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Date:      Mon, 17 Nov 2014 02:38:21 +0000
From:      Jamie Landeg-Jones <jamie@dyslexicfish.net>
To:        freebsd-security@freebsd.org, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Potential security issues with new top level domains?
Message-ID:  <201411170238.sAH2cLXQ062439@dyslexicfish.net>

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As if I needed another reason to hate the new top level domain free-for-all,
I was checking on one of my machines earlier, and forgot that I'd
renamed it, so it is no longer in my domains DNS. This was the result:

 | 2:13 (2) "~" jamie@catflap% ping android
 | PING android (127.0.53.53): 56 data bytes
 | ping: sendto: Can't assign requested address
 | ping: sendto: Can't assign requested address
 | ping: sendto: Can't assign requested address
 | ^C
 | --- android ping statistics ---
 | 3 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss
 |
 | 2:13 (3) "~" jamie@catflap% cat /etc/resolv.conf
 | domain dyslexicfish.net
 | nameserver 127.0.0.1
 | options edns0

A quick check revealed that, as expected, unbound was first asked for
'android.dyslexicfish.net.' which returned NX, and was then asked for
'android.' which resolved the 'A' that the owners of the TLD have
configured.

Now, any scripts/binaries etc. I have that use DNS resolution always
use the FQDN with the trailing dot, so I have no personal security
worries, but I'm sure there are others out there that don't, and even
so, it could still bite for interactive use.

Yes, the 'A' returned is invalid in this case, but what's to say this
will be the case with all future new TLDs?

I realise the spec is being followed correctly, but it still seems wrong
to me that any 'host' related resource types resolve for an address at the
top level, and I was wondering what others thought about it?

Should the FreeBSD resolver ignore / not make such requests?

Should instead the functionality be built into unbound/named etc.?

Should instead TLD owners be banned from adding such records? (this still
could be abused though)

Should neither be done? I dunno, I'm just used to A/AAAA resolves on a non qualified
address to either come from /etc/hosts, or be in under a domain in 'domain/search'
from /etc/resolv.conf

The current situation seems 'wrong' and potentially troublesome to me, but I'd
be interested in what others think.

Cheers, Jamie



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