A history of BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) from its inception to current developments. BIND has been the cornerstone of DNS infrastructure for over four decades.
| Year | Version | Key Milestones |
|---|---|---|
| 1984 | BIND 1 | Original implementation with 4.3BSD |
| 1988 | BIND 4 | Widespread adoption, became de facto standard |
| 1992 | BIND 8 | Modular architecture, improved security |
| 1994 | - | ISC takes over maintenance |
| 1999 | BIND 9 (dev) | Development begins on BIND 9 |
| 2000 | BIND 9.0 | First BIND 9 release, DNSSEC support |
| 2002 | BIND 9.2 | IPv6 support, improved threading |
| 2004 | BIND 9.3 | TSIG, TKEY, DNSSEC improvements |
| 2005 | BIND 9.4 | DLZ (Dynamically Loadable Zones) |
| 2007 | BIND 9.5 | DNSSEC validation, anycast support |
| 2008 | BIND 9.6 | DNSSEC signing, NSEC3 |
| 2010 | BIND 9.7 | DNSSEC inline signing, auto-signing |
| 2012 | BIND 9.8 | Response Rate Limiting (RRL) |
| 2014 | BIND 9.9 | DNS Cookie, improved performance |
| 2016 | BIND 9.10 | DNS over TLS (experimental) |
| 2017 | BIND 9.11 | Full DoT support, improved DNSSEC |
| 2018 | BIND 9.12 | QNAME minimization, performance improvements |
| 2019 | BIND 9.14 | DNS over HTTPS (forwarding), modernized codebase |
| 2020 | BIND 9.16 | Long-Term Support (LTS) release |
| 2021 | BIND 9.18 | Extended Support Version (ESV) |
| 2022 | BIND 9.18.x | Regular security updates |
| 2024 | BIND 9.20 | New ESV branch (July 2024) |
| 2025 | BIND 9.20.x | Continued maintenance |
| 2026 | BIND 9.20.20 | Current ESV (February 2026) |
BIND was first developed in 1984 by students and staff at UC Berkeley as part of the 4.3BSD Unix distribution. It was created to implement the Domain Name System (DNS) protocols that were being standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Since 1994, the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) has maintained BIND. ISC continues to develop and support BIND as a critical internet infrastructure component.
BIND 9 was a complete rewrite addressing limitations of BIND 8:
Key features added:
Major improvements:
ISC introduced ESV (Extended Support Version) model:
Extended Support Version with 4-year support cycle:
Latest: 9.18.46 (February 2026)
Current Extended Support Version:
Latest: 9.20.20 (February 2026)
Development branch for new features:
Latest: 9.21.19 (February 2026)
| Era | Security Features |
|---|---|
| 1984-1994 | Basic access controls |
| 1994-2000 | TSIG, transaction security |
| 2000-2010 | DNSSEC signing/validation |
| 2010-2020 | RRL, DNS Cookie, DoT |
| 2020-Present | QNAME minimization, enhanced DNSSEC |
| Era | Performance Features |
|---|---|
| 1984-1994 | Single-threaded |
| 1994-2000 | Basic threading |
| 2000-2010 | Multi-threaded, task-based |
| 2010-2020 | Optimized caching, modern CPU support |
| 2020-Present | AVX2 optimizations, improved concurrency |
| Era | Protocol Features |
|---|---|
| 1984-1994 | DNS basics (RFC 1034/1035) |
| 1994-2000 | Dynamic DNS (RFC 2136) |
| 2000-2010 | DNSSEC, IPv6, EDNS0 |
| 2010-2020 | DoT, DoH, DNS Cookie |
| 2020-Present | Modern DNS extensions |
BIND has played a crucial role in the growth and stability of the internet:
BIND remains actively maintained by ISC:
While BIND remains widely deployed, it faces competition from:
Current development focuses on:
BIND’s impact on internet infrastructure:
Questions? Find all contact information on our contact page.