RE: Verisign DNS "attack"
- From: "Eric Poole" <EPoole@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "[ISAserver.org Discussion List]" <isalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 14:11:45 -0700
This is interesting. I have several personal sites that stopped working
today, www.hauntmasters.com being the most important. West Coast people
I've spoken with can't connect but they can ping and tracert. East
Coast seem ok. Hmmmmm.....
_______________________________________________
Eric Poole
IS Security Analyst
Community Medical Centers <http://communitymedical.org/>
1140 "T" Street, Fresno, California 93721
559-459-6784 (phone) 559-459-2045 (fax)
-----Original Message-----
From: "Frederic Giroux" <fgiroux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>@CHCC
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 12:02 PM
To: [ISAserver.org Discussion List]
Subject: [isalist] Verisign DNS "attack"
http://www.ISAserver.org
Hello All!
For those of you that do not know yet, Verisign
made changes to the structure of the .com and .net DNS root structure
(see article below). At first, I was fuming about it but them I
realized that we could take profit of the situation by redirecting
anything that goes to sitefinder.verisign.com to of web page of our
choice. Since you know for a fact that the domain name does not exist,
you simply build a page stating that instead of having a "host unknown"
that could just mean that their domain name server is unavailable. If
sitefinder shows, it is because the name is not registered.
Fred
All your Web typos belong to us
By John Leyden << File:
mailto:john.leyden@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >>
Posted: 16/09/2003 at 11:28 GMT
Network administrators are fuming about changes made by
domain registrar Verisign to the DNS system yesterday that they say
violate longstanding Internet standards.
Verisign yesterday added wildcard DNS records to all
.com and .net domains - redirecting surfers who get lost on the Net to
a search page, called Site Finder, run by the company. Those who type in
non-existent addresses will also be served up Site Finder << File:
http://sitefinder.verisign.com/ >> , instead of an error message.
There's widespread concern the alterations will
frustrate commonly used anti-spam techniques. Mail packages often check
to see whether the domain an email is coming from is valid but with the
changes all domains have suddenly become valid, frustrating the
technique.
The radical, and largely unheralded, changes were made
yesterday and followed up by a post << File:
http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg13603.html >> by Verisign
to the NANOG mailing list. This did little beyond stating that Verisign
has added a "wildcard A record to the .com and .net zones" and pointing
users to a white paper << File:
http://www.verisign.com/resources/gd/sitefinder/implementation.pdf >>
that Verisign has prepared.
So, Verisign has turned domain name typos into an
advertising opportunity. Critics believe this is an abuse of Verisign's
role, via acquired company Network Solutions, in administering the .com
and .net registry DNS servers.
And then there are the practical issues: sysadmins are
fuming at the knock-on effects of the changes.
The concerns raised by Reg reader Pete Farrow, who
believes the move will lead to more spam, are typical.
"This means that the basic 'sender domain does not
resolve' check in sendmail and many other mail server software is now
obsolete because any .net and .com now resolves. This will open the
internet up to more spam," said Farrow.
"Perhaps mail servers should check to see if the sender
domain for a particular piece of email resolves to the IP above. If it
does, forward the email to Verisign," he adds.
Ray Bellis, technical director of ISP Community
Internet, echoes these concerns.
"This frustrates spam prevention techniques, where mail
servers verify that the *sender's* domain is legitimate before
accepting an email," Bellis said.
"This breaks all sorts of things horribly," he added.
Sys admins are still analysing the effects of the
changes and there's dispute among experts like Beliis about the effect
of the changes.
Already a backlash is building, with Net admins being
urged to block Verisign's catch-all domain. This could all get very
messy.
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