria for "matching" varies based on EDNS0 type.

•   append will add the option only if no matching option exists

•   set will modify a matching option or add one if none is found

Currently supported are EDNS0_LOCAL, EDNS0_NSID and EDNS0_SUBNET.

  EDNS0_LOCAL
This has two fields, code and data. A match is defined as having the same code. Data may be a string or a variable.

A string data can be treated as hex if it starts with 0x. Example:

    . {
        rewrite edns0 local set 0xffee 0x61626364
        whoami
    }

rewrites the first local option with code 0xffee, setting the data to "abcd". Equivalent:

    . {
        rewrite edns0 local set 0xffee abcd
    }

•   A variable data is specified with a pair of curly brackets {}. Following are the supported variables: {qname}, {qtype}, {client_ip}, {client_port}, {protocol}, {server_ip}, {server_port}.

•   If the metadata plugin is enabled, then labels are supported as variables if they are presented within curly brackets. the variable data will be filled with the value associated with that label. If that label is not provided, the variable will be silently substitute by an empty string.

Examples:

    rewrite edns0 local set 0xffee {client_ip}

The following example uses metadata and an imaginary "some-plugin" that would provide "some-label" as metadata information.

    metadata
    some-plugin
    rewrite edns0 local set 0xffee {some-plugin/some-label}

  EDNS0_NSID
This has no fields; it will add an NSID option with an empty string for the NSID. If the option already exists and the action is replace or set, then the NSID in the option will be set to the empty string.

  EDNS0_SUBNET
This has two fields, IPv4 bitmask length and IPv6 bitmask length. The bitmask length is used to extract the client subnet from the source IP address in the query.

Example:

    rewrite edns0 subnet set 24 56

•   If the query has source IP as IPv4, the first 24 bits in the IP will be the network subnet.

•   If the query has source IP as IPv6, the first 56 bits in the IP will be the network subnet.

FULL SYNTAX
The full plugin usage syntax is harder to digest... ~~~ rewrite [continue|stop] {type|class|edns0|name [exact|prefix|suffix|substring|regex [FROM TO answer name]]} FROM TO ~~~

The syntax above doesn't cover the multi line block option for specifying a name request+response rewrite rule described in the Response Rewrite section.