How to Ensure Online Security With DNSCrypt In Linux OS?

Numerous online scams and cyber crime cases are forcing you to encrypt web traffic to avail optimal online security. Since virtual attacks can result in data, financial, and personal information loss, securing DNS servers are becoming highly important for every Internet user. DNSCrypt, a latest service by OpenDNS, is a protocol that is specially developed for securing web traffic between a client PC and a DNS server. Installing the special security tools can help you prevent various DNS attacks including spying, spoofing or man-in-the-middle attacks. Out of all the leading computer operating systems, Ubuntu is one of the more secured and protected OS platform.

You can install dnscrypt-proxy on Linux OS to use your Ubuntu system as a local resolver or as a DNS forwarder. The installation of the tool will help the servers to authenticate requests and pass them to an upstream server. If you are looking for a complete guide that contains information about the tool and its installation, then read this blog to secure DNS servers.

How Can Encrypting DNS Traffic Help?

There are plenty of security packages available for Ubuntu 14.04 or 14.10 and all of them generally use 127.0.0.2 as the local IP address. The pre-defined local IP address ensures that the utility should not interfere with Ubuntu's default setup. It is one of the tools that encrypt web traffic and offers outstanding security by using a dedicated system user approach for every package. Some tech experts also state that using US based OpenDNS resolver to secure DNS servers can be highly dangerous because it records all the online activities of the user. Additionally, several vulnerabilities in the tool may also hijack the browser’s homepage and redirects URLs to its own malicious servers.

Steps to Install DNSCrypt in Ubuntu via PPA Package

1.       Install dnscrypt-proxy in Ubuntu by using the following commands:

“sudo add-apt-repository ppa:anton+/dnscrypt

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install dnscrypt-proxy”

2.       After installing the tool, set your DNS server’s  network connection to ‘127.0.0.2’

3.       Go to ‘Network Manager’ indicator and select ‘Edit Connections’ option

4.       Now, select the desired connection and click ‘Edit’ option

5.       Look out for the ‘IPv4 Settings’ tab and enter ‘127.0.0.2,’ under ‘DNS servers’ section and then click ‘Save,’ after selecting the ‘Manual’ method

6.       You can also select ‘Automatic (DHCP)’ method,  select ‘Automatic (DHCP) addresses only’ option, enter ‘127.0.0.2,’ under ‘DNS servers’ section and then click ‘Save’

7.       Restart your network connection by selecting Network indicator > Enable Networking twice to disable > and then re-enable it

8.       Check that the ‘127.0.0.2’ DNS is actually in use by visiting Network indicator > Connection Information.

How to Confirm That the ‘dnscrypt-proxy’ is Working?

Since the dnscrypt-proxy packages don't use actual OpenDNS codes, a user will not be able to confirm that the DNS servers are using "dig txt debug.opendns.com" command. Additionally, machines running ‘dnscrypt-proxy’ tool cannot visit OpenDNS' test pages to perform a DNS check. However, you can visit www.dnsleaktest.com and run a DNS check to confirm the operations of the ‘dnscrypt-proxy’ package resolver.

Additionally, you can also run the “sudo tcpdump -i NETWORK-INTERFACE dst host 176.56.237.171” command to check that the ‘dnscrypt-proxy’ is working. After running the command, visit a website in your web browser, and the command output will appear like this:

Conclusion 

Always remember that the tweaks mentioned above will only function on systems running on Ubuntu 14.10, 14.04 and 12.04. Although securing DNS connections are quite difficult, but every user should encrypt web traffic to ensure complete safety of data, files, and other online stuff. Preventing virtual attacks is quite challenging as the malware authors are coming up with smart programs to snoop into your network connections. If you think that your device and online accounts carries some sensitive files and documents, then install the tool right now to enjoy secure DNS access.