Show HN: I built a DNS resolver from scratch in Rust – no DNS libraries (github.com)

by rdme 68 comments 115 points
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68 comments

[−] rdme 44d ago
Since I needed it to be my primary DNS, I also added: recursive resolution from root nameservers, DNSSEC chain-of-trust validation, ad blocking (385K+ domains), and LAN service discovery.

I wrote about the DNSSEC implementation here: https://numa.rs/blog/posts/dnssec-from-scratch.html It's now my daily system DNS. Single binary (~8MB), macOS/Linux/Windows.

sudo numa install

[−] pyprism 43d ago
Very interesting project! I have a couple of questions. With all the default blocked domains loaded, what is the average memory usage? Currently, I am using Pi-hole on a low memory single board computer. Is it possible to use this instead of Pi-hole? If so, I’d like to use it for all of my devices."
[−] rdme 43d ago
With 390K blocked domains: ~31MB total process footprint. Breakdown: - Blocklist: 23.4MB (390K domains) - Cache: 3.8MB (4.4K entries) - Query log, SRTT, runtime: ~4MB

It binds to 0.0.0.0:53 by default, so just point your devices' DNS to the board's IP

[−] onel 43d ago
Romanian project. Instant upvote. Great work
[−] rdme 43d ago
Thanks! If you hit any issues during setup, feel free to open an issue — happy to help debug. The dashboard at localhost:5380 shows what's happening in real time.
[−] siruwastaken 43d ago
Why are you replying to your own coment?
[−] happytoexplain 43d ago
I think it's a bot? There's an identical version of this comment in another reply, except it cuts off half way through a sentence.
[−] rdme 43d ago
I hit reply on the wrong post and you can't delete comments or at least I don't see how it can be done
[−] dgb23 43d ago
Above the comments I've written on HN I see:

5 minutes ago | parent | next | edit | delete

[−] hxugufjfjf 43d ago
That only lasts for a few minutes until it’s locked and you can no longer delete after that.
[−] eqvinox 43d ago
It lasts 2 full hours, at least for edit. Delete stops working when someone replies afaik.
[−] rdme 43d ago
because I clicked reply on the wrong one and you can't delete it...
[−] nalekberov 43d ago
Of course I can’t prove it, but i am guessing some kind of “AI” is doing that. Humans rarely use emdashes.
[−] BrandoElFollito 42d ago
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[−] dang 42d ago
Please don't break the site guidelines, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are.

You're right about em dashes of course (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47154752) but being right on a point does not make it ok to attack another user or violate the rules of the site.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[−] nalekberov 42d ago
[flagged]
[−] dang 42d ago
Please don't respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. That only makes things worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[−] BrandoElFollito 42d ago
[flagged]
[−] voxadam 43d ago
It's neither here nor there but can I ask about the name? I only ask because when I see "numa" in relation to computing I immediately think "Non-Uniform Memory Access".

Very cool project by the way. I wonder how this would run on an OpenWRT device.

I see in your install.sh that you support Linux and Darwin/MacOS, do you think there would be any major hurdles in supporting FreeBSD?

[−] rdme 43d ago
also in romanian nume = name(dns) and I also get the easter egg of that well known Romanian song numa numa :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnopHCL1Jk8

On OpenWRT — it's musl-based Linux so the binary should run the arm one would need a crosscompile Free BSD can be done (pr's welcome?)

[−] jcalvinowens 32d ago
When you've capitalized the N in "Numa", it's a lot more obvious to my brain you don't mean the acronym. But this is nitpicky bikeshedding and maybe I'm weird :)
[−] camdv 43d ago
On the web site, it's named after the second King of Rome
[−] dwedge 43d ago
I have a couple of projects that once a month need to run a few million dns lookups as quickly as possible. I'm tempted to try this just to see how it performs and if it breaks.
[−] rdme 43d ago
let me know if you do it!
[−] kevin061 43d ago
The interface looks vibecoded. I have no problem with people vibecoding things. In fact, I have zero frontend skills, so I rely on AI to be able to make easy-to-use interfaces. However, I feel like this should be clearly and prominently displayed in the project page.

Furthermore it is a little off-putting to see a vibecoded UI because I have very little confidence that the rest of the backend code is not vibecoded. I know I am possibly being unfair, but this is how it looks to me. If the developer tells me they didn't use AI at all, I would believe it.

[−] rdme 43d ago
It definitely is and you can see it in the git commits. The DNS wire protocol parser was the original learning project I wrote to understand the spec. Later features (recursive resolver, DNSSEC validation, the dashboard) were built with the help of AI
[−] kevin061 43d ago
That's fair, thanks for letting me know!
[−] andoando 43d ago
I dont get this criticism at all, would you prefer someone write a shittier UI? And since when were people writing amazing bug free software before hand where not being vibe coded meant you could trust its good software?

I guess to be fair, beforehand no body would be attempting this kind of thing and releasing it unless they knew what they were doing

[−] kevin061 43d ago
I literally said I'm fine with using LLMs for the frontend, but I think this should be disclosed clearly.
[−] bitpush 43d ago
I don't think having conditions to certain things qualify as "I'm fine with it"

"I'm fine with people eating meat, as long as they declare so when we go out" like why? Why does it matter?

[−] xg15 42d ago
Both GP's and your example in effect mean "I'm fine with other people doing this, but I don't want to have anything to do with it, or at least be able to decide case-by-case."

Which is a valid stance IMO.

In the OP, a vibecoded UI when the whole project emphasizes "I did this myself, from scratch" is a bit awkward.

Does "I did this myself" mean they read all the relevant specs and then wrote the code - or did they just write the prompts themselves?

Edit: OP already answered and confirmed that they in fact did write the code themselves.

[−] dev_l1x_be 43d ago
Given the state of webdev it is not a surprise. LLMs are my rubber gloves when working with web technologies.
[−] p2hari 43d ago
Nice idea. To test I ran a simple nextjs on port 3000. Added the service via the dashboard. However, when I visit the url, (using chrome latest version), https://{mygivenname}.numa/ I hit a DNS resolution fail error. If I do not use a trailing '/' then it is going to google search for {mygivenname}.numa and shows me some search results. Should I open an issue?
[−] rdme 43d ago
Is it possible you didn't start it as root ( sudo numa install)? Does dig {mygivenname}.numa @127.0.0.1 return 127.0.0.1 ? What OS are you on? Maybe you report it as an issue?
[−] p2hari 43d ago
Thanks for quick response. It started to work. I think it must be some caching issue. But it needs a trailing '/' . Maybe will raise the issue for this. Cool.
[−] arcaen 43d ago
I believe that is actually browser specific behavior. I sometimes use a fake TLD for stuff hosted at home, and both chrome and firefox resort to search if I don't include a trailing '/'. My assumption is the browser does a quick match against known TLDs and if it doesn't match then it resorts to search.
[−] rdme 43d ago
exactly, I'll add a pr soon that tells the os (and browsers) that is'a a valid domain
[−] conradludgate 43d ago
What's the reason you're not using hickory? Or was that the LLMs choice? Genuinely curious
[−] rdme 43d ago
This was started as a learning project, went from the start to the lowest level then I've just added features I wanted one by one, it just made the most sense
[−] 6r17 43d ago
Same hack here ; I have no DSN running by default - much more handy than having to set up nginx as it has no opinion on the targeted infrastructure. And the bonus point is that you can see every sneaky request that happens when you browse ; so another side-project connected to this is to make an inventory and policy filter
[−] bahador 43d ago
feature request: libnuma so i can use it programmatically with configuration. also, multiple user defined blocklists.
[−] fanf2 42d ago
The first thing I look at in new DNS code is whether it’s vulnerable to DNS name compression loops. This code passes the test! However it’s vulnerable to dots embedded in labels: it doesn’t escape bytes properly when converting from wire format to text.
[−] BugsBunnyCodes 43d ago
I have a project that requires DNS lookups and block ads. I am going to try this for it.
[−] dev_l1x_be 43d ago
How is to compare to AdGuard? If it gets those features I would be switching over.
[−] rbluethl 44d ago
Cool idea, every developer running apps in dev on their machine knows this pain for sure. I'll give it a spin and let you know how it goes!
[−] lyfeninja 44d ago
I think I need to give this a go. Cool project.
[−] Asuka-wx 43d ago
Nice work. What made you choose this license?
[−] _kidlike 43d ago
very interesting. how does the blocklist work? can one manage the lists? like StevenBlack or others.
[−] bulanel 43d ago
nice
[−] voltagex_ 43d ago
Great idea, pity about the slop.
[−] goodpoint 43d ago
we need a [slop] flag in the headlines
[−] derodero24 42d ago
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[−] derodero24 42d ago
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[−] derodero24 42d ago
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[−] arafeq 43d ago
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[−] EdoardoIaga 43d ago
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