Ubuntu Today: Encrypt DNS Traffic In Linux With DNSCrypt (Via OpenDNS)

Jumat, 17 Februari 2012

Encrypt DNS Traffic In Linux With DNSCrypt (Via OpenDNS)

DNSCrypt, as its name suggests, encrypts DNS traffic between your computer and OpenDNS, in the same way SSL turns HTTP traffic into HTTPS encrypted traffic.

Initially, DNSCrypt was announced as being available for Mac only for now, but according to an OpenDNS article posted yesterday, the source code for DNSCrypt was published on GitHub when they've released the Mac preview and even though there's no user interface yet, Linux users can already install DNSCrypt.

Why use DNSCrypt?

DNSCrypt encrypts all DNS traffic between your computer and the OpenDNS servers (so you'll be using OpenDNS) and can protect you from man-in-the-middle attacks, spying, resolver impersonation, can prevent Internet service providers from blocking various websites and more.

This is the first tool that encrypts DNS traffic - for instance, TOR encrypts DNS requests, but they are decrypted at the exit node.

It doesn't require any changes to domain names or how they work, it simply provides a method for securely encrypting communication between our customers and our DNS servers in our data centers.

You can read more about DNSCrypt HERE.

How to use DNSCrypt in Linux

Download DNSCrypt, install it and then run the following command in a terminal:

sudo /usr/sbin/dnscrypt-proxy --daemonize

Then set your DNS server to "127.0.0.1" - to do this under GNOME, go to your Network Connections and select "Edit" and enter "127.0.0.1" under "DNS servers". If you are using DHCP, just select "Automatic (DHCP) addresses only, so you can enter a DNS server. Then, restart your network connection.