DNS and BIND: Working with RNDC Keys

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DNS and BIND: Working with RNDC Keys

BIND uses a shared secret key authentication method to grant privileges to hosts. It is important to know how to generate this key for administration purposes. In this hands-on lab we will learn to configure the RNDC key and configuration file, and link it to the `named` service. To accomplish this, we will install the BIND package and recreate the RNDC key and configuration. We will then copy the new configuration to the `named.conf` file. To complete this lab, you will have to show that a new configuration has been created and that DNS queries are being cached on `localhost`.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Aug 07, 2025

Duration

15m

Challenge

Install, start, and enable the `named` service.

# yum install bind bind-utils -y
# systemctl start named
# systemctl enable named

Challenge

Recreate the RNDC key and configuration file.
- Remove the rndc key file. rm /etc/rndc.key
- Stop the named service. systemctl stop named
- Generate an rndc key and configuration file. rndc-confgen -r /dev/urandom > /etc/rndc.conf
Challenge

Link the RNDC configuration to the named configuration.
- Open the /etc/rndc.conf file with vim /etc/rndc.conf
- Copy the section "Copy to the named.conf file"
- Open the /etc/named.conf file for editing with vim /etc/named.conf
- Paste the section into /etc/named.conf just before the include statements and delete the # signs at the beginning of the lines.
Challenge

Start the named service.
```
systemctl start named
```
Challenge

Test the configuration to ensure DNS records are being cached on localhost.
```
nslookup www.google.com 127.0.0.1
```

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