API

Purpose

This document describes the JSON-RPC API provided by the Zonemaster RPC API daemon. This API provides means to check the health of domains and to fetch domain health reports. Health checks are called tests in Zonemaster lingo.

Protocol

This API is implemented using JSON-RPC 2.0.

JSON-RPC request objects are accepted in the body of HTTP POST requests to any path. The HTTP request must contain the header Content-Type: application/json.

All JSON-RPC request and response objects have the keys "jsonrpc", "id" and "method". For details on these, refer to the JSON-RPC 2.0 specification.

Deviations from JSON-RPC 2.0

The "jsonrpc" property is not checked.
The error code -32603 is used for invalid arguments, as opposed to the dedicated error code -32602.
When standard error codes are used, the accompanying messages are not the standard ones.

Notes on the JSON-RPC 2.0 implementation

Extra top-level properties in request objects are allowed but ignored.
Extra properties in the "params" object are allowed for some methods but ignored for others.
Error messages from the API should be considered sensitive as they sometimes leak details about the internals of the application and the system.
The error code -32601 is used when the "method" property is missing, rather than the perhaps expected error code -32600.

Request handling

When a method expects a string argument but receives an array or an object, the value may be interpreted as something like "ARRAY(0x1a2d1d0)" or "HASH(0x1a2d2c8)".

When a method expects a boolean argument, any kind of value is accepted. A number of values are interpreted as false: false, null, "", "0" and any number equal to zero. Everything else is interpreted as true.

When a method expects an integer arguments, numbers encoded in strings are also accepted and used transparently, and numbers with fractions are rounded to the nearest integer.

For details on when a test are performed after it's been requested, see the architecture documentation.

Error reporting

If the request object is invalid JSON, an error with code -32700 is reported.

If no method is specified or an invalid method is specified, an error with code -32601 is reported.

All error states that occur after the RPC method has been identified are reported as internal errors with code -32603.

Privilege levels

This API provides three classes of methods:

Unrestricted methods are available to anyone with access to the API.
Authenticated methods have parameters for username and API key credentials.
Administrative methods require that the connection to the API is opened from localhost (127.0.0.1 or ::1).

Data types

This sections describes a number of data types used in this API. Each data type is based on a JSON data type, but additionally imposes its own restrictions.

Batch id

Basic data type: number

An positive integer.

The unique id of a batch.

Domain name

Basic data type: string

If the string is a single character, that character must be ..
The length of the string must not be greater than 254 characters.
When the string is split at . characters (after IDNA conversion, if needed), each component part must be at most 63 characters long.

Note: Currently there are no restrictions on what characters that are allowed.

DS info

Basic data type: object

Properties:

"digest": A string, required. Either 40 or 64 hexadecimal characters (case insensitive).
"algorithm": An integer, optional.
"digtype": An integer, optional.
"keytag": An integer, optional.

Extra properties in DS info objects are ignored when present in RPC method arguments, and never returned as part of RPC method results.

Name server

Basic data type: object

Properties:

"ns": A domain name, required.
"ip": An IPv4 or IPv6 address, required.

Priority

Basic data type: number

This parameter is any integer that will be used by The Zonemaster Test Agents to sort the test requests from highest to lowest priority. This parameter will typically be used in a setup where a GUI will send requests to the RPC API and would like to get response as soon as possible while at the same time using the idle time for background batch testing. The drawback of this setup will be that the GUI will have to wait for at least one background processing slot to become free (would be a few secods in a typical installation with up to 30 parallel zonemaster processes allowed)

Queue

Basic data type: number

This parameter allows an optional separation of testing in the same database. The default value for the queue is 0. It is closely related to the lock_on_queue parameter of the [ZONEMASTER] section of the backend_config.ini file. The typical use case for this parameter would be a setup with several separate Test Agents running on separate physical or virtual machines each one dedicated to a specific task, for example queue 0 for frontend tests and queue 1 dedicated to batch testing. Running several Test Agents on the same machine is currently not supported.

Profile name

Basic data type: string

The name of a profile.

One of the strings:

"default_profile"
"test_profile_1"
"test_profile_2"

The "test_profile_2" profile is identical to "default_profile".

TODO: What is the expected behavior when a profile other than the ones listed above is requested?

Progress percentage

Basic data type: number

An integer ranging from 0 (not started) to 100 (finished).

Severity level

Basic data type: string

One of the strings (in order from least to most severe):

"DEBUG"
"INFO"
"NOTICE"
"WARNING"
"ERROR"
"CRITICAL"

Test id

Basic data type: string

Each test has a unique test id.

Test result

Basic data type: object

The object has three keys, "module", "message" and "level".

"module": a string. The test module that produced the result.
"message": a string. A human-readable message describing that particular result.
"level": a severity level. The severity of the message.

Sometimes additional keys are present.

"ns": a domain name. The name server used by the test module.

TODO: Can other extra keys in addition to "ns" occur here? Can something be said about when each extra key is present?

Timestamp

Basic data type: string

TODO: Specify date format

Translation language

Basic data type: string

Any string starting with "fr" is interpreted as French.
Any string starting with "sv" is interpreted as Swedish.
Any other string is interpreted as English.

API method: `version_info`

Returns the version of the Zonemaster Backend and Zonemaster Engine software combination

Example request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "version_info"
}

Example response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "result": {
    "zonemaster_backend": "1.0.7",
    "zonemaster_engine": "v1.0.14"
  }
}

`"result"`

An object with the following properties:

"zonemaster_backend": A string. The version number of the running Zonemaster Backend.
"zonemaster_engine": A string. The version number of the Zonemaster Engine used by the RPC API daemon.

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `get_ns_ips`

Looks up the A and AAAA records for a domain name on the public Internet.

Example request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "method": "get_ns_ips",
  "params": "zonemaster.net"
}

Example response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "result": [
    {
      "zonemaster.net": "192.134.4.83"
    },
    {
      "zonemaster.net": "2001:67c:2218:3::1:83"
    }
  ]
}

`"params"`

A domain name. The domain name whose IP addresses are to be resolved.

`"result"`

A list of one or two objects representing IP addresses (if 2 one is for IPv4 the other for IPv6). The objects each have a single key and value. The key is the domain name given as input. The value is an IP address for the name, or the value 0.0.0.0 if the lookup returned no A or AAAA records.

TODO: If the name resolves to two or more IPv4 address, how is that represented?

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `get_data_from_parent_zone`

Returns all the NS/IP and DS/DNSKEY/ALGORITHM pairs of the domain from the parent zone.

Example request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 3,
  "method": "get_data_from_parent_zone",
  "params": "zonemaster.net"
}

Example response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 3,
  "result": {
    "ns_list": [
      {
        "ns": "ns.nic.se",
        "ip": "2001:67c:124c:100a::45"
      },
      {
        "ns": "ns.nic.se",
        "ip": "91.226.36.45"
      },
      ...
    ],
    "ds_list": [
      {
        "algorithm": 5,
        "digtype": 2,
        "keytag": 54636,
        "digest": "cb496a0dcc2dff88c6445b9aafae2c6b46037d6d144e43def9e68ab429c01ac6"
      },
      {
        "keytag": 54636,
        "digest": "fd15b55e0d8ee2b5a8d510ab2b0a95e68a78bd4a",
        "algorithm": 5,
        "digtype": 1
      }
    ]
  }
}

Note: The above example response was abbreviated for brevity to only include the first two elments in each list. Omitted elements are denoted by a ... symbol.

`"params"`

A domain name. The domain whose DNS records are requested.

`"result"`

An object with the following properties:

"ns_list": A list of name server objects representing the nameservers of the given domain name.
"ds_list": A list of DS info objects.

TODO: Add wording about what the "ds_list" objects represent.

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `start_domain_test`

Enqueues a new test.

If an identical test was already enqueued and hasn't been started or was enqueued less than 10 minutes earlier, no new test is enqueued. Instead the id for the already enqueued or run test is returned.

Tests enqueud using this method are assigned a priority of 10.

Example request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 4,
  "method": "start_domain_test",
  "params": {
    "client_id": "Zonemaster Dancer Frontend",
    "domain": "zonemaster.net",
    "profile": "default_profile",
    "client_version": "1.0.1",
    "nameservers": [
      {
        "ip": "2001:67c:124c:2007::45",
        "ns": "ns3.nic.se"
      },
      {
        "ip": "192.93.0.4",
        "ns": "ns2.nic.fr"
      }
    ],
    "ds_info": [],
    "advanced": true,
    "ipv6": true,
    "ipv4": true
  }
}

Example response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 4,
  "result": "c45a3f8256c4a155"
}

`"params"`

An object with the following properties:

"client_id": A free-form string, optional.
"domain": A domain name, required.
"profile": A profile name, optional.
"client_version": A free-form string, optional.
"nameservers": A list of name server objects, optional.
"ds_info": A list of DS info objects, optional.
"advanced": Deprecated. A boolean, optional.
"ipv6": A boolean, optional. (default false)
"ipv4": A boolean, optional. (default false)
"config": A string, optional. The name of a config profile.
"user_ip": A ..., optional.
"user_location_info": A ..., optional.
"priority": A priority, optional
"queue": A queue, optional

TODO: Clarify the data type of the following "params" properties: "user_ip" and "user_location_info".

TODO: Clarify the purpose of each "params" property.

TODO: Clarify the default value of each optional "params" property.

`"result"`

A test id. The newly started test, or a recently run test with the same parameters. started within the recent configurable short time.

TODO: Specify which configuration option controls the duration of the window of test reuse.

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `test_progress`

Reports on the progress of a test.

Example request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 5,
  "method": "test_progress",
  "params": "c45a3f8256c4a155"
}

Example response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 5,
  "result": 100
}

`"params"`

A test id. The test to report on.

`"result"`

A progress percentage.

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `get_test_results`

Return all test result objects of a test, with messages in the requested translation language.

Example request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 6,
  "method": "get_test_results",
  "params": {
    "id": "c45a3f8256c4a155",
    "language": "en"
  }
}

Example response:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 6,
  "result": {
    "creation_time": "2016-11-15 11:53:13.965982",
    "id": 25,
    "hash_id": "c45a3f8256c4a155",
    "params": {
      "ds_info": [],
      "client_version": "1.0.1",
      "domain": "zonemaster.net",
      "profile": "default_profile",
      "ipv6": true,
      "advanced": true,
      "nameservers": [
        {
          "ns": "ns3.nic.se",
          "ip": "2001:67c:124c:2007::45"
        },
        {
          "ip": "192.93.0.4",
          "ns": "ns2.nic.fr"
        }
      ],
      "ipv4": true,
      "client_id": "Zonemaster Dancer Frontend"
    },
    "results": [
      {
        "module": "SYSTEM",
        "message": "Using version v1.0.14 of the Zonemaster engine.\n",
        "level": "INFO"
      },
      {
        "message": "Configuration was read from DEFAULT CONFIGURATION\n",
        "level": "INFO",
        "module": "SYSTEM"
      },
      ...
    ]
  }
}

Note: The above example response was abbreviated for brevity to only include the first two elments in each list. Omitted elements are denoted by a ... symbol.

`"params"`

An object with the following properties:

"id": A test id, required.
"language": A translation language, required.

`"result"`

An object with a the following properties:

"creation_time": A timestamp. The time at which the test was enqueued.
"id": An integer.
"hash_id": A string.
"params": The "params" object sent to start_domain_test when the test was started.
"results": A list of test result objects.

TODO: Specify the MD5 hash format.

TODO: What about if the Test was created with add_batch_job or something else?

TODO: It's confusing that the method is named "start_domain_test", when it doesn't actually start the test.

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `get_test_history`

Returns a list of completed tests for a domain.

Example request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 7,
  "method": "get_test_history",
  "params": {
    "offset": 0,
    "limit": 200,
    "frontend_params": {
      "client_id": "Zonemaster Dancer Frontend",
      "domain": "zonemaster.net",
      "profile": "default_profile",
      "client_version": "1.0.1",
      "nameservers": [
        {
          "ns": "ns3.nic.se",
          "ip": "2001:67c:124c:2007::45"
        },
        {
          "ns": "ns2.nic.fr",
          "ip": "192.93.0.4"
        }
      ],
      "ds_info": [],
      "advanced": true,
      "ipv6": true,
      "ipv4": true
    }
  }
}

Example response:

{
  "id": 7,
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": [
    {
      "id": "c45a3f8256c4a155",
      "creation_time": "2016-11-15 11:53:13.965982",
      "overall_result": "error",
      "advanced_options": null
    },
    {
      "id": "32dd4bc0582b6bf9",
      "creation_time": "2016-11-14 08:46:41.532047",
      "overall_result": "error",
      "advanced_options": null
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Note: The above example response was abbreviated for brevity to only include the first two elments in each list. Omitted elements are denoted by a ... symbol.

`"params"`

An object with the following properties:

"offset": An integer, optional. (default: 0).
"limit": An integer, optional. (default: 200).
"frontend_params": As described below.

The value of "frontend_params" is an object in turn, with the keys "domain" and "nameservers". "domain" and "nameservers" will be used to look up all tests for the given domain, separated according to if they were started with a "nameservers" parameter or not.

TODO: Do we have an SQL injection opportunity here?

TODO: Describe the remaining keys in the example

TODO: Describe the purpose of "offset" and "limit"

TODO: Is the "nameservers" value a boolean in disguise?

TODO: The description of "frontend_params" is clearly not up to date. Can it be described in a better way?

`"result"`

An object with the following properties:

"id" A test id.
"creation_time": A timestamp. Time when the Test was enqueued.
"advanced_options": Deprecated. A string or null. "1" if the "advanced" flag was set in the method call to start_domain_test that created this Test. In some future release this property will no longer be included in the result.
"overall_result": A string. The most severe problem level logged in the test results.

TODO: Describe the format of "overall_result".

TODO: What about if the test was created with add_batch_job or something else?

TODO: What about if the test was created with "advanced" set to false in start_domain_test?

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `add_api_user`

TODO: Method description.

This method requires the administrative privilege level.

Example request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "add_api_user",
  "id": 4711,
  "params": {
    "username": "citron",
    "api_key": "fromage"
  }
}

Example response:

{
  "id": 4711,
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": 0
}

`"params"`

An object with the following properties:

"username": A string, optional. The name of the user to add.
"api_key": A string, optional. The API key (in effect, password) for the user to add.

TODO: Are "username" and "api_key" really supposed to be optional? Because they are now, is that a bug? I get "result": 0 when I omit them. I would have expected parameter validation errors.

`"result"`

An integer.

TODO: Describe the possible values of the result and what they mean.

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `add_batch_job`

TODO: Method description.

All the domains will be tested using identical parameters.

An api user can only have one un-finished batch at a time.

If an identical test for a domain was already enqueued and hasn't been started or was enqueued less than 10 minutes earlier, no new test is enqueued for this domain.

Tests enqueud using this method are assigned a priority of 5.

Example request:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 147559211348450,
  "method": "add_batch_job",
  "params" : {
    "api_key": "fromage",
    "username": "citron",
    "test_params": {},
    "domains": [
      "zonemaster.net",
      "domain1.se",
      "domain2.fr"
    ]
  }
}

Example response:

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 147559211348450,
    "result": 8
}

`"params"`

An object with the following properties:

"username": A string. The username of this batch.
"api_key": A string. The api_key associated with the username username of this batch.
"domains": A list of domain names. The domains to be tested.
"test_params": As described below.

The value of "test_params" is an object with the following properties:

"client_id": A free-form string, optional.
"profile": A profile name, optional.
"client_version": A free-form string, optional.
"nameservers": A list of name server objects, optional.
"ds_info": A list of DS info objects, optional.
"advanced": Deprecated. A boolean, optional.
"ipv6": A boolean, optional. (default: false)
"ipv4": A boolean, optional. (default: false)
"config": A string, optional. The name of a config profile.
"user_ip": A ..., optional.
"user_location_info": A ..., optional.
"priority": A priorty, optional
"queue": A queue, optional

TODO: Clarify the data type of the following "frontend_params" properties: "user_ip" and "user_location_info".

TODO: Clarify which "params" and "frontend_params" properties are optional and which are required.

TODO: Clarify the default value of each optional "params" and "frontend_params" property.

TODO: Clarify the purpose of each "params" and "frontend_params" property.

TODO: Are domain names actually validated in practice?

`"result"`

A batch id.

`"error"`

You can't create a new batch job. A batch with unfinished tests already exists for this api user.

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `get_batch_job_result`

TODO: Method description.

Example request:

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 147559211994909,
    "method": "get_batch_job_result",
    "params": "8"
}

Example response:

{
   "jsonrpc": "2.0",
   "id": 147559211994909,
   "result": {
      "nb_finished": 5,
      "finished_test_ids": [
         "43b408794155324b",
         "be9cbb44fff0b2a8",
         "62f487731116fd87",
         "692f8ffc32d647ca",
         "6441a83fcee8d28d"
      ],
      "nb_running": 195
   }
}

`"params"`

A batch id.

`"result"`

An object with the following properties:

"nb_finished": an integer. The number of finished tests.
"nb_running": an integer. The number of running tests.
"finished_test_ids": a list of test ids. The set of finished tests in this batch.

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `validate_syntax`

Checks the "params" structure for syntax coherence. It is very strict on what is allowed and what is not to avoid any SQL injection and cross site scripting attempts. It also checks the domain name for syntax to ensure the domain name seems to be a valid domain name and a test by the Zonemaster Engine can be started.

Example request:

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 143014426992009,
    "method": "validate_syntax",
    "params": {
        "domain": "zonemaster.net",
        "ipv6": 1,
        "ipv4": 1,
        "nameservers": [
            {
                "ns": "ns1.nic.fr",
                "ip": "1.2.3.4"
            },
            {
                "ns": "ns2.nic.fr",
                "ip": "192.134.4.1"
            }
        ]
    }
}

Example response:

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 143014426992009,
    "result": {
        "status": "ok",
        "message": "Syntax ok"
    }
}

`"params"`

An object with the following properties:

"domain": a domain name.
"ipv4": an optional 1, 0, true or false.
"ipv6": an optional 1, 0, true or false.
"ds_info": an optional list of DS info objects.
"nameservers": an optional list of objects each of name server objects.
"profile": an optional profile name.
"advanced": an optional true or false.
"client_id": ...
"client_version": ...
"user_ip": ...
"user_location_info": ...
"config": ...

If the "nameservers" key is not set, a recursive query made by the server to its locally configured resolver for NS records for the value of the "domain" key must return a reply with at least one resource record in the Answer Section.

At least one of "ipv4" and "ipv6" must be present and either 1 or true.

TODO: Clarify the data type of the following "params" properties: "client_id", "client_version", "user_ip", "user_location_info" and "config".

TODO: Clarify the purpose of each "params" property.

`"result"`

An object with the following properties:

"status": either "ok" or "nok".
"message": a string. Human-readable details about the status.

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

API method: `get_test_params`

TODO: Method description

TODO: Example request

TODO: Example response

`"params"`

A test id.

`"result"`

The "params" object sent to start_domain_test when the test was started.

TODO: What about if the test was created with add_batch_job or something else?

`"error"`

TODO: List all possible error codes and describe what they mean enough for clients to know how react to them.

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API

Purpose

Protocol

Deviations from JSON-RPC 2.0

Notes on the JSON-RPC 2.0 implementation

Request handling

Error reporting

Privilege levels

Data types

Batch id

Domain name

DS info

Name server

Priority

Queue

Profile name

Progress percentage

Severity level

Test id

Test result

Timestamp

Translation language

API method: version_info

"result"

"error"

API method: get_ns_ips

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: get_data_from_parent_zone

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: start_domain_test

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: test_progress

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: get_test_results

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: get_test_history

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: add_api_user

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: add_batch_job

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: get_batch_job_result

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: validate_syntax

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: get_test_params

"params"

"result"

"error"

API method: `version_info`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `get_ns_ips`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `get_data_from_parent_zone`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `start_domain_test`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `test_progress`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `get_test_results`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `get_test_history`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `add_api_user`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `add_batch_job`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `get_batch_job_result`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `validate_syntax`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`

API method: `get_test_params`

`"params"`

`"result"`

`"error"`