Chromium Blog
News and developments from the open source browser project
Addressing some misconceptions about our plans for improving the security of DNS
Monday, October 28, 2019
Whenever you type a URL into your browser (for example “redcross.org”), this information is sent to a domain name system (DNS) provider that converts that request into the unique numerical “IP address” (e.g. 162.6.217.119) that identifies websites on the Internet. Your browser then uses that numerical IP address to take you to the site you were looking for. Unfortunately, today the requests from your browser to the DNS provider are not encrypted (which makes you vulnerable to passive monitoring by strangers) nor authenticated (which makes you vulnerable to online attackers). This is especially true when you’re connected to public WiFi, for example at a cafe or airport, since anyone else using the network can see and track the websites you visit and maybe redirect your browser to a malicious website.
In September, we announced an experiment in Chrome to improve online privacy and security by enabling secure DNS connections with
DNS-over-HTTPS
(DoH) for users already using DNS providers that support it. DoH is being developed by the
Internet standards community
as a step toward better security and privacy by encrypting the traffic between your browser and your DNS provider. It improves privacy by removing one of the ways used by malicious actors to observe the browsing habits of other users on the same network. DoH is also a significant security improvement, as it helps stop
man-in-the-middle
attacks on DNS lookups. Many privacy-minded
organizations
,
journalists
, other browser providers and
internet service providers
(ISPs) agree that these changes will improve your privacy and security.
Unfortunately, there has been some
misinformation and confusion
about the goals of our approach and whether DoH will impact existing content controls offered by ISPs. The confusion comes from two particular claims and we want to address both.
The first claim is that Google is going to redirect user DNS traffic to Google's own DNS or another DoH-compliant DNS provider. That is incorrect. Because we believe in user choice and user control, we have no plans to force users to change their DNS provider. Today, there are many independent DNS providers, although ISPs serve
approximately 97% of user DNS needs
. As long as these service providers keep catering to user needs and concerns, it will remain a diverse ecosystem. We’re simply enabling support in Chrome for secure DoH connections if a user’s DNS provider of choice offers it. Chrome will check if the user’s DNS provider is among
a list of participating DoH-compatible providers
and if so, it will enable DoH. If the DNS provider is not on the list, Chrome won’t enable DoH and will continue to operate as it does today. As DoH adoption increases, we expect to see the number of DoH-enabled DNS providers grow.
The second claim we’ve seen is that the secure DoH connection will limit the family-safe content controls offered by some ISPs. In fact, any existing content controls of your DNS provider, including any protections for children, should remain active. DoH secures the URL data only while it’s in transit between your browser and the DNS provider, so your provider’s malware protection and parental control features will continue to work as they have in the past. As a proof point, CleanBrowsing offers the same parental control features on its
DoH service
as it does on its unencrypted service.
As we
said last month
, we’re taking an incremental approach with this experiment, and our current plan is to enable DoH support for just 1% of our users, provided that they are already using a DoH compliant DNS provider. This will allow Google and DoH providers to test the performance and reliability of DoH. We’ll also monitor feedback
from our users
and from other stakeholders, including ISPs. Most managed Chrome deployments such as schools and enterprises are excluded from the experiment by default. We also offer policies for administrators to control the feature. Finally, Chrome users may opt-out of the DoH experiment entirely by going to chrome://flags/#dns-over-https, starting in Chrome 79.
We are optimistic about the opportunities DoH offers for improving user privacy and security, but we also understand the importance of DNS and that there could be implementation concerns we haven’t foreseen. That’s why we plan to move carefully and transparently. We’re open to feedback and welcome constructive collaboration and engagement. We are committed to ensure that the deployment of DoH does not create unintended consequences and we will continue to work with stakeholders including ISPs, DNS providers, and Internet and child safety advocates as we make progress.
Posted by Kenji Baheux, Chrome Product Manager
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