- Skip systemd-resolved initialization on Android (ChromeOS crash fix)
- Skip system DNS discovery commands on iOS mobile (sandbox restrictions)
- Skip route-based DNS discovery on Android
- Skip systemd resolver on Android
- Add mobile platform checks to prevent sandbox access violations
These changes ensure ctrld works correctly in mobile sandboxed environments
where system commands and file access are restricted.
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.
When IPv6 is available locally but the selected IPv6 DoH endpoint is
unroutable (e.g. dialing [2606:1a40::22]:443 returns "no route to host"
while IPv4 stays usable), ctrld re-bootstrapped and re-dialed the endpoint
every ~2s. A weekend soak produced ~46.7k "no route to host" lines, with
the dial/health-check loop dominating the log during bad windows.
Add bounded backoff/suppression for network-unreachable endpoints at two
levels:
- ParallelDialer (internal/net): track dial addresses that fail with
ENETUNREACH/EHOSTUNREACH and skip them for an exponentially growing,
bounded window (5s -> 60s). A successful dial clears the entry
immediately, so recovery is preserved when the route returns. When every
candidate is suppressed the dial fails fast and quietly instead of
hammering known-unroutable addresses.
- Upstream recovery loop (cmd/cli): demote unreachable check failures to
debug and back off the retry cadence (2s -> 60s) for an unreachable
streak; any other failure resets to the base cadence.
The new IsUnreachable classifier lives in internal/net and is reused by
cmd/cli's errNetworkError, so the unreachable-errno matching has a single
definition. Note the explicit winsock constants (10051/10065) are required
on Windows: syscall.ENETUNREACH/EHOSTUNREACH are Go's portable "invented"
values and never equal the raw WSA codes a failing connect surfaces.
Suppression and backoff are always bounded, so IPv6 is never disabled until
restart and recovers on its own once the route is back. Split-stack
selection and the #549 macOS intercept recovery work are untouched.
Adds unit tests for the classifier, the dialer's suppression tracker, and
the recovery backoff schedule.
The test:windows CI job intermittently failed to clean up .testbin with
"Access to the path '...cmd_cli.test.exe' is denied". This was previously
attributed to Windows Defender scanning the large unsigned test binaries,
and mitigated with Defender exclusions and cleanup retries. That was
treating a symptom.
Root cause: performUpgrade() self-upgrades by running
exec.Command(os.Executable(), "upgrade", "prod", "-vv") as a detached,
windowless child. In the real ctrld binary this re-execs ctrld and is
correct. Under `go test`, os.Executable() is the test binary itself, and
`go test` stops flag parsing at the first positional arg ("upgrade") and
ignores the rest -- so the child silently re-runs the entire test suite.
That child hits the upgrade tests again and spawns more detached children,
recursively: a fork bomb of hidden processes that pins the runner's
CPU/memory and keeps the test binary's image file locked. Windows refuses
to delete the image of a running process, hence the "Access is denied"
during after_script. Whether any children are still alive when cleanup
runs is a timing race, which is why the failure was flaky.
Two tests reached this path: Test_performUpgrade (directly) and
Test_selfUpgradeCheck (via selfUpgradeCheck -> performUpgrade on the
"upgrade allowed" case).
Fix:
- prog.go: extract the command construction into a package-level
newUpgradeCmd var. Production behavior is unchanged.
- main_test.go: stub newUpgradeCmd once in TestMain so the whole test
binary self-execs with `-test.run=^$` (matches no tests, exits
immediately) instead of re-running the suite. This covers every test
that reaches performUpgrade, present and future, while still exercising
the cmd.Start() success path.
DoH, DoH3, and DoQ response paths previously used io.ReadAll on
attacker-controlled upstream responses before enforcing any protocol-level
size limit. A malicious or compromised upstream could return an oversized
body or stream and force ctrld to buffer unbounded data before eventually
failing DNS parsing.
Cap DoH/DoH3 response bodies at dns.MaxMsgSize and cap DoQ streams at the
2-byte length prefix plus dns.MaxMsgSize. Also limit non-200 DoH error
bodies so error formatting cannot consume large upstream responses.
DoQ pools now keep a single quic.Transport and UDP socket for all dials,
so parallel dial and reconnect churn no longer allocate a new socket per
attempt or leak the winner's UDP conn when the caller owns the packet
conn.
quicParallelDialer accepts an optional transport: when set, dials use
Transport.DialEarly on that socket; when nil, behavior matches the old
per-dial ListenUDP path (losers close their sockets).
Per RFC 9250 §4.2, close the query stream's send side before reading the
response so strict upstreams see STREAM FIN before answering.
CloseIdleConnections closes the shared transport and underlying UDP
conn so checked-out connections and the OS socket are torn down.
Add a FIN-strict test server, coverage for bootstrap vs parallel-dial
paths, and a Linux-only FD churn regression test.
DoQ responses are length-prefixed per RFC 9250. The resolver previously
assumed the stream always contained at least two bytes and unpacked from
buf[2:], which could panic on truncated or malicious replies.
Validate the prefix against the bytes read, return a clear error, and
retire the connection from the pool on framing failure. Unpack only the
slice declared by the prefix so a short read cannot be misinterpreted as
a full message.
Add regression coverage with a small test server that returns malformed
raw payloads (empty, one byte, prefix-only, prefix larger than payload).
Currently there is no limit on PIN attempts, allowing unlimited
brute force if an attacker gains socket access. While the socket is
root-only by default, rate limiting is cheap defense-in-depth.
Current code writes to a predictable path, which on systems without
`fs.protected_symlinks` (e.g. embedded routers) could allow a local
attacker with API compromise to perform symlink attacks.
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.
Three changes to reduce worst-case recovery from ~30s to <3s:
1. debounceRecovery() for network changes (500ms window) — coalesces
rapid consecutive network changes into a single recovery pass,
eliminating the cancel-and-restart race.
2. ForceReBootstrap() on recovery entry — closes dead connections and
creates fresh transports synchronously before probing, replacing
the lazy ReBootstrap() flag that left stale connections.
3. Combined effect: recovery probes never inherit dead connections
from a canceled prior recovery attempt.
When third-party VPN software (e.g., OpenVPN) installs WFP block filters via
block-outside-dns, all DNS traffic to non-tunnel interfaces is blocked —
including DNS to 127.0.0.1 (ctrld's NRPT target). This breaks DNS mode
interception because the NRPT catch-all rule routes queries to loopback,
but WFP blocks the connection before it reaches ctrld's listener.
Fix: after exhausting all NRPT recovery attempts, activate a minimal WFP
session with "hard permit" filters (FWPM_FILTER_FLAG_CLEAR_ACTION_RIGHT)
for DNS to localhost in a max-priority sublayer (weight 0xFFFF). This
overrides the VPN's block for loopback DNS only, while preserving the
VPN's DNS leak protection for all other (non-loopback) DNS traffic.
The loopback protect is:
- Only activated when NRPT probes fail (not preemptively)
- Harmless when no conflicting WFP blocks exist (permit-only, no blocks)
- Persistent until ctrld shutdown (survives VPN reconnect cycles)
- Cleaned up by the existing cleanupWFPFilters path on shutdown
Add file-backed persistence to the internal logWriter so runtime logs
survive service restarts. When internal logging is enabled (CD mode,
no explicit log_path), writes are teed to both the existing in-memory
ring buffer and a rotated file on disk (ctrld.log in the home directory).
File rotation: 5MB max with 1 backup (ctrld.log.1), so max ~10MB on disk.
Log view/send now reads from the persisted files (including backup) to
provide complete history across restarts. Live tail continues to use
the in-memory subscriber mechanism unchanged.
Activation: same conditions as existing internal logging — CD mode only,
no log_path configured. No new config options or dependencies.
SetSelfIP unconditionally accessed t.dhcp, but t.dhcp is only
initialized when DHCP discovery is enabled. A network change event
can fire SetSelfIP regardless of the discovery configuration,
causing a nil pointer dereference.
Guard the t.dhcp access with a nil check so the self IP is still
updated on the Table even when DHCP discovery is disabled.
Replace conn.OpenStream (non-blocking) with conn.OpenStreamSync so that
the resolver waits for the server's MAX_STREAMS credit replenishment frame
instead of immediately failing when the stream limit is temporarily
exhausted. Also retry on StreamLimitReachedError as defense-in-depth for
servers that are slow or fail to send MAX_STREAMS updates.
Pass a quic.Config with KeepAlivePeriod (15s) to DoQ dial calls instead
of nil, so pooled connections send periodic QUIC PINGs to stay alive and
detect dead paths proactively.
Also add IdleTimeoutError to the DoQ retry conditions alongside io.EOF,
so stale pooled connections trigger a transparent retry instead of
propagating as a query failure.
IPv6 DNS interception on macOS is not feasible with current pf capabilities.
The kernel rejects sendmsg from [::1] to global unicast (EINVAL), nat on lo0
doesn't fire for route-to'd packets, raw sockets bypass routing but pf doesn't
match them against rdr state, and DIOCNATLOOK can't be used because bind()
fails for non-local addresses.
Replace all IPv6 interception code with a simple pf block rule:
block out quick on ! lo0 inet6 proto { udp, tcp } from any to any port 53
macOS automatically retries DNS over IPv4 when IPv6 is blocked.
Changes:
- Remove rawipv6_darwin.go and rawipv6_other.go
- Remove [::1] listener spawn on macOS (needLocalIPv6Listener returns false)
- Remove IPv6 rdr, route-to, pass, and reply-to pf rules
- Add block rule for all outbound IPv6 DNS
- Update docs/pf-dns-intercept.md with what was tried and why it failed
The handler variable is dns.HandlerFunc but wrapIPv6Handler returns
dns.Handler (interface). Go's type inference picked dns.HandlerFunc
for ipv6Handler, causing a compile error on assignment. Explicit
type declaration fixes the mismatch.
macOS rejects sendmsg from [::1] to global unicast IPv6 (EINVAL), and
nat on lo0 doesn't fire for route-to'd packets (pf skips translation
on the second interface pass). ULA addresses on lo0 also fail (EHOSTUNREACH
- kernel segregates lo0 routing).
Solution: wrap the [::1] UDP listener's ResponseWriter with rawIPv6Writer
that sends responses via SOCK_RAW (IPPROTO_UDP) on lo0, bypassing the
kernel's routing validation. pf's rdr state reverses the address
translation on the response path.
Changes:
- Add rawipv6_darwin.go: rawIPv6Writer wraps dns.ResponseWriter, sends
UDP responses via raw IPv6 socket with proper checksum calculation
- Add rawipv6_other.go: no-op wrapIPv6Handler for non-darwin platforms
- Remove nat rules from pf anchor (no longer needed)
- Block IPv6 TCP DNS (block return) - falls back to IPv4 (~1s, rare)
- Remove IPv6 TCP rdr/route-to/pass rules (only UDP intercepted)
upstreamConfigFor() used strings.Contains(":") to detect whether to
append ":53", but IPv6 addresses contain colons, so IPv6 servers were
passed as bare addresses (e.g. "2a0d:6fc0:9b0:3600::1") to net.Dial
which rejects them with "too many colons in address".
Use net.JoinHostPort() which handles both IPv4 and IPv6 correctly,
producing "[2a0d:6fc0:9b0:3600::1]:53" for IPv6.
This commit adds a new `ctrld log tail` subcommand that streams
runtime debug logs to the terminal in real-time, similar to `tail -f`.
Changes:
- log_writer.go: Add Subscribe/tailLastLines for fan-out to tail clients
- control_server.go: Add /log/tail endpoint with streaming response
- Internal logging: subscribes to logWriter for live data
- File-based logging: polls log file for new data (200ms interval)
- Sends last N lines as initial context on connect
- commands.go: Add `log tail` cobra subcommand with --lines/-n flag
- control_client.go: Add postStream() with no timeout for long-lived connections
Usage:
sudo ctrld log tail # shows last 10 lines then follows
sudo ctrld log tail -n 50 # shows last 50 lines then follows
Ctrl+C to stop
Add defer windows.CloseHandle(h) after CreateToolhelp32Snapshot to ensure
the process snapshot handle is properly released on all code paths (match
found, enumeration exhausted, or error).
The continue statement only broke out of the inner loop, so
loopback/local IPs (e.g. 127.0.0.1) were never filtered.
This caused ctrld to use itself as bootstrap DNS when already
installed as the system resolver — a self-referential loop.
Use the same isLocal flag pattern as getDNSFromScutil() and
getAllDHCPNameservers().
Implement VPN DNS discovery and split routing for intercept mode:
- Discover VPN DNS servers from F5 BIG-IP, Tailscale, Network
Extension VPNs, and traditional VPN adapters
- Exit mode detection (split vs full tunnel) via routing table
- Interface-scoped pf exemptions for VPN DNS traffic (macOS)
- Windows VPN adapter filtering with routable address check
- AD domain controller detection with retry on transient failure
- Cleanup of stale exemptions on VPN disconnect
Squashed from intercept mode development on v1.0 branch (#497).
Implement DNS interception on Windows with dual-mode support:
- NRPT for --intercept-mode=dns: catch-all rule redirecting all DNS
to ctrld's listener, with GP vs local path detection
- WFP for --intercept-mode=hard: sublayer with callout filters
intercepting port 53 traffic
- NRPT probe-and-heal for async Group Policy refresh race
- Service registry verification for intercept mode persistence
- NRPT diagnostics script for troubleshooting
Includes WFP technical reference docs and Windows test scripts.
Squashed from intercept mode development on v1.0 branch (#497).
Implement DNS interception on macOS using pf (packet filter):
- Anchor injection into running ruleset (not /etc/pf.conf)
- route-to lo0 + rdr rules for locally-originated DNS capture
- _ctrld group exemption so ctrld's own queries bypass interception
- Watchdog to detect and restore wiped anchor rules
- Probe-based auto-heal for Parallels VM pf corruption
- IPv6 DNS blocking and block-return for clean timeouts
- Interface-specific tunnel detection for VPN coexistence
- Port 5354 fallback in intercept mode
Includes pf technical reference docs and test scripts.
Squashed from intercept mode development on v1.0 branch (#497).
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).
Send all available hostname sources (ComputerName, LocalHostName,
HostName, os.Hostname) in the metadata map when provisioning.
This allows the API to detect and repair generic hostnames like
'Mac' by picking the best available source server-side.
Belt and suspenders: preferredHostname() picks the right one
client-side, but metadata gives the API a second chance.
macOS Sequoia with Private Wi-Fi Address enabled causes os.Hostname()
to return generic names like "Mac.lan" from DHCP instead of the real
computer name. The /utility provisioning endpoint sends this raw,
resulting in devices named "Mac-lan" in the dashboard.
Fallback chain: ComputerName → LocalHostName → os.Hostname()
LocalHostName can also be affected by DHCP. ComputerName is the
user-set display name from System Settings, fully immune to network state.
When mDNSResponder is using port 53 on macOS, adjust listener config to
use 0.0.0.0:53, stop mDNSResponder before binding, and run cleanup on
install and uninstall so the DNS server can start reliably.
On Darwin 26.2+, sudo no longer preserves SUDO_USER, LOGNAME, and USER
(CVE-2025-43416), so env-based detection fails. Use the logname(1)
command on Unix first, then fall back to environment variables and
user.Current() so the real login user is still reported correctly.
Replace the map-based pool and refCount bookkeeping with a channel-based
pool. Drop the closed state, per-connection address tracking, and extra
mutexes so the pool relies on the channel for concurrency and lifecycle,
matching the approach used in the DoT pool.
Replace the map-based pool and refCount bookkeeping with a channel-based
pool. Drop the closed state, per-connection address tracking, and
extra mutexes so the pool relies on the channel for concurrency and
lifecycle.
Add connection health check in getConn to validate TLS connections
before reusing them from the pool. This prevents io.EOF errors when
reusing connections that were closed by the server (e.g., due to idle
timeout).
Add guard checks to prevent panics when processing client info with
empty IP addresses. Replace netip.MustParseAddr with ParseAddr to
handle invalid IP addresses gracefully instead of panicking.
Add test to verify queryFromSelf handles IP addresses safely.
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.
Remove separate watchLinkState function and integrate link state change
handling directly into monitorNetworkChanges. This consolidates network
monitoring logic into a single place and simplifies the codebase.
Update netlink dependency from v1.2.1-beta.2 to v1.3.1 and netns from
v0.0.4 to v0.0.5 to use stable versions.
Add DNS suffix matching for non-physical adapters when domain-joined.
This allows interfaces with matching DNS suffix to be considered valid
even if not in validInterfacesMap, improving DNS server discovery for
remote VPN scenarios.
While at it, also replacing context.Background() with proper ctx
parameter throughout the function for consistent context propagation.
Disable warnings from ghw library when retrieving chassis information.
These warnings are undesirable but recoverable errors that emit unnecessary
log messages. Using WithDisableWarnings() suppresses them while maintaining
functionality.
Remove the transport Close() call from DoH3 error handling path.
The transport is shared and reused across requests, and closing it
on error would break subsequent requests. The transport lifecycle
is already properly managed by the http.Client and the finalizer
set in newDOH3Transport().
During reload operations, log and cache flags were not being processed,
which prevented runtime internal logs from working correctly. To fix this,
processLogAndCacheFlags was refactored to accept explicit viper and config
parameters instead of relying on global state, enabling it to be called
during reload with the new configuration. This ensures that log and cache
settings are properly applied when the service reloads its configuration.
Remove empty and root domain (".") entries from search domains list
to prevent systemd-resolved errors. This addresses the issue where
systemd doesn't allow root domain in search domains configuration.
The filtering ensures only valid search domains are passed to
systemd-resolved, preventing DNS operation failures.
Make RFC1918 listener spawning opt-in via --rfc1918 flag instead of automatic behavior.
This allows users to explicitly control when ctrld listens on private network addresses
to receive DNS queries from LAN clients, improving security and configurability.
Refactor network interface detection to better distinguish between physical and virtual
interfaces, ensuring only real hardware interfaces are used for RFC1918 address binding.
- 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
Move the network monitoring goroutine initialization outside the listener
loop to prevent it from being started multiple times. Previously, the
network monitoring was started once per listener during first run, which
was unnecessary and could lead to multiple monitoring instances.
The change ensures network monitoring is started only once per program
execution cycle, improving efficiency and preventing potential resource
waste from duplicate monitoring goroutines.
- Extract network monitoring goroutine from listener loop
- Start network monitoring once per run cycle instead of per listener
- Maintain same functionality while improving resource usage
The function was incorrectly identifying domain-joined status due to wrong
constant values, potentially causing false negatives for domain-joined machines.
- Move network monitoring initialization out of serveDNS() function
- Start network monitoring in a separate goroutine during program startup
- Remove context parameter from monitorNetworkChanges() as it's not used
- Simplify serveDNS() function signature by removing unused context parameter
- Ensure network monitoring starts only once during initial run, not on reload
This change improves separation of concerns by isolating network monitoring
from DNS serving logic, and prevents potential issues with multiple
monitoring goroutines if starting multiple listeners.
- Add filterEmptyStrings utility function for consistent string filtering
- Replace inline slices.DeleteFunc calls with filterEmptyStrings
- Apply filtering to osArgs in addition to command args
- Improves code readability and reduces duplication
- Uses slices.DeleteFunc internally for efficient filtering
- Move version checking logic to shouldUpgrade for testability
- Move upgrade command execution to performUpgrade
- selfUpgradeCheck now composes these two for clarity
- Update and expand tests: focus on logic, not side effects
- Improves maintainability, testability, and separation of concerns
This change improves compatibility with newer UniFi OS versions while
maintaining backward compatibility with UniFi OS 4.2 and earlier.
The refactoring also reduces code duplication and improves maintainability
by centralizing dnsmasq configuration path logic.
In v1.4.3, ControlD bootstrap DNS is used again for bootstrapping
process. When this happened, the default system nameservers will be
retrieved first, then ControlD DNS will be used if none available.
However, getting default system nameservers process may take longer than
reloading command timeout, causing invalid error message printed.
To fix this, ensuring default system nameservers is retrieved once.
Added more descriptive error messages for TLS certificate verification
failures across DoH, DoT, DoQ, and DoH3 protocols. The error messages
now include:
- Certificate subject information
- Issuer organization details
- Common name of the certificate
This helps users and developers better understand certificate validation
failures by providing specific details about the untrusted certificate,
rather than just a generic "unknown authority" message.
Example error message change:
Before: "certificate signed by unknown authority"
After: "certificate signed by unknown authority: TestCA, TestOrg, TestIssuerOrg"
Fixes search domains not being preserved when the resolv.conf file is
reverted to its previous state. This ensures that important domain
search configuration is maintained during DNS configuration changes.
The search domains handling was missing in setResolvConf function,
which is responsible for restoring DNS settings.
Changed the IPv6 support detection to try multiple common ports (HTTP/HTTPS) instead of
just testing against a DNS port. The function now returns both the IPv6 support status
and the successful port that confirmed the connectivity. This makes the IPv6 detection
more reliable by not depending solely on DNS port availability.
Previously, the function only tested connectivity to a DNS port (53) over IPv6.
Now it tries to connect to commonly available ports like HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443)
until it finds a working one, making the detection more robust in environments where
certain ports might be blocked.
For cached or singleflight messages, the edns0 cookie is currently
shared among all of them, causing mismatch cookie warning from clients.
The ctrld proxy should re-set client cookies for each request
separately, even though they use the same shared answer.
To guard ctrld from possible DoS to remote upstreams, this commit
implements following things:
- Optimizing multiple queries with the same domain and qtype to use
singleflight group, so there's only 1 query to remote upstreams at
any time.
- Adding a hot cache with 1 second TTL, so repeated queries will re-use
the result from cache if existed, preventing unnecessary requests to
remote upstreams.
There's a bug in wmi library which causes race condition when getting
wmi instance manager concurrently. The new tests for setup bootstrap ip
concurrently thus failed unexpectedly.
There's going to be a fix sent to the upstream, in the meantime, disable
the parallel test temporary.
See: https://github.com/microsoft/wmi/issues/165
As part of v1.4.0 release, reading DNS from /etc/resolv.conf file is
only available for Macos. However, there's no reason to prevent this
function from working on other *nix systems.
This commit unify the function to *nix, so it could be added as DNS
source for Linux and Freebsd.
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.
If the socket file does not exist, it means that "ctrld start" was never
run. In this case, the warning message should not be printed to avoid
needless confusion.
Generally, using /jffs/scripts/dnsmasq.postconf is the right way to add
custom configuration to dnsmasq on Merlin. However, we have seen many
reports that the postconf does not work on their devices.
This commit changes how dnsmasq config manipulation is done on Merlin,
so it's expected to work on all Merlin devices:
- Writing /jffs/scripts/dnsmasq.postconf script
- Copy current dnsmasq.conf to /jffs/configs/dnsmasq.conf
- Run postconf script directly on /jffs/configs/dnsmasq.conf
- Restart dnsmasq
This way, the /jffs/configs/dnsmasq.conf will contain both current
dnsmasq config, and also custom config added by ctrld, without worrying
about conflicting, because configuration was added by postconf.
See (1) for more details about custom config files on Merlin.
(1) https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng/wiki/Custom-config-files
So using "ctrld stop" or service manager to stop ctrld will end up with
the same result, stopped ctrld with a working DNS, and deactivation pin
code will always have effects if set.
Since requests are mostly originated from the machine itself, so all
necessary metadata is local to it.
Currently, the desktop platforms are Windows desktop and darwin.
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.
Currently, custom config is only validated against invalid syntax, not
the validating rules for each configuration value. It causes ctrld
process fatal instead of disregarding as expected.
To fix this, force the validating rule after fetching remote config.
While at it, also add the default network value if non-existed.
When ctrld performs upgrading tasks, the current binary would be moved
to different file, thus the executable will return this new file name,
instead of the old "/path/to/ctrld".
The config path on FreshTomato is located in the same directory with
ctrld binary, with ".startup" suffix. So when the binary was moved
during upgrading, the config path is located wrongly.
To fix it, read the binary path from service config first, then only
fallback to the current executable if the path is empty (this is the
same way ctrld is doing for other router platforms).
So the "ctrld start" should know earlier that "ctrld run" failed to
listen on certain port, and terminate earlier instead of waiting for
timeout happened.
Since application may need SRV record for public domains, which could be
blocked by OS resolver, but not with remote upstreams.
This was reported by a Minecraft user, who seeing thing is broken after
upgrading to v1.4.0 release.
The log ip connection may be nil, since it was not created if blocked by
firewall/VPN apps.
While at it, also add warning when the ipc connection could not be created.
Currently, ctrld requires the default route interface existed to be
functional correctly.
However, on systems where default route is non existed, or point to a
virtual interface (like ipsec based VPN), the fact that the OS is using
this interface as default gateway and doesn't actually send things to
127.0.0.1 is not ctrld's problem.
In this case, ctrld should just start normally, without worrying about
the no default route interface problem.
postRun should not restore static settings
put back validInterface check
better debug logs for os resolver init, use mutex to prevent duplicate initializations
use WMI instead of registry keys for static DNS data on Windows
use WMI instead of registry keys for static DNS data on Windows
use winipcfg DNS method
use WMI with registry fallback
go back to registry method
restore saved static configs on stop and uninstall
restore ipv6 DHCP if no saved static ipv6 addresses
do not save loopback IPs for static configs
handle watchdog interface changed for new interfaces
dont overwrite static file on start when staticdns is set to loopback
dont overwrite static file on start when staticdns is set to loopback
dont overwrite static file on start when staticdns is set to loopback
no need to resetDNS on start, uninstall already takes care of this
The runtime internal log should be initialized right after normal log
from configuration, prevent missing log from any actions that could be
happened between two initializations.
fix bad logger usages
patch darwin interface name
patch darwin interface name, debugging
make resetDNS check for static config on startup, optionally restoring static confiration as needed
fix netmon logging
For partial init log data (does not end with a newline), the log writer
discard data after the last newline to make the log prettier, then write
the init end marker. This causes the marker could be written more than
once, since the second overflows will preserve the data which does
include the marker from the first write.
To fix this, ensure that the init end marker is only written once, and
the second overflows will preserve data until the marker instead of the
fixed initial size like the first one.
linux/amd64 have the nocgo binary to support system where standard libc
missing.
If the current binary is a nocgo version, "ctrld upgrade" command must
honor the nocgo setting and download the right binary.
openwrt 24.10 changes the dnsmasq default config path, causing breaking
changes to softwares which depends on old behavior.
This commit adds a workaround for the issue, by querying the actual
config directory from ubus service list, instead of relying on the
default hardcode one.
Currently, the router discovers initialization are done during startup.
If it were failed, the discovers are skipped. This is too strict, since
the initialization could be failed due to some requires services are not
ready when ctrld started, or router specific requirements for services
management during startup (like UnifiOS v4.0.20).
To fix this, ctrld should relax the initialization checking, allow it to
be failed, and still use the discovers later.
os resolver debugging improvement
use first public non success answer when no LAN nameservers exist
use first public non success answer when no LAN nameservers exist
fix the os resolver test
Because ctrld needs to query custom client mapping from it.
While at it, also make the error message clearer when initializing ubios
discover failed, by attaching the command output to returned error.
In case of remote config validation error during start, it's likely that
there's problem with connecting to ControlD API. The ctrld daemon was
restarted in this case, but may not ready to receive requests yet.
This commit changes the error message to explicitly state that instead
of a mis-leading "could not complete service restart".
Previously, a valid interfaces map is only meaningful on Windows and
Darwin, where ctrld needs to set DNS for all physical interfaces.
With new network monitor, the valid interfaces is used for checking new
changes, thus we have to implement the valid interfaces map for all
systems.
- On Linux, just retrieving all non-virtual interfaces.
- On others, fallback to use default route interface only.
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
The ProxyLogger must only be set after mainLog is fully initialized.
However, it's being set before the final initialization of mainlog,
causing it still refers to stale old pointer.
To fix this, introduce a new function to discard ProxyLogger explicitly,
and use this function to init logging for all interactive commands.
By using existed package instead of hand written one.
While at it, also simplifying the logger getter, since the ProxyLogger
is guaranted to be non-nil.
copy
fix get valid ifaces in nameservers_bsd
nameservers on MacOS can be found in resolv.conf reliably
nameservers on MacOS can be found in resolv.conf reliably
exclude local IPs from MacOS resolve conf check
use scutil for MacOS, simplify reinit logic to prevent duplicate calls
add more dns server fetching options
never skip OS resolver in IsDown check
split dsb and darwin nameserver methods, add delay for setting DNS on interface on network change.
increase delay to 5s but only on MacOS
By recording both the error and output of external commands.
While at it:
- Removing un-necessary usages of sudo, since ctrld already
running with root privilege.
- Removing un-used function triggerCaptiveCheck.
So these events will be recorded separately from normal runtime log,
making troubleshooting later more easily.
While at it, only update ctrld.ProxyLogger for runCmd, it's the only one
which needs to log the query when proxying requests.
flush dns cache, manually hit captive portal on MacOS
fix real ip in debug log
treat all upstreams as down upon network change
delay upstream checks when leaking queries on network changes
set service on new run, fix duplicate args
set service on new run, fix duplicate args
revert startCmd in upgrade flow due to pin compat issues
make restart reset DNS like upgrade, add debugging to uninstall method
debugging
debugging
debugging
debugging
debugging WMI
remove stackexchange lib, use ms wmi pkg
debugging
debugging
set correct class
fix os reolver init issues
fix netadapter class
use os resolver instead of fetching default nameservers while already running
remove debug lines
fix lookup IP
fix lookup IP
fix lookup IP
fix lookup IP
fix dns namserver retries when not needed
debugging
skip type 24 in nameserver detection
skip type 24 in nameserver detection
remove interface type check from valid interfaces for now
skip non hardware interfaces in DNS nameserver lookup
ignore win api log output
set retries to 5 and 1s backoff
reset DNS when upgrading to make sure we get the proper OS nameservers on start
init running iface for upgrade
update windows service options for auto restarts on failure
make upgrade use the actual stop and start commands
fix the windows service retry logic
fix the windows service retry logic
task debugging
more task debugging
windows service name fix
windows service name fix
fix start command args
fix restart delay
dont recover from non crash failures
fix upgrade flow
fix logging
fix logging
try to enable nameserver logs
try to enable nameserver logs
handle flags in interface state changes
debugging
debugging
debugging
fix state detection, AD status fix
fix debugging line
more dc info
always log state changes
remove unused method
windows AD IP discovery
windows AD IP discovery
windows AD IP discovery
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.
By getting the name property directly from adapter instance, instead of
using net.InterfaceByIndex function, which could return an error when
the adapter is disabled.
fix test
use upstreamIS var
init map, fix watcher flag
attempt to detect network changes
attempt to detect network changes
cancel and rerun reinitializeOSResolver
cancel and rerun reinitializeOSResolver
cancel and rerun reinitializeOSResolver
ignore invalid inferaces
ignore invalid inferaces
allow OS resolver upstream to fail
dont wait for dnsWait group on reinit, check for active interfaces to trigger reinit
fix unused var
simpler active iface check, debug logs
dont spam network service name patching on Mac
dont wait for os resolver nameserver testing
remove test for osresovlers for now
async nameserver testing
remove unused test
Since these are the interfaces that ctrld will manipulate anyway.
While at it, also skipping non-working devices on MacOS, by checking
if the device is present in network service order
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
Since ctrld process does not rely on the global variable iface anymore
during runtime, ctrld client's operations must be updated to reflect
this change, too.
The current flow involves marking OS resolver as down, which is not
right at all, since ctrld depends on it for leaking queries.
This commits implements new flow, which ctrld will restore DNS settings
once leaking marked, allowing queries go to OS resolver until the
internet connection is established.
Without verbose log, we use internal log writer with log level set to
debug. However, this will affect other writers, like console log, since
they are default to notice level.
By adopting FilteredLevelWriter, we can make internal log writer run in
debug level, but all others will run in default level instead.
Since SRV record is mostly useful in AD environment. Even in non-AD one,
the OS resolver could still resolve the query for external services.
Users who want special treatment can still specify domain rules to
forward requests to ControlD upstreams explicitly.
The sub-domains are matched using wildcard domain rule, but this rule
won't match top level domain, causing requests are forwarded to ControlD
upstreams.
To fix this, add the split route for top level domain explicitly.
With new leaking queries features, the initialization of OS resolver can
now lead to data race if queries are resolving while re-initialization
happens.
To fix it, using an atomic pointer to store list of nameservers which
were initialized, making read/write to the list concurrently safe.
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.
So it can be run regardless of ctrld current status. This prevents a
racy behavior when reset DNS task restores DNS settings of the system,
but current running ctrld process may revert it immediately.
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.
ControlD have global list of known captive portals that user can augment
with proper setup. However, this requires manual actions, and involving
restart ctrld for taking effects.
By allowing ctrld "leaks" DNS queries to OS resolver, this process
becomes automatically, the captive portal could intercept these queries,
and as long as it was passed, ctrld will resume normal operation.
Using netsh command will emit unexpected SOA queries, do not use it.
While at it, also ensure that local ipv6 will be added to nameservers
list on systems that require ipv6 local listener.
There are several issues with OS resolver right now:
- The list of nameservers are obtained un-conditionally from all
running interfaces.
- ControlD public DNS query is always be used if response ok.
This could lead to slow query time, and also incorrect result if a
domain is resolved differently between internal DNS and ControlD public
DNS.
To fix these problems:
- While initializing OS resolver, sending a test query to the
nameserver to ensure it will response. Unreachable nameserver will
not be used.
- Only use ControlD public DNS success response as last one, preferring
ok response from internal DNS servers.
While at it, also using standard package slices, since ctrld now
requires go1.21 as the minimum version.
So changes to DNS after ctrld stopped won't be reverted by the goroutine
itself. The problem happens rarely on darwin, because networksetup
command won't propagate config to /etc/resolv.conf if there is no
changes between multiple running.
The dns watchdog is spawned *after* DNS was set by ctrld, thus it should
use the currentStaticDNS for getting the static DNS, instead of relying
on currentDNS, which could be system wide instead of per interfaces.
On Darwin, modifying /etc/resolv.conf directly does not change interface
network settings. Thus the networksetup command uses to set DNS does not
do anything.
To fix this, after setting DNS using networksetup, re-check the content
of /etc/resolv.conf file to see if the nameservers are what we expected.
Otherwise, re-generate the file with proper nameservers.
Without reading the documentation, users may think that "ctrld start"
will just start ctrld service. However, this is not the case, and may
lead to unexpected result from user's point of view.
This commit changes "ctrld start" to just start already installed ctrld
service, so users won't lost what they did installed before. If there
are any arguments specified, performing the current behavior.
At the time self-check process running, we have already known the exact
config file being used by ctrld service. Thus, we should just re-read
this config file directly instead of guessing the config file.
Currently, ctrld watches changes to /etc/resolv.conf file, then
reverting to the expected settings. However, if /etc/resolv.conf is a
symlink, changes made to the target file maynot be seen if it's not
under /etc directory.
To fix this, just evaluate the /etc/resolv.conf file before watching it.
Once per minute, ctrld will check if DNS settings was changed or not. If
yes, re-applying the proper settings for system interfaces.
For now, this is only applied when deactivation_pin was set.
Since the OS resolver only returns response with NOERROR first, it's
safe to use ControlD public DNS in parallel with system DNS. Local
domains would resolve only though local resolvers, because public ones
will return NXDOMAIN response.
Once resource record (RR) was used to extract necessary information, it
should be freed in memory. However, the current way that ctrld declare
the RRs causing the slices to be heap allocated, and stay in memory
longer than necessary. On system with low capacity, or firmware that GC
does not run agressively, it may causes the system memory exhausted.
To fix it, prevent RRs to be heap allocated, so they could be freed
immediately after each iterations.
If we see permission denied error when probing dns, that mean the
current ctrld process won't be able to do that anyway. So the probing
loop must be terminated to prevent waste of resources, or false positive
from system firewall because of too many failed attempts.
By making dnsFromAdapter ignores DNS server which is the same IP address
of the adapter.
While at it, also changes OS resolver to use ctrld bootstrap DNS only if
there's no available nameservers.
By attempting to reset DNS before starting new ctrld process. This way,
ctrld will read the correct system DNS settings before changing itself.
While at it, some optimizations are made:
- "ctrld start" won't set DNS anymore, since "ctrld run" has already did
this, start command could just query socket control server and emittin
proper message to users.
- The gateway won't be included as nameservers on Windows anymore,
since the GetAdaptersAddresses Windows API always returns the correct
DNS servers of the interfaces.
- The nameservers list that OS resolver is using will be shown during
ctrld startup, making it easier for debugging.
For safety reason, ctrld will create a backup of the current binary when
running upgrade command.
However, on systems where ctrld status is got by parsing ps command
output, the current binary path is important and must be the same with
the original binary. Depends on kernel version, using os.Executable may
return new backup binary path, aka "ctrld_previous", not the original
"ctrld" binary. This causes upgrade command see ctrld as not running
after restart -> upgrade failed.
Fixing this by recording the binary path before creating new service, so
the ctrld service status can be checked correctly.
It seems to be a Windows bug when removing a forwarder and adding a new
one immediately then causing both of them to be added to forwarders
list. This could be verified easily using powershell commands.
Since the forwarder will be removed when ctrld stop/uninstall, ctrld run
could avoid that action, not only help mitigate above bug, but also not
waste host resources.
On low resources Windows Server VM, profiling shows the bottle neck when
interacting with Windows DNS server to add/remove forwarders using by
calling external powershell commands. This happens because ctrld try
setting DNS before it runs.
However, it would be better if ctrld only sets DNS after all its
listeners ready. So it won't block ctrld from receiving requests.
With this change, self-check process on dual Core Windows server VM now
runs constantly fast, ~2-4 seconds when running multiple times in a row.
The "ctrld start" command is running slow, and using much CPU than
necessary. The problem was made because of several things:
1. ctrld process is waiting for 5 seconds before marking listeners up.
That ends up adding those seconds to the self-check process, even
though the listeners may have been already available.
2. While creating socket control client, "s.Status()" is called to
obtain ctrld service status, so we could terminate early if the
service failed to run. However, that would make a lot of syscall in a
hot loop, eating the CPU constantly while the command is running. On
Windows, that call would become slower after each calls. The same
effect could be seen using Windows services manager GUI, by pressing
start/stop/restart button fast enough, we could see a timeout raised.
3. The socket control server is started lately, after all the listeners
up. That would make the loop for creating socket control client run
longer and use much resources than necessary.
Fixes for these problems are quite obvious:
1. Removing hard code 5 seconds waiting. NotifyStartedFunc is enough to
ensure that listeners are ready for accepting requests.
2. Check "s.Status()" only once before the loop. There has been already
30 seconds timeout, so if anything went wrong, the self-check process
could be terminated, and won't hang forever.
3. Starting socket control server earlier, so newSocketControlClient can
connect to server with fewest attempts, then querying "/started"
endpoint to ensure the listeners have been ready.
With these fixes, "ctrld start" now run much faster on modern machines,
taking ~1-2 seconds (previously ~5-8 seconds) to finish. On dual cores
VM, it takes ~5-8 seconds (previously a few dozen seconds or timeout).
---
While at it, there are two refactoring for making the code easier to
read/maintain:
- PersistentPreRun is now used in root command to init console logging,
so we don't have to initialize them in sub-commands.
- NotifyStartedFunc now use channel for synchronization, instead of a
mutex, making the ugly asymetric calls to lock goes away, making the
code more idiom, and theoretically have better performance.
The systemd-networkd-wait-online is only required if systemd-networkd
is managing any interfaces. Otherwise, it will hang and block ctrld from
starting.
See: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/23304
So with clients which only use SLAAC, ctrld could see client's new ip as
soon as its state changes to REACHABLE.
Moreover, the NDP listener is also changed to listen on all possible
ipv6 link local interfaces. That would allow ctrld to get all NDP events
happening in local network.
SLAAC RFC: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4862
This commit implements upgrade command which will:
- Download latest version for current running arch.
- Replacing the binary on disk.
- Self-restart ctrld service.
If the service does not start with new binary, old binary will be
restored and self-restart again.
On BSD, the service is made un-killable since v1.3.4 by using daemon
command "-r" option. However, when reading remote config, the ctrld will
fatally exit if the config is malformed. This causes daemon respawn new
ctrld process immediately, causing the "ctrld start" command hang
forever because of restart loop.
Since "ctrld start" already fetch the resolver config for validating
uid, it should validate the remote config, too. This allows better error
message printed to users, let them know that the config is invalid.
Further, if the remote config was invalid, we should disregard it and
generating the default working one in cd mode.
- short control socket name.(in IOS max length is 11)
- wait for control server to reply before checking for deactivation pin.
- Added separate name for control socket for mobile.
- Added stop channel reference to Control client constructor.
On BSD platform, using "daemon -r" may fool the status check that ctrld
is still running while it was terminated unexpectedly. This may cause
the check in newSocketControlClient hangs forever.
Using a sane timeout value of 30 seconds, which should be enough for the
ctrld service started in normal condition.
If the server is running old version of ctrld, the deactivation pin
check will return 404 not found, the client should consider this as no
error instead of returning invalid pin code.
This allows v1.3.5 binary `ctrld start` command while the ctrld server
is still running old version. I discover this while testing v1.3.5
binary on a router with old ctrld version running.
The loop is run after the main interface DNS was set, thus the error
would make noise to users. This commit removes the noise, by making
currentStaticDNS returns an additional error, so it's up to the caller
to decive whether to emit the error or not.
Further, the physical interface loop will now only log when the callback
function runs successfully. Emitting the callback error can be done in
the future, until we can figure out how to detect physical interfaces in
Go portably.
The save/restore DNS functionality always perform its job, even though
the DNS is not static, aka set by DHCP. That may lead to confusion to
users. Since DHCP settings was changed to static settings, even though
the namesers set are the same.
To fix this, ctrld should save/restore only there's actual static DNS
set. For DHCP, thing should work as-is like we are doing.
Windows Server which is running Active Directory will have its own DNS
server running. For typical setup, this DNS server will listen on all
interfaces, and receiving queries from others to be able to resolve
computer name in domain.
That would make ctrld default setup never works, since ctrld can listen
on port 53, but requests are never be routed to its listeners.
To integrate ctrld in this case, we need to listen on a local IP
address, then configure this IP as a Forwarder of local DNS server. With
this setup, computer name on domain can still be resolved, and other
queries can still be resolved by ctrld upstream as usual.
After installing as a system service, "ctrld start" does an end-to-end
test for ensuring DNS can be resolved correctly. However, in case the
system is mis-configured (by firewall, other softwares ...) and the test
query could not be sent to ctrld listener, the current error message is
not helpful, causing the confusion from users perspective.
To improve this, selfCheckStatus function now returns the actual status
and error during its process. The caller can now rely on the service
status and the error to produce more useful/friendly message to users.
In some old Windows systems, s.Uninstall does not remove the service
completely at the time s.Install was running, prevent ctrld from being
installed again.
Workaround this by attempting to uninstall ctrld several times, re-check
for service status after each attempt to ensure it was uninstalled.
An interface may have multiple MAC addresses, that leads to the problem
when looking up hostname for its multiple <ip, mac> pairs, because the
"ip" map, which storing "mac => ip" mapping can only store 1 entry. It
ends up returns an empty hostname for a known MAC address.
Fixing this by filling empty hostname based on clients which is already
listed, ensuring all clients with the same MAC address will have the
same hostname information.
Since go1.21, Go standard library have added support for QUIC protocol.
The binary size gains between quic and quic-free version is now minimal.
Removing the quic free build, simplify the code and build process.
Since ctrld now supports MAC rules, the client's mac and ip must always
be sent to ctrld. Otherwise, the mac policy won't work when ctrld is an
upstream of dnsmasq.
When avahi-daemon is avaibale, reading data from its cache help ctrld
populate the mdns data with already known services within local network,
allowing discover client info more quickly.
On some routers, dnsmasq config may change cache-size dynamically after
ctrld starts, causing dnsmasq crashes.
Fixing this by using max-cache-ttl, which have the same effect with
setting cache-size=0 but won't conflict with existing routers config.
Windows may raise WSAEHOSTUNREACH instead WSAENETUNREACH in case of
network not available when resuming from sleep or switching network, so
checkUpstream is never kicked in for this type of error.
To prevent duplicated running of checkUpstream function at the same
time, upstream monitor uses a boolean to report whether the upstream is
checking. If this boolean is true, then other calls after the first one
will be returned immediately.
However, checkUpstream does not set this boolean to false when it
finishes, thus all future calls to checkUpstream won't be run, causing
the upstream is marked as down forever.
Fixing this by ensuring the boolean is reset once checkUpstream done.
While at it, also guarding all upstream monitor operations with a mutex,
ensuring there's no race condition between marking upstream state.
We see number of failed test in Github Action, mostly on MacOS or
Windows due to the fact that goroutines are scheduled to be run
consequently.
This commit improves the test, ensuring at least 2 goroutines were
started before increasing the counting.
On some routers, change to network may trigger re-rendering
/etc/resolv.conf file, causing requests from router itself stop using
ctrld.
Fixing this by watching changes to /etc/resolv.conf, then revert them.
The dnsmasq cache-size setting on EdgeOS could be re-generated anytime
by vyatta router/dhcp components. This conflicts with setting generated
by ctrld, causing dnsmasq fails to start.
It's better to keep dnsmasq cache enabled on EdgeOS, we can turn it off
again once we find a reliable way to control cache-size setting.
The postconf script added by ctrld requires all of these conditions to
work correctly:
- /proc, /tmp were mounted.
- dnsmasq is running.
Currently, ctrld is only waiting for NTP ready, which may not ensure
both of those conditions are true. Explicitly checking those conditions
is a safer approach.
For Android devices, when it joins the network, it uses ctrld to resolve
its private DNS once and never reaches ctrld again. For each time, it uses
a different IPv6 address, which causes hundreds/thousands different client
IDs created for the same device, which is pointless.
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.
Generating nextdns config must happen after stopping current ctrld
process. Otherwise, config processing may pick wrong IP+Port.
While at it, also making logging better when updating listener config:
- Change warn to info, prevent confusing that "something is wrong".
- Do not emit info when generating working default config, which may
cause duplicated messages printed.
So it won't spam ctrld log unnecessary, prevent confusion. While at it,
also change the log level from Warn to Info, since this error is not
actionable by the user.
A backoff with small max time will flood requests to Control D server,
causing false positive for abuse mitiation system. While a big max time
will cause ctrld not realize network change as fast as possible.
While at it, also sync DoH3 code with DoH code, ensuring no others place
can trigger requests flooding for ipv6 probing.
Otherwise, network changes may not be seen on some platforms, causing
ctrld failed to recover and failing all requests.
While at it, also doing the check DNS in separate goroutine, prevent it
from blocking ctrld from notifying others that it "started". The issue
was seen when ctrld is configured as direct listener, requests are
flooded before ctrld started, causing the healtch process failed.
The provision token is only used once, then do not have any effect after
Control D uid is fetched. So making it appears in "ctrld run" command is
useless.
VPN clients often have empty MAC address, because they come from virtual
network interface. However, there's other setup/devices also create
virtual interface, but is not VPN.
Changing source of those clients to empty to prevent confustion in
clients list command output.
RMM uses non-user account which results in config + socket file being
written to a random directory, which is not a real directory that can be
accessed.
Fix this by using directory of ctrld binary as user home dir.
Some users mentioned that when there is an Internet outage, ctrld fails
to recover, crashing or locks up the router. When requests start
failing, this results in the clients emitting more queries, creating a
resource spiral of death that can brick the device entirely.
To guard against this case, this commit implement an upstream monitor
approach:
- Marking upstream as down after 100 consecutive failed queries.
- Start a goroutine to check when the upstream is back again.
- When upstream is down, answer all queries with SERVFAIL.
- The checking process uses backoff retry to reduce high requests rate.
- As long as the query succeeded, marking the upstream as alive then
start operate normally.
Currently, ctrld assumes that NetworkManager is not available if writing
to /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d return directory not exist error. That
would work on most Linux distros. However, cloud provider may do some
hacks, causing ctrld confusion and think that NetworkManager is
available.
Fixing this by checking whether NetworkManager binary presents first.
While at it, also fixing a bug when restarting NetworkManager failed
causing ctrld hangs. The go-systemd library is not clear about this, but
the waitCh channel won't never be closed if error occurred, so we must
return immediately instead of receiving from it blindly.
In case the resolver could not reach nameserver, ptr discover should
only print error message once, then stop doing the query until the
nameserver is reachable. This would prevent ptr discover from flooding
ctrld log with a lot of duplicated messages.
So ctrld can record the raw/original client IP instead of looking up
from MAC to IP, which may not the right choice in some network setup
like using wireguard/vpn on Merlin router.
The current approach to get default route IP is finding the LAN
interface with the same MAC address. However, there could be multiple
interfaces like that, making ctrld confused.
This commit fixes this issue, by listing all possible private IPs, then
sorting them and use the smallest one for router self queries.
For reporting router queries, ctrld uses private IP of the default route
interface. However, when the default route is conntected directly to
ISP, the interface will have a public IP, and another interface with the
same MAC address will be created for LAN ip. So when no private IP found
for default route interface, ctrld must look at the other interface to
find the corret LAN ip.
The only reason that forces ctrld to depend on vyatta-dhcpd service on
EdgeOS is allowing ctrld to watch lease files properly, because those
files may not be created at the time client info table initialized.
However, on some EdgeOS version, vyatta-dhcpd could not start with an
empty config file, causing restart loop itself, flooding systemd log,
making the router run out of memory.
To fix this, instead of depending on vyatta-dhcpd, we should just watch
for lease files creation, then adding them to watch list.
While at it, also making ctrld starts after nss-lookup, ensuring we have
a working DNS before starting ctrld.
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.
- Watch more events for lease file changes
- Improving network up detection by using bootstrap IPv6 along side
IPv4 one.
- Emitting log to notice user that ctrld is starting.
- Using systemd wrapper to provide correct status.
- Restoring DNS on stop on Windows.
On routers where we want to wait for NTP by checking nvram key. Before
waiting, we clean up the router to ensure it's restored to original
state. However, router.Cleanup is not idempotent, causing dnsmasq
restarted. On tomato/ddwrt, restarting have no delay, and spawning new
dnsmasq process immediately. On merlin, somehow it takes time to spawn
new dnsmasq process, causing ctrld wrongly think there's no one
listening on port 53.
Fixing this by ensuring router.Cleanup is idempotent. While at it, also
adding "ntp_done" to nvram key, which is now using on latest ddwrt.
For local config, we don't want to alter what user explicitly set, and
only try filling in missing value.
While at it, also remove the dnsmasq port delete on openwrt, we don't
need that hack anymore.
Config fetching/generating in cd mode is currently weird, error prone,
and easy for user to break ctrld when using custom config.
This commit reworks the flow:
- Fetching config from Control D API.
- No custom config, use the current default config.
- If custom config presents, but there's no listener, use 0.0.0.0:53.
- Try listening on current ip+port config, if ok, ctrld could be a
direct listener with current setup, moving on.
- If failed, trying 127.0.0.1:53.
- If failed, trying current ip + port 5354
- If still failed, pick a random ip:port pair, retry until listening ok.
With this flow, thing is more predictable/stable, and help removing the
Config interface for router.
dohTransport returns a http.RoundTripper. When pinging upstream, we do
it both for doh and doh3, and checking whether the transport is nil
before performing the check.
However, dohTransport returns a concrete *http.Transport. Thus
dohTransport will always return a non-nil http.Roundtripper, causing
invalid memory dereference when upstream is configured to use doh3.
Performing ping upstream separately will fix the issue.
Depending on system, the output of `/etc/init.d/ctrld status` can be
either "Running" or "running", we must do in-sensitive comparison to get
the right status of ctrld.
The current error message is not much helpful, not all users are able to
investigate system log file to find the reason.
Instead, gathering the log output of "ctrld run" command, and if error
happens or self-check failed, print the log to users.
On some Merlin routers reported by users, ctrld some how is not stopped
properly. So the router does not have a working DNS at boot time to do
ntp synchronization.
To fix it, just clean up the router before start waiting for ntp ready.
Firewalla ignores 127.0.0.1 in all VLAN config, so making 127.0.0.1 as
dnsmasq upstream would break thing when multiple VLAN presents.
To deal with this, we need to gather all interfaces available, and
making them as upstream of dnsmasq. Then changing ctrld to listen on all
interfaces, too.
It also leads to better improvement for dnsmasq configuration template,
as the upstream server can now be generated dynamically instead of hard
coding to 127.0.0.1:5354.
On Ubuntu 18.04 VM with some cloud provider, using dbus call to set DNS
is forbidden. A possible solution is stopping networkd entirely then
using systemd-resolve to set DNS when ctrld starts.
While at it, only set DNS during start command on Windows. On other
platforms, "ctrld run" does set DNS in service mode already.
When using systemd-resolved, only change listener address to default
route interface address if a loopback address is used.
Also fixing a bug in upstream tailscale code for checking in container.
See tailscale/tailscale#8444
On Firewalla, lo interface is excluded in all dnsmasq settings of all
interfaces, to prevent conflicts. The one that ctrld adds in
dnsmasq_local directory could not work if there're multiple dnsmasq
configs for multiple interfaces (real example from an user who uses
VLAN in router setup).
Instead, if we detect 127.0.0.1 on Firewalla, fallback to "br0"
interface IP address instead.
On firewalla, firerouter_dns is a shell script, which forks dnsmasq
processes. At the end of ctrld stopping process, ctrld attempts to
restart firerouter_dns. The systemd v237 on firewalla somehow hangs,
because ctrld depends on firerouter_dns, but attempts to restart it
before ctrld stopping.
However, thing in firewalla is ephemeral, so after reboot, ctrld is
re-installed at the end of boot process. Thus, ctrld don't have to
depend on any services.
When reading base64 config, either via command line or via custom config
from Control D API, we do want new config entirely instead of mixing
with old config. So new viper instance should be re-recreated before
reading in new config.
That also helps simplifying self-check process, because the config is
now always set correctly, instead of watching change made by "ctrld run"
command.
However, log file and listener config need a special handling, because
they could be changed/unset from Control D API:
- Log file can change dynamically each time ctrld runs, so init logging
process need to take care of re-initializing if log setup changed.
- For listener setup, users could leave ip and port empty, and ctrld
will pick a random loopback 127.0.0.x:53. However, on Linux systems
which use systemd-resolved, the stub listener won't forward queries
from its address 127.0.0.53 to 127.0.0.x, so ctrld will use the
default router interface address instead.
When running on routers, ctrld leverages default setup, let dnsmasq runs
on port 53, and forward queries to ctrld listener on port 5354. However,
this setup is not serialized to config file, causing confusion to users.
Fixing this by writing the correct routers setup to config file. While
at it, updating documentation to refelct that, and also adding note that
changing default router setup could break things.
UniFi Gateway (USG) uses its own DNS forwarding rule, which is
configured default in /etc/dnsmasq.conf file. Adding ctrld own config in
/etc/dnsmasq.d won't take effects. Instead, we must make changes
directly to /etc/dnsmasq.conf, configuring ctrld as the only upstream.
The current state of ctrld is very "high stakes" and easy to mess up,
and is unforgiving when "ctrld start" failed. That would cause the
router is in broken state, unrecoverable.
This commit makes these changes to improve the state:
- Moving router setup process after ctrld listeners are ready, so
dnsmasq won't flood requests to ctrld even though the listeners are
not ready to serve requests.
- On router, when ctrld stopped, restore router DNS setup. That leaves
the router in good state on reboot/startup, help removing the custom
DNS server for NTP synchronization on some routers.
- If self-check failed, uninstall ctrld to restore router to good
state, prevent confusion that ctrld process is still running even
though self-check reports it did not started.
The current transport setup is using mutex lock for synchronization.
This could work ok in normal device, but on low capacity routers, this
high contention may affect the performance, causing ctrld hangs.
Instead of using mutex lock, using atomic operation for synchronization
yield a better performance:
- There's no lock, so other requests won't be blocked. And even theses
requests use old broken transport, it would be fine, because the
client will retry them later.
- The setup transport is now done once, on demand when the transport is
accessed, or when signal rebootsrapping. The first call to
dohTransport will block others, but the transport is warmup before
ctrld start serving requests, so client requests won't be affected.
That helps ctrld handling the requests better when running on low
capacity device.
Further more, the transport configuration is also tweaked for better
default performance:
- MaxIdleConnsPerHost is set to 100 (default is 2), which allows more
connections to be reused, reduce the load to open/close connections
on demand. See [1] for a real example.
- Due to the raising of MaxIdleConnsPerHost, once the transport is
GC-ed, it must explicitly close its idle connections.
- TLS client session cache is now enabled.
Last but not least, the upstream ping process is also reworked. DoH
transport is an HTTP transport, so doing a HEAD request is enough to
warmup the transport, instead of doing a full DNS query.
[1]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-pages/-/merge_requests/274
Currently, there's no upper bound for how many requests that ctrld will
handle at a time. This could be problem on some low capacity routers,
where CPU/RAM is very limited.
This commit adds a configuration to limit how many requests that will be
handled concurrently. The default is 256, which should works well for
most routers (the default concurrent requests of dnsmasq is 150).
The openwrt version in old GL-inet devices do not support checking
status using /etc/init.d/<service_name>, so the sysV wrapping trick
won't work. Instead, we need to parse "ps" command output to check
whether ctrld process is running or not.
While at it, making newService as a wrapper of service.New function,
prevent the caller from calling the latter without following call to
the former, causing mismatch in service operations.
To prevent abusive response from some malicious DNS server, ctrld
ignores the response if the target does not match question domain.
However, that would break CNAME chain, which is allowed the mismatch
happens.
On some platforms, like pfsense, ntpd is not problem, so do not spawn
the DNS server for it, which may conflict with default DNS server.
While at it, also make sure that ctrld will be run at last on startup.
On DD-WRT v3.0-r52189, dnsmasq version 2.89 lease format looks like:
1685794060 <mac> <ip> <hostname> 00:00:00:00:00:04 9
It has 6 fields, while the current parser only looks for line with exact
5 fields, which is too restricted. In fact, the parser shold just skip
line with less than 4 fields, because the 4th field is the hostname,
which is the last client info that ctrld needs.
Currently, on routers that require NTP waiting, ctrld makes the cleanup
process, and restart dnsmasq for restoring default DNS config, so ntpd
can query the NTP servers. It did work, but the code will depends on
router platforms.
Instead, we can spawn a plain DNS listener before PreRun on routers,
this listener will serve NTP dns queries and once ntp is configured, the
listener is terminated and ctrld will start serving using its configured
upstreams.
While at it, also fix the userHomeDir function on freshtomato, which
must return the binary directory for routers that requires JFFS.
In commit 670879d1, the backoff is changed to be passed a real error,
instead of a place holder. However, the test query may return a failed
response with a nil error, causing the backoff never fire.
Fixing this by ensuring the error is wrapped, so the backoff always see
a non-nil error.
On WSL 1, the routing table do not contain default route, causing ctrld
failed to get the default iface for setting DNS. However, WSL 1 only use
/etc/resolv.conf for setting up DNS, so the interface does not matter,
because the setting is applied global anyway.
To fix it, just return "lo" as the default interface name on WSL 1.
While at it, also removing the useless service.Logger call, which is not
unified with the current logger, and may cause false positive on system
where syslog is not configured properly (like WSL 1).
Also passing the real error when doing sel-check to backoff, so we don't
have to use a place holder error.
In split mode, the code must check for ipv6 availability to return the
correct network stack. Otherwise, we may end up using "tcp6-tls" even
though the upstream IP is an ipv4.
The assignment is changed wrongly in process of refactoring parallel
dialer for resolving bootstrap IP.
While at it, also satisfy staticheck for jffs not enabled error.
On some Merlin routers, the time is broken when system reboot, and need
to wait for NTP synced to get the correct time. For fetching API in cd
mode successfully, ctrld need to wait until NTP set the time correctly,
otherwise, the certificate validation would complain.
On some Merlin routers, due to ntp bug, after rebooing, dnsmasq config
was restored to default without ctrld changes, causing ctrld stop
working. Workaround this problem by catching restart diskmon event,
which is triggered by ntpd_synced, then restart dnsmasq.
When bootstrapping, if the network changed, for example, firewall rules
changed during VPN connection, the bootstrap IPs may not be resolved, so
ctrld won't work. Since bootstrap IPs is necessary for ctrld to work
properly, we should wait until we can resolve upstream IP before we can
start serving requests.
Instead of always doubling the request, first we wrap the request with a
failover timeout, 500ms, which is an average time for a normal request.
If this request failed, trigger re-bootstrapping and retry the request.
When network changes, for example: connect/disconnect VPN, the old
connection will become broken, but still can be re-used for new
requests. That would cause un-necessary delay for ctrld clients:
- Time 0 - do request with broken transport, 5s timeout.
- Time 0.5 - network stack become usable.
- Time 5 - timeout reached.
- Time 5.1 - do request with new transport -> success.
Instead, we can do two requests in parallel, with the failover one using
a fresh new transport. So if the main one is broken, we still can get
the result from the failover one.
We see in practice on fresh new VM test, there's a DNS server that
return the answer with record not for the query domain.
To workaround this, filter out the answers not for the query domain.
This reverts commit 00fe7f59d13774f2ea6c325bdbb8165be58a1edd.
The purpose is disable cd mode for already installed service, which is
a hard problem than we thought. So leave it out of v1.2 cycle.
When writing default config file, the content must be marshalled to the
config object first before writing to disk.
While at it, also use full path for default config file to make it clear
to the user where the config is written.
This commit add the ability for ctrld to gather client information,
including mac/ip/hostname, and send to Control-D server through a
config per upstream.
- Add send_client_info upstream config.
- Read/Watch dnsmasq leases files on supported platforms.
- Add corresponding client info to DoH query header
All of these only apply for Control-D upstream, though.
So we don't have to depend on network stack probing to decide whether
ipv4 or ipv6 will be used.
While at it, also prevent a race report when doing the same parallel
resolving for os resolver, even though this race is harmless.
Otherwise, we experiment with ctrld slow start after rebooting, because
the network check continuously report failed status even the network
state is up. Restoring the DNS before stopping, we leave the network
state as default, as long as ctrld starts, the DNS is configured again.
The bootstrap process has two issues that can make ctrld stop resolving
after restarting machine host.
ctrld uses bootstrap DNS and os nameservers for resolving upstream. On
unix, /etc/resolv.conf content is used to get available nameservers.
This works well when installing ctrld. However, after being installed,
ctrld may modify the content of /etc/resolv.conf itself, to make other
apps use its listener as DNS resolver. So when ctrld starts after OS
restart, it ends up using [bootstrap DNS + ctrld's listener], for
resolving upstream. At this moment, if ctrld could not contact bootstrap
DNS for any reason, upstream domain will not be resolved.
For above reason, an upstream may not have bootstrap IPs after ctrld
starts. When re-bootstrapping, if there's no bootstrap IPs, ctrld should
call the setup bootstrap process again. Currently, it does not, causing
all queries failed.
This commit fixes above issue by adding mechanism for retrieving OS
nameservers properly, by querying routing table information:
- Parsing /proc/net subsystem on Linux.
- For BSD variants, just fetching routing information base from OS.
- On Windows, just include the gateway information when reading iface.
The fixing for second issue is trivial, just kickoff a bootstrap process
if there's no bootstrap IPs when re-boostrapping.
While at it, also ensure that fetching resolver information from
ControlD API is also used the same approach.
Fixes#34
For os resolver, ctrld queries against all servers concurrently, and get
the first success result back. However, if all server failed, the result
channel is not closed, causing ctrld hang.
Fixing this by closing the result channel once getting back all response
from servers.
While at it, also shorten the backoff time when waiting for network up,
ctrld should serve as fast as possible after network is available.
Updates #34
- Include version/OS information when logging
- Make time field human readable in log file
- Force root privilege when running status command on darwin
Updates #34
When startup, ctrld waits for network up before calling s.Run to starts
its logic. However, if network is down on startup, ctrld will hang on
waiting for network up. That causes OS service manager unhappy, as ctrld
do not response to it, marking ctrld as failure service and never start
ctrld again.
To fix this, we should call s.Run as soon as possible, and use a channel
for waiting a signal that we can actual do our logic after network up.
Update #34
Avoiding reading/writing global config, causing a data race. While at
it, also guarding read/write access to cfg.Service.AllocateIP field,
since when it is read/write by multiple goroutines.
We only need on demand information when re-bootstrapping. On Bootsrap,
this is already checked by ctrldnet.Up, so on demand query will cause
un-necessary slow down if external ipv6 is slow to response.
On Windows host with StarLink network, ctrld hangs on startup for ~30s
before continue running. This dues to IPv6 is configured but no external
IPv6 can be reached. When probing stack, ctrld is dialing using ipv6
without any timeout set, so the dialing timeout is enforced by OS.
This commit adds a timeout for probing dialer, so we ensure the probing
process will fail fast.
A highly configurable DNS forwarding proxy with support for:
- Multiple listeners for incoming queries
- Multiple upstreams with fallbacks
- Multiple network policy driven DNS query steering
- Multiple network policy driven DNS query steering (via network cidr, MAC address or FQDN)
- Policy driven domain based "split horizon" DNS with wildcard support
- Integrations with common router vendors and firmware
- LAN client discovery via DHCP, mDNS, ARP, NDP, hosts file parsing
- Prometheus metrics exporter
## TLDR
Proxy legacy DNS traffic to secure DNS upstreams in highly configurable ways.
All DNS protocols are supported, including:
-`UDP 53`
@@ -17,34 +25,83 @@ All DNS protocols are supported, including:
-`DNS-over-HTTP/3` (DOH3)
-`DNS-over-QUIC`
## Use Cases
# Use Cases
1. Use secure DNS protocols on networks and devices that don't natively support them (legacy routers, legacy OSes, TVs, smart toasters).
2. Create source IP based DNS routing policies with variable secure DNS upstreams. Subnet 1 (admin) uses upstream resolver A, while Subnet 2 (employee) uses upstream resolver B.
3. Create destination IP based DNS routing policies with variable secure DNS upstreams. Listener 1 uses upstream resolver C, while Listener 2 uses upstream resolver D.
4. Create domain level "split horizon" DNS routing policies to send internal domains (*.company.int) to a local DNS server, while everything else goes to another upstream.
5. Deploy on a router and create LAN client specific DNS routing policies from a web GUI (When using ControlD.com).
## OS Support
- Windows (386, amd64, arm)
-Mac (amd64, arm64)
-Windows Server (386, amd64)
- MacOS (amd64, arm64)
- Linux (386, amd64, arm, mips)
- FreeBSD (386, amd64, arm)
- Common routers (See below)
## Download
Download pre-compiled binaries from the [Releases](https://github.com/Control-D-Inc/ctrld/releases) section.
## Build
`ctrld` requires `go1.19+`:
### Supported Routers
You can run `ctrld` on any supported router. The list of supported routers and firmware includes:
- Asus Merlin
- DD-WRT
- Firewalla
- FreshTomato
- GL.iNet
- OpenWRT
- pfSense / OPNsense
- Synology
- Ubiquiti (UniFi, EdgeOS)
`ctrld` will attempt to interface with dnsmasq (or Windows Server) whenever possible and set itself as the upstream, while running on port 5354. On FreeBSD based OSes, `ctrld` will terminate dnsmasq and unbound in order to be able to listen on port 53 directly.
# Install
There are several ways to download and install `ctrld`.
## Quick Install
The simplest way to download and install `ctrld` is to use the following installer command on any UNIX-like platform:
```shell
$ go build ./cmd/ctrld
sh -c 'sh -c "$(curl -sL https://api.controld.com/dl)"'
```
Windows user and prefer Powershell (who doesn't)? No problem, execute this command instead in administrative PowerShell:
Or you can pull and run a Docker container from [Docker Hub](https://hub.docker.com/r/controldns/ctrld)
```shell
docker run -d --name=ctrld -p 127.0.0.1:53:53/tcp -p 127.0.0.1:53:53/udp controldns/ctrld:latest
```
## Download Manually
Alternatively, if you know what you're doing you can download pre-compiled binaries from the [Releases](https://github.com/Control-D-Inc/ctrld/releases) section for the appropriate platform.
## Build
Lastly, you can build `ctrld` from source which requires `go1.21+`:
```shell
go build ./cmd/ctrld
```
or
```shell
$ go install github.com/Control-D-Inc/ctrld/cmd/ctrld@latest
go install github.com/Control-D-Inc/ctrld/cmd/ctrld@latest
Use "ctrld [command] --help" for more information about a command.
```
## Usage
To start the server with default configuration, simply run:`./ctrld run`. This will create a generic `ctrld.toml` file in the **working directory** and start the application in foreground.
1. Start the server
```
$ sudo ./ctrld run
## Basic Run Mode
This is the most basic way to run `ctrld`, in foreground mode. Unless you already have a config file, a default one will be generated.
### Command
Windows (Admin Shell)
```shell
ctrld.exe run
```
2. Run a test query using a DNS client, for example, `dig`:
Linux or Macos
```shell
sudo ctrld run
```
You can then run a test query using a DNS client, for example, `dig`:
```
$ dig verify.controld.com @127.0.0.1 +short
api.controld.com.
147.185.34.1
```
If `verify.controld.com` resolves, you're successfully using the default Control D upstream.
If `verify.controld.com` resolves, you're successfully using the default Control D upstream. From here, you can start editing the config file that was generated. To enforce a new config, restart the server.
### Service Mode
To run the application in service mode, simply run: `./ctrld start` as system/root user. This will create a generic `ctrld.toml` file in the **user home** directory, start the system service, and configure the listener on the default interface. Service will start on OS boot.
## Service Mode
This mode will run the application as a background system service on any Windows, MacOS, Linux, FreeBSD distribution or supported router. This will create a generic `ctrld.toml` file in the **C:\ControlD** directory (on Windows) or `/etc/controld/` (almost everywhere else), start the system service, and **configure the listener on all physical network interface**. Service will start on OS boot.
In order to stop the service, and restore your DNS to original state, simply run `./ctrld stop`.
When Control D upstreams are used on a router type device, `ctrld` will [relay your network topology](https://docs.controld.com/docs/device-clients) to Control D (LAN IPs, MAC addresses, and hostnames), and you will be able to see your LAN devices in the web panel, view analytics and apply unique profiles to them.
For granular control of the service, run the `service` command. Each sub-command has its own help section so you can see what arguments you can supply.
### Command
```
Manage ctrld service
Windows (Admin Shell)
```shell
ctrld.exe start
```
Usage:
ctrld service [command]
Linux or Macos
```
sudo ctrld start
```
Available Commands:
interfaces Manage network interfaces
restart Restart the ctrld service
start Start the ctrld service
status Show status of the ctrld service
stop Stop the ctrld service
uninstall Uninstall the ctrld service
If `ctrld` is not in your system path (you installed it manually), you will need to run the above commands from the directory where you installed `ctrld`.
Flags:
-h, --help help for service
In order to stop the service, and restore your DNS to original state, simply run `ctrld stop`. If you wish to stop and uninstall the service permanently, run `ctrld uninstall`.
This mode functions similarly to the "Service Mode" above except it will simply start a system service and the config defined listeners, but **will not make any changes to any network interfaces**. You can then set the `ctrld` listener(s) IP on the desired network interfaces manually.
Use "ctrld service [command] --help" for more information about a command.
```
### Command
### Control D Auto Configuration
Application can be started with a specific resolver config, instead of the default one. Simply supply your resolver ID with a `--cd` flag, when using the `run` (foreground) or `start` (service) modes.
Windows (Admin Shell)
```shell
ctrld.exe service start
```
The following command will start the application in foreground mode, using the free "p2" resolver, which blocks Ads & Trackers.
Linux or Macos
```shell
sudo ctrld service start
```
# Configuration
`ctrld` can be configured in variety of different ways, which include: API, local config file or via cli launch args.
## API Based Auto Configuration
Application can be started with a specific Control D resolver config, instead of the default one. Simply supply your Resolver ID with a `--cd` flag, when using the `start` (service) mode. In this mode, the application will automatically choose a non-conflicting IP and/or port and configure itself as the upstream to whatever process is running on port 53 (like dnsmasq or Windows DNS Server). This mode is used when the 1 liner installer command from the Control D onboarding guide is executed.
The following command will use your own personal Control D Device resolver, and start the application in service mode. Your resolver ID is displayed on the "Show Resolvers" screen for the relevant Control D Endpoint.
Windows (Admin Shell)
```shell
./ctrld run --cd p2
ctrld.exe start --cd abcd1234
```
Alternatively, you can use your own personal Control D Device resolver, and start the application in service mode. Your resolver ID is the part after the slash of your DNS-over-HTTPS resolver. ie. https://dns.controld.com/abcd1234
Linux or Macos
```shell
./ctrld start --cd abcd1234
sudo ctrld start --cd abcd1234
```
Once you run the above command, the following things will happen:
- You resolver configuration will be fetched from the API, and config file templated with the resolver data
- Application will start as a service, and keep running (even after reboot) until you run the `stop` or `service uninstall` sub-commands
- Your default network interface will be updated to use the listener started by the service
- All OS DNS queries will be sent to the listener
- Application will start as a service, and keep running (even after reboot) until you run the `stop` or `uninstall` sub-commands
- All physical network interface will be updated to use the listener started by the service or dnsmasq upstream will be switched to `ctrld`
- All DNS queries will be sent to the listener
## Configuration
See [Configuration Docs](docs/config.md).
## Manual Configuration
`ctrld` is entirely config driven and can be configured in many different ways, please see [Configuration Docs](docs/config.md).
### Example
- Start `listener.0` on 127.0.0.1:53
- Accept queries from any source address
- Send all queries to `upstream.0` via DoH protocol
### Default Config
```toml
[listener]
[listener.0]
ip = "127.0.0.1"
ip = '0.0.0.0'
port = 53
restricted = false
[network]
@@ -161,10 +237,6 @@ See [Configuration Docs](docs/config.md).
cidrs = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
name = "Network 0"
[service]
log_level = "info"
log_path = ""
[upstream]
[upstream.0]
@@ -173,27 +245,88 @@ See [Configuration Docs](docs/config.md).
name = "Control D - Anti-Malware"
timeout = 5000
type = "doh"
[upstream.1]
bootstrap_ip = "76.76.2.11"
endpoint = "p2.freedns.controld.com"
name = "Control D - No Ads"
timeout = 3000
type = "doq"
```
### Advanced
The above is the most basic example, which will work out of the box. If you're looking to do advanced configurations using policies, see [Configuration Docs](docs/config.md) for complete documentation of the config file.
The above basic config will:
- Start listener on 0.0.0.0:53
- Accept queries from any source address
- Send all queries to `https://freedns.controld.com/p1` using DoH protocol
You can also supply configuration via launch argeuments, in [Ephemeral Mode](docs/ephemeral_mode.md).
## CLI Args
If you're unable to use a config file, `ctrld` can be be supplied with basic configuration via launch arguments, in [Ephemeral Mode](docs/ephemeral_mode.md).
### Example
```
ctrld run --listen=127.0.0.1:53 --primary_upstream=https://freedns.controld.com/p2 --secondary_upstream=10.0.10.1:53 --domains=*.company.int,very-secure.local --log /path/to/log.log
```
The above will start a foreground process and:
- Listen on `127.0.0.1:53` for DNS queries
- Forward all queries to `https://freedns.controld.com/p2` using DoH protocol, while...
- Excluding `*.company.int` and `very-secure.local` matching queries, that are forwarded to `10.0.10.1:53`
- Write a debug log to `/path/to/log.log`
## DNS Intercept Mode
When running `ctrld` alongside VPN software, DNS conflicts can cause intermittent failures, bypassed filtering, or configuration loops. DNS Intercept Mode prevents these issues by transparently capturing all DNS traffic on the system and routing it through `ctrld`, without modifying network adapter DNS settings.
- **Automatic port 53 conflict resolution** — if another process (e.g., `mDNSResponder` on macOS) is already using port 53, `ctrld` automatically listens on a different port. OS-level packet interception redirects all DNS traffic to `ctrld` transparently, so no manual configuration is needed. This only applies to intercept mode.
### Tested VPN Software
- F5 BIG-IP APM
- Cisco AnyConnect
- Palo Alto GlobalProtect
- Tailscale (including Exit Nodes)
- Windscribe
- WireGuard
For more details, see the [DNS Intercept Mode documentation](https://docs.controld.com/docs/dns-intercept).
## Contributing
See [Contribution Guideline](./docs/contributing.md)
## Roadmap
The following functionality is on the roadmap and will be available in future releases.
// simulate --config CLI flag by setting configPath manually.
configPath=filepath.Join(tmpdir,"ctrld.toml")
_,err:=os.Stat(configPath)
assert.True(t,os.IsNotExist(err))
assert.NoError(t,writeConfigFile())
_,err=os.Stat(configPath)
require.NoError(t,err)
}
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