A Local Resolver That Validates What It Answers

Unbound on loopback: DNSSEC validated locally against the root anchor, query names minimised, version hidden, and upstream over DNS-over-TLS by default because many networks reset TCP 53 to anything but a known resolver, which breaks full recursion the moment a DNSKEY answer outgrows UDP. Recursion is one setting away. Original role, live-tested on Rocky Linux 10.

Verification

Live-tested

Really deployed to a container sandbox, proven idempotent (a second run changes nothing), verified against the role’s assertions, then torn down.

Conformance

  • Static validation (yamllint · ansible-lint)

Provenance

  • SHA-256 checksum
  • Signature (pending)

Functional

  • Live-tested - applied, verified, destroyed

Last verified 2026-09-19 · podman 4.9.3 · ansible 2.21.4 · how we verify

Cite it in your README

badge · attribution

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Ansible role 1.0.0, live-tested on IaC Bazaar: [A Local Resolver That Validates What It Answers](https://www.iac-bazaar.com/catalog/ansible-unbound-resolver?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=artifact)

```yaml
# A Local Resolver That Validates What It Answers: https://www.iac-bazaar.com/catalog/ansible-unbound-resolver (download from your IaC Bazaar account)
```

Preview:IaC Bazaar: live-tested

Documentation

unbound-resolver

A local Unbound resolver: DNSSEC-validating, caching, name-minimising, and answering on loopback only. Original role for EL 9 and 10, live-tested with podman on Rocky Linux 10.

The package ignores its own drop-in directories. EL's unbound.conf ships conf.d/ and local.d/ beside it but no active include: of either - only commented examples - so a file dropped into conf.d changes nothing. This role writes the whole unbound.conf, validated by unbound-checkconf before it is installed, and includes both directories from it so your additions work.

Answers are validated, not just cached. With auto-trust-anchor-file pointing at the root key the package keeps current, a forged or stripped answer is refused rather than served for a day. The verify step asks for example.com with DNSSEC and asserts the ad flag came back.

It says as little as possible. Query-name minimisation sends each upstream only the labels it needs, hide-identity and hide-version refuse version.bind, and minimal-responses keeps additional data out.

Encrypted forwarding is the default; recursion is the switch. Queries go to Quad9 over DNS-over-TLS, with the certificate checked against the system bundle, and every answer is validated locally all the same. Set unbound_resolver_forwarders: [] for full recursion from the root servers - with one thing measured rather than assumed while building this role: on a network that resets TCP 53 to anything but a known resolver (the one this was tested from does), recursion fails outright, because the root DNSKEY answer is larger than the 1232-byte EDNS buffer, is truncated, falls back to TCP, and the TCP connection is reset. "No servers could be reached" is the whole symptom. Over DNS-over-TLS the same answer arrives whole.

License

Commercial - IaC Bazaar EULA. (c) IaC Bazaar.

Usage code & full reference need an account

The complete copy-paste usage, the full input/output reference, and operational notes are free with an account - shown here and bundled in the download. Sign in and this section fills in.

  • Variables
  • Test

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