On Mon, May 11, 2020 at 5:34 AM Sara Dickinson <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> > On 7 May 2020, at 17:41, Eric Rescorla <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > Extensively trimming:
> >
> > To be honest, this thread has gotten so long that I've lost
> > track of the various changes being proposed, so here's
> > my comments on the text as a whole.
> >
>
> To be honest, I really thought we had pretty much converged on some text
> that had consensus for this section...
>

As I said at the beginning, i think it's generally problematic, for the
reasons below, but as you insist on keeping it, I'm giving it a close read,
and in that context, this framing is problematic.


> > > "An increasing number of applications are offering
> > > application-specific encrypted DNS resolution settings, rather than
> > > defaulting to using only the system resolver.  A variety of heuristics
> > > and resolvers are available in different applications including
> > > hard-coded lists of recognized DoH/DoT servers.
> >
> > As I said earlier, I think this text is highly misleading.
> > There are at least two major loci of filtering via DNS:
> >
> > 1. In the operating system itself via the system resolver
> >    or hooks into that resolver.
> >
> > 2. In the network via (a) the selected resolver or (b) on-path
> >    filtering of the traffic to/from that resolver.
> >
> > There are least three major application resolution technologies that
> > render one or more of these techniques ineffective:
> >
> > 1. Using an application-level resolver which uses the system settings
> >    [what Chrome currently does] bypasses (1)
> >
> > 2. Using an application-level resolver which uses DoH/DoT to the
> >    system configured resolver [what Edge and Chrome are experimenting
> >    with] bypasses (1) and maybe 2(b) if the network config gets out of
> >    sync (i.e., you don't want your system configured resolver to do
> >    DoH/DoT if you use network-level filtering, but it's easy to see
> >    how this can happen if (for instance) you just offer the the user
> >    the ISP resolver and they start supporting DoH/DoT
> >
> > 3. Using an application-level resolver which uses DoH/DoT to
> >    an application-selected resolver [as in the Firefox TRR
> >    system] bypasses all of these.
> >
> > The key point is that a lot of filtering is broken by reasons
> > that have nothing to do with encrypted transport, and so
> > this text is misleading.
>
> Somewhat confused here.. the text you quote above does not mention
> filtering at all, was added in version -04 published in January and wasn’t
> referenced at all in your first review of -04. Are you now saying you want
> this specific text reworked?
>

The problem isn't this text specifically, it's that it's used in context
for a section talking about how DoH and DoT interfere with filtering, but,
as detailed above, that's only part of the story.



> > > For users to have the ability to manage the DNS resolver settings for
> > > each individual application in a similar fashion to the OS DNS
> > > settings, each application would need to expose the default settings
> > > to the user, provide a configuration interface to change them, and
> > > support configuration of user specified resolvers.
> >
> > This seems sort of true, though of course in some systems (I don't
> > know how common this is in the world of mostly single-user computers)
> > users actually can't change the system resolver settings.
>
> We previously agreed text in section 6.1.1 that says both:
>
> “ All major OS's expose the system DNS settings and allow users to
>    manually override them if desired."
>

Yes, this is true as well.

>
> “The vast majority of users do not change their default system DNS
>    settings and so implicitly accept the network settings for DNS."
>

Yes, I think this is true.


Getting into user specific authorisations around this isn’t something that
> has been proposed in any comment before and I’m not sure how useful it is
> at this point?
>

Well, the issue is that this text is being used to contrast
application-specific settings to OS ones, so I'm not sure how not to get
into it.



> > > The system resolver resolution path is sometimes used to configure
> > > additional DNS controls e.g. query logging, domain based query
> > > re-direction or filtering.
> >
> > This conflates the network and in-OS filtering discussed above,
> > which I really think needs expansion.
>
> Suggest:
>
> “The system resolver resolution path is sometimes used to configure
> additional device based DNS controls (distinct from any controls
> implemented at the network level) e.g. local query logging, domain based
> query re-direction or filtering."
>

Well, I agree with this parenthetical, but then it just reinforces my point
that this not being about *encrypted* DNS but rather about
application-specific DNS, because this text then becomes about method (1)
and therefore implicates any application-level resolver, encrypted or not.


> >
> >
> > > If all of the applications used on a given device can be configured to
> > > use the system resolver, such controls need only be configured on the
> > > system resolver resolution path. However if applications offer neither
> > > the option to use the system resolver nor equivalent
> > > application-specific DNS controls then users should take note that for
> > > queries generated by such an application they may not be able to
> > >
> > > * directly inspect the DNS queries (e.g. if they are encrypted), or
> > >
> > > * manage them to set DNS controls across the device which are
> > >   consistent with the system resolver controls.
> >
> > OK.
> >
> >
> > > Note that if a client device is compromised by a malicious
> > > application, the attacker can use application-specific DNS resolvers,
> > > transport and controls of its own choosing. »
> >
> > This seems opaque. Why not say "then any DNS-based controls may be
> > ineffective.”
>
> Will add that at the end of the sentence - this text was trying to be
> consistent with the similar text you earlier proposed for the similar case
> in section 6.2.1. “ In addition, if the client is compromised, the attacker
> can replace the DNS configuration with one of its own choosing."
>

Sure, I'm fine with my  phrasing as well, but trying to expand it out as
you have (especially by adding 'controls') is confusing.

-Ekr


> Sara.
>
>
>
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