When assessing vendors, most security teams focus on the obvious: data encryption, access controls, incident response plans. But there’s a blind spot that’s quietly exposing organizations to serious risk—DNS security.

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the backbone of internet communication. It turns domain names into IP addresses so users can reach websites and services. If a vendor’s DNS is compromised, attackers can hijack traffic, impersonate legitimate domains, and open the door to phishing, malware, and data theft, all without triggering your standard controls.

That’s where DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) comes in. DNSSEC protects the integrity of DNS records by digitally signing them, making it significantly harder for attackers to forge or manipulate responses.

While DNSSEC has been around for years, it’s still missing from most vendor due diligence checklists. That needs to change. A single vendor with an unprotected DNS can become an entry point for supply chain attacks targeting your business. By including DNSSEC in your due diligence process, you’re closing a critical gap, and strengthening your security from the ground up.

What Is DNSSEC?

To understand DNSSEC, you first need to understand DNS. The Domain Name System (DNS) acts like the internet’s phone book, translating human-friendly domain names—like example.com—into machine-readable IP addresses. It’s how users and systems find each other online.

The problem? Standard DNS wasn’t built with security in mind. When your device requests a DNS record, it blindly trusts the response it gets back. That makes DNS a prime target for attackers who can forge or manipulate responses in transit, an attack known as DNS spoofing. In some cases, attackers poison DNS caches to redirect users to fake websites, steal credentials, or distribute malware.

DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions) is designed to stop that. It works by adding cryptographic signatures to DNS records. These signatures are validated during DNS lookups, ensuring the response you receive is authentic and hasn’t been tampered with.

By verifying DNS data at the source, DNSSEC helps prevent spoofing, cache poisoning, and other DNS-based attacks. It doesn’t encrypt traffic like HTTPS or VPNs, but it does ensure that what you see online is exactly what was published by the domain owner—no tricks, no detours.

The Role of DNSSEC in Vendor Security

Your organization’s security is only as strong as its weakest third-party link, and DNS is often that link. Vendors provide everything from cloud services to data storage to payment processing. If their domain name system (DNS) is compromised, it can have direct consequences for your business, from service outages to full-blown breaches.

Without DNSSEC, a vendor’s domain is vulnerable to spoofing and cache poisoning attacks. Cybercriminals can hijack legitimate domain requests, redirect users to malicious lookalikes, or silently intercept data. And because these attacks exploit DNS itself, they’re difficult to detect through traditional monitoring tools.

Consider the 2018 attack on MyEtherWallet, where attackers used DNS hijacking to redirect users to a malicious clone site and steal millions in cryptocurrency. Or the 2020 attack on a global content delivery network, where cache poisoning allowed threat actors to reroute traffic and inject malicious code into trusted web pages.

DNSSEC would have made these attacks significantly harder to execute.

If your vendors don’t secure their DNS, their compromise could become your incident. Including DNSSEC in your vendor risk assessments is no longer optional, it’s a proactive step toward protecting your own infrastructure.

How DNSSEC Supports Overall Vendor Security and Risk Management

DNSSEC doesn’t work in isolation, it’s a foundational layer in a broader vendor security strategy. Think of it as one piece of a larger puzzle that, when combined with other controls, significantly reduces your exposure to third-party risk.

While tools like TLS (for encrypting data in transit), DMARC (for email authentication), and multi-factor authentication (for access control) protect different areas of the attack surface, DNSSEC specifically ensures the authenticity of DNS responses. This matters when evaluating vendors because if a vendor’s domain can be spoofed, attackers can bypass even the strongest authentication or encryption tools by redirecting users before they ever reach the real system.

In a layered security approach, DNSSEC helps validate the integrity of a vendor’s digital infrastructure at its foundation. It closes gaps that phishing campaigns, malware delivery, and man-in-the-middle attacks often exploit.

Including DNSSEC in your risk management process strengthens your overall supply chain resilience. It sends a clear message that your organization, and your partners, prioritize not just surface-level defenses, but root-level trust in the systems you rely on every day.

Including DNSSEC in Your Vendor Due Diligence Process

Adding DNSSEC checks to your vendor due diligence process doesn’t have to be complex, but it does require intentional steps. Start by evaluating whether a vendor has implemented DNSSEC on their primary domains. This signals that they’ve taken steps to protect against DNS-based attacks.

As part of your security assessment, ask vendors:

  • Have you implemented DNSSEC on your public-facing domains?
  • How do you manage DNSSEC key rotation and validation?
  • What other DNS security controls are in place?

You can independently verify DNSSEC status using free online tools like Internet.nl, DNSViz, or Verisign Labs DNSSEC Debugger. These tools reveal whether DNSSEC is enabled, properly configured, and functioning as intended.

For vendors without DNSSEC, it’s worth assessing the risk based on their role in your operations. A marketing platform might pose minimal impact, while a core payment or data processing vendor could introduce serious exposure without DNS integrity protections.

Including DNSSEC as a formal line item in your vendor assessments helps ensure consistent evaluation and encourages best practices across your supply chain before issues arise.

Benefits of Prioritizing DNSSEC in Vendor Risk Management

Making DNSSEC part of your vendor risk management strategy delivers both security and strategic value. First and foremost, it enhances trust. Vendors who implement DNSSEC are less likely to fall victim to DNS spoofing, cache poisoning, or domain hijacking, reducing the chances that your organization becomes collateral damage in an upstream attack.

DNSSEC also helps align your due diligence process with recognized cybersecurity frameworks and regulatory expectations. For example, NIST recommends DNSSEC as part of secure network architecture, and sectors like finance and healthcare increasingly look for DNS protections in third-party audits.

On the contractual side, requiring DNSSEC implementation can strengthen service-level agreements (SLAs) and set clear expectations for baseline security controls. It’s a tangible, verifiable security measure that can be used to enforce compliance and accountability across your vendor ecosystem.

In short, DNSSEC protects the integrity of digital interactions with your vendors, reduces the risk of domain-based attacks, and supports a more resilient, standards-aligned supply chain. Prioritizing it isn’t just a technical upgrade, it’s a smart move for long-term risk reduction.

Challenges and Considerations with DNSSEC Vendor Security

While DNSSEC offers clear benefits, its adoption across vendors isn’t universal and for good reason. Implementing DNSSEC requires careful DNS configuration, regular key management, and coordination with domain registrars and DNS hosting providers. For vendors without in-house DNS expertise, this can be a technical and operational hurdle.

Some vendors may hesitate to adopt DNSSEC due to concerns about misconfigurations, potential service disruptions, or added maintenance overhead. Others might simply prioritize more visible controls like firewalls, endpoint protection, or MFA, assuming DNS security is already “good enough.”

So how can you address this during vendor assessments? Start by opening a dialogue. If a vendor hasn’t implemented DNSSEC, ask why and whether it’s on their roadmap. Offer to share resources or point them to reputable DNS hosting providers that support automated DNSSEC management.

It’s also important to view DNSSEC in context. While it shouldn’t replace other controls, it does add meaningful protection against specific attack vectors. The goal is to encourage layered, holistic security, not perfection overnight.

Being realistic about implementation challenges while still advocating for DNSSEC helps elevate the standard without alienating valuable partners.

Next Steps for DNSSEC Vendor Security and Due Diligence

As vendor ecosystems expand, the need to evaluate foundational security controls, ike DNS configuration, becomes even more critical. DNSSEC helps defend against DNS spoofing, cache poisoning, and other domain-based threats that can lead to serious supply chain vulnerabilities. While it’s often overlooked, DNSSEC plays a vital role in protecting your digital infrastructure from the ground up.

By incorporating DNSSEC checks into your vendor due diligence process, you improve your overall security posture and demonstrate alignment with industry best practices and regulatory frameworks.

Panorays makes it easy to assess vendor DNSSEC adoption as part of a comprehensive third-party risk management (TPRM) program. Our platform continuously monitors vendor domains for DNSSEC configuration and other critical controls so you can make informed, risk-based decisions with confidence.

Ready to strengthen your vendor security due diligence? Book a personalized demo to see how Panorays can help you evaluate DNSSEC and other key risk indicators at scale, without slowing down your business.

DNSSEC Vendor Security FAQs