What are all the flags in a dig response?

Question

dig responses return flags in the comments section:

$ dig example.com +noall +comments

; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> example.com +noall +comments
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 29045
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

On the last line here, there are flags:

flags: qr rd ra;

What are all the possible flags that dig has?

Here's a list of the ones I've found so far:

rd - Recursion Desired
ra - Recursion Available
aa - Authoritative Answer
qr - Query?
cd - Checking Disabled (not sure what this means)
others?

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 19 '19 at 20:41

I am using RFC 1035 as source, keeping to the sequence from there, regardless if you already mentioned it in your question.

QR specifies whether this message is a query (0), or a response (1)
OPCODE A four bit field, only valid values: 0,1,2
AA Authoritative Answer
TC TrunCation (truncated due to length greater than that permitted on the transmission channel)
RD Recursion Desired
RA Recursion Available
Z Reserved for future use. Must be zero

There were two more DNSSEC-related flags introduced in RFC 4035:

CD (Checking Disabled): indicates a security-aware resolver should disable signature validation (that is, not check DNSSEC records)
AD (Authentic Data): indicates the resolver believes the responses to be authentic - that is, validated by DNSSEC

score 13 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 19 '17 at 15:10

From: http://www.perdisci.com/useful-links/dig-info

DIG response header:

Flags:
AA = Authoritative Answer

TC = Truncation

RD = Recursion Desired (set in a query and copied into the response if recursion is supported)

RA = Recursion Available (if set, denotes recursive query support is available)

AD = Authenticated Data (for DNSSEC only; indicates that the data was authenticated)

CD = Checking Disabled (DNSSEC only; disables checking at the receiving server)

Response code:

0 = NOERR, no error

1 = FORMERR, format error (unable to understand the query)

2 = SERVFAIL, name server problem

3= NXDOMAIN, domain name does not exist

4 = NOTIMPL, not implemented

5 = REFUSED (e.g., refused zone transfer requests)

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Oct 07 '21 at 08:14

2

For more information read:

RFC1035 - 4.1.1. Header section format (https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1035)

RFC6895 - 2. DNS Query/Response Headers (https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6895)

edited Oct 07 '21 at 08:14

Community

1

answered Jul 04 '17 at 10:52

Simbou

21
2

I don't think pointing at RFC's is really helpful, at least not with at least a quick summary of the information that can be found there. – Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Nov 14 '21 at 21:06

What are all the flags in a dig response?

3 Answers3