TKEY record

TKEY (transaction key) is a record type of the Domain Name System. TKEY RRs can used in number of different modes to establish shared keys between a DNS resolver and server.

TKEY record format

TKEY resource record fields

Field	Description	Length (octets)
NAME	Key name, which must be unique on client and server	Variable
TYPE	TKEY (249)	2
CLASS	Ignored, should be ANY (255)	2
TTL	Ignored, should be 0	4
RDLENGTH	Length of RDATA field	2
RDATA	Variable-length structure containing the timestamp, algorithm, mode, hash data and error	Variable, as per RDLENGTH

Mode field values

• 0 - Reserved
• 1 - Server assignment
• 2 - Diffie-Hellman exchange
• 3 - Generic Security Service Algorithm for Secret Key Transaction
• 4 - Resolver assignment
• 5 - key deletion
• 6–65534 - available
• 65535 - reserved;

See also

• Domain Name System
• List of DNS record types

References

• RFC 2930, "Secret Key Establishment for DNS (TKEY RR)", D. Eastlake, September 2000