The attached communication was emailed today to contacts in the following
organizations:
Internet Council of Registrars
Domain Name Supporting Organization of ICANN
National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Department of
Commerce
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
Individual Domain Name Owners Constituency
International Root Server Confederation
Linuxnic Inc U.S.A.
name.space pgpMedia.com
Network Solutions, Inc.
Open Root Server Confederation
The SuperRoot Consortium
The Internet Namespace Cooperative
TLDNS.COM
PacificRoot Network
RE: The Internet Name Daemon Survey (Bind 1999)
This email will serve as our official communication to you from
Planet Communications & Computing Facility (PCCF) with respect to
soliciting your participation in the Bind 1999 survey.
The survey developed back in 1997 uses existing dns protocols to
build a contact database of domain name administrators from zone files and
enumerates each associated server record. Servers are tested for various
known vulnerabilities and configuration errors.
Over the years Bind Survey data has been shared with government
and military installations. It has served to protect these facilities
from potential dns hacks and denial of service attacks.
This year the Bind Survey received generous sponsorship from the
Internet Business Associates Group (IBAG). This commitment afforded us
the ability to enumerate the entire network. This makes the Bind 1999
Survey the most comprehensive enumeration of the domain name
infrastructure ever conducted in Internet history.
Our primary goal is to use the database to eliminate a number of
serious vulnerabilities in legacy versions of BIND. There are three
distinct security problems. Some versions have a vulnerability that may
allow a remote intruder to gain root access on a name server or to disrupt
normal operations. Other vulnerabilities exist that can allow an intruder
to disrupt the name server.
At least 30% of reporting servers are vulnerable. Technical
information on this security issue is available as CERT* Advisory
CA-98.05, "Multiple Vulnerabilities in BIND", from the Computer Emergency
Response Team Coordination Center at:
http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-98.05.bind_problems.html
This year we will be using our Bind 1999 resources to empower dns
administrators in the area of Internet governance. Our hope is to end the
dns wars and bring back a measure of stability and opportunity to the
Internet community. We are not satisfied that the existing processes are
representative.
It is our position those administrators and hostmasters listed in
the Bind 1999 survey are the de facto controllers of the network
infrastructure. They have direct authority and control over their root
cache files. Any one of these administrators has the power to decide who
runs the Internet. The U.S. government or the Department of Commerce (DOC)
does not have this authority.
In our opinion The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) is not in a position to take control of Internet names,
numbers and protocols. ICANN, like many other groups in the domain
infrastructure debate, is a viable vehicle for the delivery of these
services. So are to various degrees the other root server authorities and
related associations and organizations. The following list represents
those groups we feel are in a position to offer competitive services to
the Internet community,
- Internet Council of Registrars
- Domain Name Supporting Organization of ICANN
- National Telecommunications and Information Administration,
Department of Commerce
- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
- Individual Domain Name Owners Constituency
- International Root Server Confederation
- Linuxnic Inc U.S.A.
- name.space pgpMedia.com
- Network Solutions, Inc.
- Open Root Server Confederation
- The SuperRoot Consortium
- The Internet Namespace Cooperative
- TLDNS.COM
- PacificRoot Network
As part of our mandate we will be contact those dns hostmasters
who have vulnerable bind servers first, followed by a general release of
bind 1999 survey data to all hostmasters of record. In all cases our
contact efforts will provide all hostmasters with general details and
information on Internet governance issues. We hope this effort is
successful in soliciting their participation in the process.
We anticipate your organization will take advantage of this
opportunity and assist us in our effort at education and the empowerment
of these individuals. To that end we are setting up a URL which provides
links to the following information resources:
- The Domain Name Handbook
http://www.domainhandbook.com/news.html
- ICANN Watch
http://www.icannwatch.org/
- The Berkman Center for Internet & Society
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/
- The Cook Report on Internet
http://cookreport.com/isoccontrol.shtml
http://cookreport.com/icannregulate.shtml
If you feel there are additional information sites and links we
should include that would assist individuals in understanding these issues
please let us know.
A link to your organization will also be included. We ask that
you consider putting up an introduction page specifically targeted at the
hostmasters of record. Certain questions should be addressed. If your
organization provides root service, then why should a dns administrator
switch from the United States Government (USG) root servers to yours? If
you provide membership services, why should they join?
The key here is to offer options. The nature of the DNS allows
for the establishment of competitive economies. Unfortunately no
organization to our knowledge has pursued these avenues.
We estimate the current profit potential in the DNS does not
exceed gross revenues of 400 million US$. This figure does not amount to
much. It is respectable. The real potential is in growth.
If handled properly revenue expectations in 10 years of one to
five billion US$ can be easily achieved. Potential revenue is directly
tied into and only restricted by user growth. The profit potential is a
good argument to many organizations that co-operative behavior and the
co-ordination of functions should be a key in winning over people to your
cause.
As part of the Bind 1999 survey we will be asking the hostmasters
that they fill out an optional questionnaire. If you have any questions
you would like addressed please let us know and well include them in the
survey questionnaire.
In closing, I would like to thank you for your time. If your have
any questions please advise. I will be contacting you in the next few
days to provide further details. At this time we have tentatively
scheduled our contact efforts this October 8th to 10th and 15th to 17th.
Cheers
Joe Baptista
--
Planet Communication & Computing Facility [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Public Access Internet Research Publisher 1 (212) 894-3704 ext. 1033
