DNSSEC

import { Render } from "~/components"

Disable DNSSEC

Enable DNSSEC

When you enable DNSSEC, Cloudflare signs your zone, publishes your public signing keys, and generates your DS record.

1. Activate DNSSEC in Cloudflare

2. Add DS record to your registrar

Other DNSSEC setup options

If you are using Cloudflare as your Secondary DNS provider and want to configure DNSSEC on your secondary zone(s), you have three options depending on your setup.

If you want to set up DNSSEC on a subdomain zone, refer to Subdomain DNSSEC.

Migrate to Cloudflare with DNSSEC active

If your current DNS provider supports adding external DNSKEY records, you can use the active migration path for zero-downtime DNSSEC migration using multi-signer DNSSEC.

If your current provider does not support this, use the following approach. This involves a brief window without DNSSEC protection.

1. Remove the DS record at your registrar.
2. Wait for the DS record TTL to fully expire at the parent zone.
   • Verify with dig DS example.com — commonly 24–48 hours for most TLDs.
3. Change your nameservers to Cloudflare.
4. Wait for the previous NS record TTL to expire (typically one hour or less).
5. Enable DNSSEC in Cloudflare and add the new DS record at your registrar.

:::caution If you change nameservers before the old DS TTL has fully expired, validating resolvers will return SERVFAIL because the cached DS records will not match Cloudflare's DNSSEC keys. :::

Roll back DNSSEC

If you need to disable DNSSEC after enabling it:

1. Remove the DS record at your registrar (or disable DNSSEC if using Cloudflare Registrar).
2. Keep zone signing enabled in Cloudflare until the DS TTL has fully expired at the parent zone.
3. The rollback window depends on the DS TTL, which varies by TLD.

:::note If you use Cloudflare Registrar, Cloudflare automatically submits DS records via CDS/CDNSKEY scanning, which can take one to two days. There is currently no way to manually control the exact timing of DS publication. :::

Limitations

If your registrar does not support DNSSEC with Cloudflare's preferred cipher choice (Algorithm 13), you have several options:

• Contact your registrar to ask for DNSSEC with modern encryption.
• Transfer your domain to a different registrar that supports DNSSEC with Algorithm 13
• File a complaint with ICANN, citing your registrar's lack of compliance.

If your top-level domain does not support DNSSEC with Algorithm 13 (also known as ECDSA Curve P-256 with SHA-256), contact that top-level domain.