CAA Record Lookup

A CAA (Certificate Authority Authorization) Lookup Tool helps you retrieve CAA records for a domain. These DNS records are critical for managing which Certificate Authorities (CAs) are authorized to issue SSL/TLS certificates for your domain. By configuring CAA records, domain owners can prevent unauthorized or fraudulent certificate issuance, enhancing the security of their domains.

What Are CAA Records?

CAA records are a type of DNS record that specify which Certificate Authorities (CAs) can issue SSL/TLS certificates for your domain. They act as a security layer by limiting the CAs that can serve your domain, reducing the risk of unauthorized certificates being issued.

Key components of a CAA record:

• Flags: Integer values that indicate how the record should be interpreted.
• Tag: Defines the property (e.g., issue, issuewild, or iodef).
• Value: Contains the domain name of the authorized CA or a contact for incident reports.

For example, a CAA record might look like this:

This record authorizes letsencrypt.org to issue certificates for example.com.

Why Are CAA Records Important?

• Prevent Unauthorized Certificates: Restricting CAs ensures that only approved authorities can issue certificates for your domain.
• Compliance: Many organizations use CAA records to comply with security policies or industry regulations.
• Transparency: CAA records make it clear which CAs are authorized, helping improve domain management and security audits.

How to Perform a CAA Lookup?

Using the dig command-line tool, you can query CAA records for a domain. Here’s a basic command:

This retrieves the CAA records for the domain example.com.

Using a Specific DNS Server

You can also specify a DNS server to query. For example, to use OpenDNS:

This queries OpenDNS for the CAA records of example.com.

Interpreting CAA Records

Here are the common CAA tags and their meanings:

• issue: Specifies which CA is authorized to issue certificates.
• issuewild: Defines which CA can issue wildcard certificates.
• iodef: Provides a contact URL or email for reporting policy violations.

For instance, the following CAA record:

Indicates that security incidents should be reported to [email protected].

Advanced Dig Commands

• Query with Additional Details:
dig CAA example.com +short

Shows a simplified list of the CAA records.

• Trace the Query Path:
dig CAA example.com +trace

Displays the resolution path for finding the domain’s CAA records.

Common Issues with CAA Records

• Missing CAA Records: If no CAA records exist, any CA can issue certificates for your domain.
• Misconfigured Flags: Incorrect settings can lead to unintended restrictions or security vulnerabilities.
• Propagation Delays: Changes to CAA records might not take effect immediately across all DNS servers.

How Our Tool Helps

Our CAA Lookup Tool simplifies querying CAA records for any domain. It fetches and presents the authorized CAs and incident handling policies, helping you secure your domain and ensure compliance with best practices.