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Resources

Root Zone KSK Rollover

For more information on IANA's management of the DNS root zone, please visit the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions website. There, you'll find valuable resources and links about IANA's role in operating the Key Signing Key for the DNS Root Zone.

News

20 May 2026 - Press Release: ICANN Announces Next Major Internet Security Update

7 May 2026 - Blog: Keeping the DNS Reliable: Understanding the KSK Rollover

Resources

Root Zone KSK Rollover – FAQ (English)

What is the Root KSK and the Trust Anchor? – Video

What is a KSK Rollover – Video

Why the 2026 Rollover Matters for Operators – Video

What Resolver Operators and Vendors Should Check – Video

Get Involved

Ask a Question
Send an email to [email protected] with "KSK Rollover" in the subject line to submit your questions.

Join the KSK Rollover Discussion List
Sign up to the mailing list for public discussions on related issues: https://lists.icann.org/postorius/lists/ksk-rollover.icann.org/

Root Zone KSK Rollover Archive

2018 Root Zone KSK Rollover

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."