DNSSEC: NSEC3 iterations too big for weakest DNSKEY strength

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Mattias Geniar, October 12, 2014

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When configuring DNSSEC, it’s common you will run into the following error. Here’s how to get it fixed.

dnssec-signzone: fatal: NSEC3 iterations too big for weakest DNSKEY strength. Maximum iterations allowed 0.

The above can indicate that no active DNSKEY could be found. Will happen if you set your Public/Activate in the future, but try to sign your zones already. As a result, the dnssec-signzone command will not find any active keys, and fail to hash all values.

To make sure, check your current keys and verify their Publis & Activate dates.

/usr/local/sbin/dnssec-signzone \
  -v 0 \
  -K /var/named/chroot/var/named/keychains/domain.tld/ \
  -e now+1209600 \
  -o bjornborgshop.be \
  -3 4326a99f \
  -H 5 \
  -S /var/named/chroot/var/named/master/data/domain.tld


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