The weird and wonderful world of DNS LOC records (2014)

Back in 2014 when I wrote this I said "CloudFlare handles millions of DNS records; of those just 743 are LOCs." I asked the team for an update and that number is now... 3,198.

A friend of mine passed away last year and I use a domain named after her as a small memorial, sally.pro. I just gave it a LOC record pointing to a bench in the park that we adopted for her.

While the example here is broken, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;find.me.uk" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;find.me.uk</a> still works:<p><pre><code> $ dig loc SW1A1AA.find.me.uk ; &lt;&lt;&gt;&gt; DiG 9.10.6 &lt;&lt;&gt;&gt; loc SW1A1AA.find.me.uk ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; -&gt;&gt;HEADER&lt;&lt;- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 63530 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;SW1A1AA.find.me.uk. IN LOC ;; ANSWER SECTION: SW1A1AA.find.me.uk. 21600 IN LOC 51 30 3.637 N 0 8 29.624 W 0.00m 0.00m 0.00m 0.00m</code></pre>

Bummer. The example in the articles doesn&#x27;t work.<p><pre><code> # dig geekatlas.com LOC @1.1.1.1 ; &lt;&lt;&gt;&gt; DiG 9.20.0 &lt;&lt;&gt;&gt; geekatlas.com LOC @1.1.1.1 ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; -&gt;&gt;HEADER&lt;&lt;- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 19487 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1 ;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: ; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 1232 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;geekatlas.com. IN LOC ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: geekatlas.com. 300 IN SOA ns1.namefind.com. dns.jomax.net. 2023031500 28800 7200 604800 300 ;; Query time: 22 msec ;; SERVER: 1.1.1.1#53(1.1.1.1) (UDP) ;; WHEN: Mon Jul 29 08:46:31 EDT 2024 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 104</code></pre>

LOC on reverse DNS seems a much more elegant solution than RFC 8805 Geofeeds (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rfc-editor.org&#x2F;rfc&#x2F;rfc8805" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rfc-editor.org&#x2F;rfc&#x2F;rfc8805</a>).<p>In particular, it solves the discovery issue discussed in RFC 9092 (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rfc-editor.org&#x2F;rfc&#x2F;rfc9092" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rfc-editor.org&#x2F;rfc&#x2F;rfc9092</a>), allows real-time updates, and would make it easier for ISPs to delegate maintenance of geolocation records to customers.

I found this [1] for generating LOC records using Google Maps.<p><i>Verified it works on another machine, my daily driver was blocking something. Also verified coordinates that it generates.</i><p>[1] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dnsloc.net&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dnsloc.net&#x2F;</a>

Firstly I never knew Loc records existed… interesting to read something like this.<p>Secondly I think cloudflare will see an (sizable???) increase in Loc records due to this article

I naively assumed this would be about localised caching. You&#x27;d think straight-line distance would be a reasonable proxy for speed.<p>Hence you could have<p>* google.com &lt;LOC San Francisco&gt;<p>* google.com &lt;LOC London&gt;<p>and pick the right one<p>but that&#x27;s not really how it works at all :(

Earlier (and only) submission in 2014: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=7508234">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=7508234</a><p>Perhaps the title of this post can be edited to include [2014] as well.

I put a LOC record on cam.ac.uk set to 10km in diameter, so it basically covers the official precincts of the university which require that students live within 3 miles of the centre of the city.

See also: <i>DNS LOC: Geo-enabling the Domain Name System</i> &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ckdhr.com&#x2F;dns-loc&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ckdhr.com&#x2F;dns-loc&#x2F;</a>&gt;

I&#x27;ve just given us a LOC record, do I get a prize?

One of many strange features in DNS. I seem to recall a talk a few years ago where someone enumerated a variety of weird DNS capabilities and some interesting security consequences, but I don&#x27;t remember the name of the talk or the speaker. Does anyone happen to know what I&#x27;m half-remembering?

This is interesting, but can anyone give me an example of using this for beyond just a simple easter egg? Presumably this had some real use to be added to the DNS spec.

Hmm. Is there a tool to ping a list of LOC records and feed&#x2F;update OSM automatically?

Would be fun to make a scavenger hunt game using these.

Another good one is HINFO