DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is a computer networking protocol that provides a secure connection for Domain Name System (DNS) lookups. It was created as an effort to increase network security and privacy by encrypting DNS requests in the same manner as web requests, and to increase loading speeds by preventing network congestion.
DoH uses the HTTPS protocol to establish a secure connection between the DNS client and the recursive name server and is encrypted with Transport Layer Security (TLS). This ensures that the DNS queries are secure and not exposed to third-party eavesdropping. Additionally, DoH is able to bypass middle boxes that would traditionally limit or track DNS lookups. This applies to both malicious and commercial middle boxes with the potential to censor content or collect data.
In addition to increased security and privacy, DoH is able to improve loading speeds. This is mainly due to the fact that the encrypted requests are faster than plaintext UDP requests, since there is minimal overhead and no fragmentation required. There is also little network congestion since blocking or inspecting the packets does not work due to the encryption.
Initially, DoH was proposed in 2011 by Chen et al. and further developed in 2017 when the company Mozilla implemented DoH in their web browser Firefox. Shortly after, Google joined the effort and implemented DoH in Chrome and other products.
Since then, DoH has become increasingly popular due to its increased security and privacy, as many providers are now offering DoH services. However, the adoption of DoH has been met with some criticism, as some argue that it takes control away from internet service providers (ISPs) and puts it in the hands of the DNS providers.
Overall, DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is a computer networking protocol that provides a secure connection for Domain Name System (DNS) lookups, and it has become increasingly popular for its added security and privacy protections.
