Windows DNS intercept mode runs an NRPT health monitor that restores the
catch-all rule and re-signals DNS Client whenever Windows stops routing
queries to the local listener. When another agent (MDM, VPN, GPO) keeps
putting NRPT back into a broken state, that loop never converges: ctrld
repeatedly calls RefreshPolicyEx, Dnscache paramchange, and flushes the
DNS cache, producing continuous flash writes and SIEM noise while never
fixing anything.
Add a recovery limiter that trips after a configurable number of
consecutive recovery flows and enters a cooldown, during which recovery
is suppressed (logged at most once every 5 minutes). Clearing the
circuit requires two consecutive stable health successes rather than
one, because a probe can pass briefly right after delete/re-add even
when the underlying NRPT state is still broken.
New [service] options gate the behavior and default to the previous
unlimited behavior:
- nrpt_recovery_max_attempts (default 0 = unlimited)
- nrpt_recovery_cooldown (default 30m)
Also collapse the repeated refresh + paramchange + flush sequence into a
single signalNRPTChange() helper, and make cleanGPPath /
cleanEmptyNRPTParent only mutate the registry and report whether cleanup
happened, so callers send exactly one DNS Client change signal instead
of several. When the GP DnsPolicyConfig parent exists but is empty,
nrptProbeAndHeal now cleans it and signals once before spending the
normal policy-refresh retry budget, since those retries cannot succeed
while DNS Client is stuck in GP mode.
Add unit tests for the limiter's cooldown, stable-reset, and unlimited
paths, and document the new options and the empty-GP repro.
Go's default is already TLS 1.2+ (since Go 1.18), but making this
explicit satisfies RFC 7858/9250 recommendations and makes the security
intent clear for auditors.
Add --intercept-mode flag (dns/hard/off) with configuration support,
recovery bypass for captive portals, probe-based interception
verification, VPN DNS coexistence in the proxy layer, and IPv6
loopback listener guard.
Remove standalone mDNSResponder hack files — the port 53 binding
logic is now handled within the intercept mode infrastructure.
Squashed from intercept mode development on v1.0 branch (#497).
Implement TCP/TLS connection pooling for DoT resolver to match DoQ
performance. Previously, DoT created a new TCP/TLS connection for every
DNS query, incurring significant TLS handshake overhead. Now connections are
reused across queries, eliminating this overhead for subsequent requests.
The implementation follows the same pattern as DoQ, using parallel dialing
and connection pooling to achieve comparable performance characteristics.
Replace boolean rebootstrap flag with a three-state atomic integer to
prevent concurrent SetupTransport calls during rebootstrap. The atomic
state machine ensures only one goroutine can proceed from "started" to
"in progress", eliminating the need for a mutex while maintaining
thread safety.
States: NotStarted -> Started -> InProgress -> NotStarted
Note that the race condition is still acceptable because any additional
transports created during the race are functional. Once the connection
is established, the unused transports are safely handled by the garbage
collector.
Consolidate DoH/DoH3/DoQ transport initialization into a single
SetupTransport method and introduce generic helper functions to eliminate
duplicated IP stack selection logic across transport getters.
This reduces code duplication by ~77 lines while maintaining the same
functionality.
Implement QUIC connection pooling for DoQ resolver to match DoH3
performance. Previously, DoQ created a new QUIC connection for every
DNS query, incurring significant handshake overhead. Now connections are
reused across queries, eliminating this overhead for subsequent requests.
The implementation follows the same pattern as DoH3, using parallel dialing
and connection pooling to achieve comparable performance characteristics.
- Add UpstreamConfig.VerifyMsg() method with proper EDNS0 support
- Replace hardcoded DNS messages in health checks with standardized verification method
- Set EDNS0 buffer size to 4096 bytes to handle large DNS responses
- Add test case for legacy resolver with extensive extra sections
So on system where there's no available DNS, non-ControlD upstreams
could be bootstrapped like before.
While at it, also improving lookupIP to not initializing OS resolver
anymore, removing the un-necessary contention for accquiring/releasing
OS resolver mutex.
netmon provides ipv6 availability during network event changes, so use
this metadata instead of wasting on polling check.
Further, repeated network errors will force marking ipv6 as disable if
were being enabled, catching a rare case when ipv6 were disabled from
cli or system settings.
debugging
debugging
debugging
debugging
use default route interface IP for OS resolver queries
remove retries
fix resolv.conf clobbering on MacOS, set custom local addr for os resolver queries
remove the client info discovery logic on network change, this was overkill just for the IP, and was causing service failure after switching networks many times rapidly
handle ipv6 local addresses
guard ciTable from nil pointer
debugging failure count
For normal OS resolver, ctrld does not use local addresses as nameserver
to avoid possible looping. However, on AD environment with local DNS
running, AD queries must be sent to the local DNS server for proper
resolving.
smol tweaks to nameserver test queries
fix restoreDNS errors
add some debugging information
fix wront type in log msg
set send logs command timeout to 5 mins
when the runningIface is no longer up, attempt to find a new interface
prefer default route, ignore non physical interfaces
prefer default route, ignore non physical interfaces
add max context timeout on performLeakingQuery with more debug logs
So it would work in more general case than just captive portal network,
which ctrld have supported recently.
Uses who may want no leaking behavior can use a config to turn off this
feature.
For query domain that matches "uid.verify.controld.com" in cd mode, and
the uid has the same value with "--cd" flag, ctrld will fetch uid config
from ControlD API, using this config if valid.
This is useful for force syncing API without waiting until the API
reload ticker fire.
The default gateway is usually the DNS server in normal home network
setup for most users. However, there's case that it is not, causing
discover ptr failed.
This commit add discover_ptr_endpoints config parameter, so users can
define what DNS nameservers will be used.
Using the same approach as in cd mode, but do it only once when running
ctrld the first time, then the config will be re-used then.
While at it, also adding Dockerfile.debug for better troubleshooting
with alpine base image.
Dev Scribe