Install & Setup Stubby with Pi-hole for NextDNS

What is Stubby?

Stubby is an application that acts as a local DNS Privacy stub resolver (using DNS-Over-TLS). Stubby encrypts DNS queries sent from a client machine (desktop or laptop) to a DNS Privacy resolver increasing end user privacy.

Installing Stubby

Ensure the "Universe" repository is enabled and ensure the repositories are up to date:

sudo add-apt-repository universe && sudo apt update

Install Stubby:

sudo apt install stubby -y

Configure stubby

Back up and replace the default stubby.yml file with the stubby.yml file in this repo:

sudo mv /etc/stubby/stubby.yml /etc/stubby/stubby.backup.yml && sudo wget -O /etc/stubby/stubby.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/geotsot/pihole-stubby/main/stubby.yml

You can edit and uncomment the configuration file to change the DNS servers used. (Default: NextDNS)

If you are creating a custom configuration file you can find more info below:

DNS Privacy

Restart Stubby to recognize the new configuration

sudo systemctl restart stubby && sudo systemctl status stubby

Configure Pi-hole

Configure Pi-hole to use unbound as your recursive DNS server and untick any other upstream DNS Server:

Settings -> DNS -> Custom DNS Servers

127.0.0.1#5300

Click save.