What is MaraDNS ?

MaraDNS is a package that implements the Domain Name Service (DNS), an essential internet service. MaraDNS is intended to be an easy-to-use DNS server for environments where a DNS server must be secure, and where the server must use the absolute minimum number of resources possible (such as on older PCs and embedded wi-fi routers). MaraDNS was originally created in 2001; MaraDNS 1.0 was released in 2002 and MaraDNS 1.2 has just been released. MaraDNS has been extensively tested, both with a SQA process and with over three years of real-world use.

MaraDNS has the following design goals:

• Ease of use. While a full authoritative, caching, and recursive DNS server, the 1.2 release only needs a single 3-line configuration file to perform basic recursive DNS service. MaraDNS is extensively documented with both man pages and a tutorial.

• Security-aware programming. A DNS server needs to be secure. MaraDNS has a number of security features, including:
  1. The code uses a special string library which is resistant to buffer overflows.

  2. The code, if started as root, mandates running as an unprivileged user in a chroot() jail.

• Open-Source. The 1.0 release of the DNS server is public-domain code; the 1.2 release will be released under a two-clause BSD license which is almost identical to the FreeBSD license.

• Simplicity. This DNS server has the minimum number of features needed to correctly act as an authoritative and/or recursive name server.

Mailing list

To join the mailing list, send an email to list-request@maradns.org with the word "subscribe" in the subject and body of the message.

Mailing list archives are here: Archive #1, Archive #2.

Special Thanks

I would like to thank WebConquest for hosting MaraDNS.org's web page.