DNS over TLS with Dnsmasq and Stubby

• This how-to describes the method for setting up DNS over TLS on OpenWrt.
• It relies on Dnsmasq and Stubby for resource efficiency and performance.
• Follow DNS hijacking to intercept DNS traffic or use VPN to protect all traffic.

Install the packages and configure DNS encryption.

# Install packages
opkg update
opkg install dnsmasq stubby
 
# Enable DNS encryption
uci -q delete dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].server
uci get stubby.global.listen_address \
| sed -e "s/\s/\n/g;s/@/#/g" \
| while read -r STUBBY_SERV
do uci add_list dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].server="${STUBBY_SERV}"
done
 
# Enforce DNS encryption for LAN clients
uci set dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].noresolv="1"
uci commit dhcp
/etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart

LAN clients should use Dnsmasq as a primary resolver. Dnsmasq forwards DNS queries to Stubby which encrypts DNS traffic.

Collect and analyze the following information.

# Restart services
/etc/init.d/log restart; /etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart; /etc/init.d/stubby restart
 
# Log and status
logread -e dnsmasq; netstat -l -n -p | grep -e dnsmasq
logread -e stubby; netstat -l -n -p | grep -e stubby
 
# Runtime configuration
pgrep -f -a dnsmasq; pgrep -f -a stubby
head -v -n -0 /etc/resolv.* /tmp/resolv.* /tmp/resolv.*/*
 
# Persistent configuration
uci show dhcp; uci show stubby

If you want to manage the settings using web interface.

Navigate to LuCI → Network → DHCP and DNS to configure Dnsmasq.

Stubby is configured with Cloudflare DNS by default. You can change it to Google DNS or any other DoT provider including your own DoT server with Nginx. Make sure the resolvers support DNSSEC validation if required. Specify several resolvers to improve fault tolerance.

# Configure DoT provider
while uci -q delete stubby.@resolver[0]; do :; done
uci set stubby.dns6a="resolver"
uci set stubby.dns6a.address="2001:4860:4860::8888"
uci set stubby.dns6a.tls_auth_name="dns.google"
uci set stubby.dns6b="resolver"
uci set stubby.dns6b.address="2001:4860:4860::8844"
uci set stubby.dns6b.tls_auth_name="dns.google"
uci set stubby.dnsa="resolver"
uci set stubby.dnsa.address="8.8.8.8"
uci set stubby.dnsa.tls_auth_name="dns.google"
uci set stubby.dnsb="resolver"
uci set stubby.dnsb.address="8.8.4.4"
uci set stubby.dnsb.tls_auth_name="dns.google"
uci commit stubby
/etc/init.d/stubby restart

Enforce DNSSEC validation if your DNS provider does not support it, or you want to perform the validation yourself. Beware of fault tolerance and performance issues.

# Enforce DNSSEC validation
uci set dhcp.@dnsmasq[0].proxydnssec="1"
uci commit dhcp
/etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart
uci set stubby.global.appdata_dir="/tmp/stubby"
uci set stubby.global.dnssec_return_status="1"
uci commit stubby
/etc/init.d/stubby restart