[dns-operations] Cloudflare people here ? Problematic records served from a Cloudflare hosted zone.

[Ondřej Surý]

Hey Joe,

found another case of CNAME weirdness.

CNAME returned for A query (or NS or any other type that exists at the target of the CNAME):

; <<>> DiG 9.21.14 <<>> +norec in A www.berlin-city-tour.de. @lina.ns.cloudflare.com.
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 1239
;; flags: qr aa; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 1232
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.berlin-city-tour.de.       IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.berlin-city-tour.de. 60     IN      CNAME   berlin-city-tour.de.
berlin-city-tour.de.    300     IN      A       167.71.36.225

;; Query time: 17 msec
;; SERVER: 2606:4700:50::adf5:3abb#53(lina.ns.cloudflare.com.) (UDP)
;; WHEN: Thu Nov 27 12:27:02 CET 2025
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 82

CNAME not returned for NODATA answer:

; <<>> DiG 9.21.14 <<>> +norec in AAAA www.berlin-city-tour.de. @lina.ns.cloudflare.com.
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 42854
;; flags: qr aa; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 1232
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.berlin-city-tour.de.       IN      AAAA

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
berlin-city-tour.de.    1800    IN      SOA     amit.ns.cloudflare.com. dns.cloudflare.com. 2389579513 10000 2400 604800 1800

;; Query time: 17 msec
;; SERVER: 2606:4700:50::adf5:3abb#53(lina.ns.cloudflare.com.) (UDP)
;; WHEN: Thu Nov 27 12:27:33 CET 2025
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 114

I believe the CNAME has to be returned regardless of the target existence.

Cheers,
Ondrej
--
Ondřej Surý (He/Him)
ondrej at sury.org