Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-07 Thread John Levine
It appears that Eric Kuhnke  said:
>-=-=-=-=-=-
>
>I've seen a US based ISP do its internal management network reverse DNS
>using '.us' as a suffix, where the hierarchy is like POP name, then
>city/airport code, then state (eg: CA, NJ, FL), then .us for geographical
>location of equipment in USA.

For a long time, .US had an odd geographic structure invented by Jon
Postel. Everything was ...us. There are also some
special cases, notably k12..us for K-12 schools in each state. One
could volunteer to be a local subregistrar and a fair number of us
still exist. If you have a use for a domain name in
watkins-glen.ny.us, just ask. In that era it was up to each
subregistrar what to charge, and most of us charged and still charge
nothing. Or check out my church's web site at unitarian.ithaca.ny.us.

In 2002 the US government contracted with Neustar to run .US and since
then it's been a lot like generic TLDs, with second level domains
rented for a yearly fee.  The old geographic names are still grandfathered
but the registry, now run by Godaddy, isn't delegating any new ones.

R's,
John


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-06 Thread Eric Kuhnke
I've seen a US based ISP do its internal management network reverse DNS
using '.us' as a suffix, where the hierarchy is like POP name, then
city/airport code, then state (eg: CA, NJ, FL), then .us for geographical
location of equipment in USA.

The .us domain in question was owned by the same organization but with only
a stub zone file published on public facing authoritatiev NS, with the
internal zonefile not available to the public.


On Mon, Nov 6, 2023 at 7:35 AM Jay R. Ashworth  wrote:

> - Original Message -
> > From: "Seth Mattinen via NANOG" 
>
> > On 11/2/23 1:30 PM, goemon--- via NANOG wrote:
> >> Are there any legitimate services running solely on .us domain names?
> >
> > Yes.
>
> Though not -- by several orders of magnitude -- nearly as many as there
> should
> be... but let's not get me started on that.
>
> Cheers,
> -- jr 'RFC1480' a
> --
> Jay R. Ashworth  Baylink
> j...@baylink.com
> Designer The Things I Think   RFC
> 2100
> Ashworth & Associates   http://www.bcp38.info  2000 Land
> Rover DII
> St Petersburg FL USA  BCP38: Ask For It By Name!   +1 727 647
> 1274
>


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-06 Thread Jay R. Ashworth
- Original Message -
> From: "Seth Mattinen via NANOG" 

> On 11/2/23 1:30 PM, goemon--- via NANOG wrote:
>> Are there any legitimate services running solely on .us domain names?
> 
> Yes.

Though not -- by several orders of magnitude -- nearly as many as there should 
be... but let's not get me started on that.

Cheers,
-- jr 'RFC1480' a
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth  Baylink   j...@baylink.com
Designer The Things I Think   RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates   http://www.bcp38.info  2000 Land Rover DII
St Petersburg FL USA  BCP38: Ask For It By Name!   +1 727 647 1274


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-05 Thread Seth Mattinen via NANOG




On 11/2/23 1:30 PM, goemon--- via NANOG wrote:

Are there any legitimate services running solely on .us domain names?



Yes.


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-04 Thread Eric Harrison
K-12 education is typically in *.us

-Eric

On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 1:32 PM goemon--- via NANOG  wrote:

>
> https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/10/us-harbors-prolific-malicious-link-shortening-service/
>
> "The NTIA recently published a proposal that would allow registrars to
> redact all registrant data from WHOIS registration records for .US
> domains. A broad array of industry groups have filed comments opposing the
> proposed changes, saying they threaten to remove the last vestiges of
> accountability for a top-level domain that is already overrun with
> cybercrime activity."
>
> What hope is there when registrars are actively aiding and abeting
> criminal enterprises?
>
> Are there any legitimate services running solely on .us domain names?
>
> -Dan
>


-- 
Eric Harrison
Network Services
Cascade Technology Alliance / Multnomah Education Service District
office: 503-257-1554   cell: 971-998-6249  sms: 503-609-0577


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-04 Thread William Herrin
On Sat, Nov 4, 2023 at 8:54 AM  wrote:
> Yeah. I wonder why this cannot be reversed really?
> First domain registration should cost more.. 50 USD maybe? Dunno.
> And then, when you want to extend the domain, price should be
> around 5 times lower?

Maybe go the other way: you have to pay the same 1-year price as for
the other registries but two and three year registrations are
discounted to the same price. Criminals burn through the names pretty
quickly, so a multiyear registration is not of value to them. That
would allow the marketing department their loss leaders without making
themselves as attractive to criminals.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William Herrin
b...@herrin.us
https://bill.herrin.us/


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-04 Thread John McCormac

On 04/11/2023 15:54, b...@uu3.net wrote:

Yeah. I wonder why this cannot be reversed really?
First domain registration should cost more.. 50 USD maybe? Dunno.
And then, when you want to extend the domain, price should be
around 5 times lower?


Most of the new gTLDs that are using this heavy discounting model would 
not be commerically viable with normal .COM registration fees.


It is a very cynical business model that relies on a very small 
percentage of discounted domain names renewing at full fee (typically 
between $10 and $30) so that in addition to the registry covering costs 
on each first year registration, it makes more on a renewal for the 
second year. The typical renewal rate is 5% or below and it like sieving 
for plankton. One of the new gTLDs has a renewal rate for 2022 new 
registrations of 1.53%. It is regularly priced at less than $1 per new 
registration.


When the heavy discounting business model started being widely used by 
struggling new gTLDs, a lot of the abusive registrations shifted from 
.COM/NET because the economics of DNS Abuse had changed. The .ORG 
registry had been working on cleaning its zone and had stopped heavy 
discounting offers. It is now in a much stronger position than either 
.COM or .NET in terms of renewals.


Most registrants in a country will either consider their local ccTLD (if 
outside the US) as a first choice and then the .COM as a second choice. 
Market awareness and familiarity generally play a larger part in driving 
registration trends than pricing.


The .US ccTLD is up against the .COM in the US market and the .COM is 
the de facto US ccTLD. The .US has had discounting promotions before and 
most of the discounted registrations did not renew.



Those who want to use it for legal activity will chew that little CAPEX.


That brings up another problem. When a registry starts to use a heavy 
discounting model with its gTLD, it kills development and usage rates in 
the gTLD because the gTLD gets a reputation for being a junk TLD and the 
rising level of spam and phishing cause the gTLD to be blocked on 
mailservers. It is very difficult for a gTLD to recover from this. One 
of the earlier heavy discounting new gTLDs had about 2 million domain 
names in its zone at the peak. Five years later, approximately 2K were 
still in the zone. A new registry team took over the gTLD and other 
Famous Four Media gTLDs in 2018 and they have still not recovered.


A high registration fee will act as a barrier to entry for a TLD and it 
will take longer for the TLD to grow. Prospective registrants will often 
opt for the cheaper close alternative. (Registrants and tend to be aware 
of their local ccTLD, .COM, .NET, .ORG and perhaps the ccTLD for 
adjacent countries.) For much of the late 1990s and early 2000s, that 
was .COM rather than the ccTLDs. Many ccTLDs were run by university 
Computer Science departments that couldn't compete. In the mid 2000s, 
the ccTLDs started to improve due to ICANN's failure to deal with 
problems in .COM/NET/ORG and abuse of the Add Grace Period.


Even with the DotCOM bubble, the initial fee of $50 per year kept 
registration volume relatively low but it was a very different market 
compared to today's more global one. The advent of the registrars model 
and its competition reduced the registration and renewal fees and helped 
grow the market. The problem today is that the growth in .COM has 
plateaued.


There is web usage in the .US ccTLD but it is at a lower rate than in 
.COM or in European ccTLDs. A lot of .US registrations are brand 
protection registrations and redirect to the registrant's primary 
website in .COM. It isn't a truckstop or gateway TLD like .EU where 
there are more redirects to other TLDs than active websites.


Regards...jmcc




-- Original message --

From: Eric Kuhnke 
To: goe...@sasami.anime.net
Cc: NANOG list 
Subject: Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2023 20:39:17 -0700

Not specific to .US really

Pretty much every new gTLD that can be registered on "promotional" first
year prices below .com/.net/.org harbors a large than usual proportion of
phishing domains and suspicious things, because one of the sole operational
criteria for phishers registering disposable domains that might have useful
lives of only hours or a few days, in bulk, is the cost per unit.


".us" is in much the same situation because I am seeing promotional prices
of $4.50 to $5 per domain for the first year.





On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 1:31˙˙PM goemon--- via NANOG  wrote:



https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/10/us-harbors-prolific-malicious-link-shortening-service/

"The NTIA recently published a proposal that would allow registrars to
redact all registrant data from WHOIS registration records for .US
domains. A broad array of industry groups have filed comments opposing the
proposed changes, saying they threaten to remove the last vestiges of
accou

Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-04 Thread borg
Yeah. I wonder why this cannot be reversed really?
First domain registration should cost more.. 50 USD maybe? Dunno.
And then, when you want to extend the domain, price should be
around 5 times lower?

Those who want to use it for legal activity will chew that little CAPEX.


-- Original message --

From: Eric Kuhnke 
To: goe...@sasami.anime.net
Cc: NANOG list 
Subject: Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2023 20:39:17 -0700

Not specific to .US really

Pretty much every new gTLD that can be registered on "promotional" first
year prices below .com/.net/.org harbors a large than usual proportion of
phishing domains and suspicious things, because one of the sole operational
criteria for phishers registering disposable domains that might have useful
lives of only hours or a few days, in bulk, is the cost per unit.


".us" is in much the same situation because I am seeing promotional prices
of $4.50 to $5 per domain for the first year.





On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 1:31˙˙PM goemon--- via NANOG  wrote:

>
> https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/10/us-harbors-prolific-malicious-link-shortening-service/
>
> "The NTIA recently published a proposal that would allow registrars to
> redact all registrant data from WHOIS registration records for .US
> domains. A broad array of industry groups have filed comments opposing the
> proposed changes, saying they threaten to remove the last vestiges of
> accountability for a top-level domain that is already overrun with
> cybercrime activity."
>
> What hope is there when registrars are actively aiding and abeting
> criminal enterprises?
>
> Are there any legitimate services running solely on .us domain names?
>
> -Dan
>


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-02 Thread Eric Kuhnke
Not specific to .US really

Pretty much every new gTLD that can be registered on "promotional" first
year prices below .com/.net/.org harbors a large than usual proportion of
phishing domains and suspicious things, because one of the sole operational
criteria for phishers registering disposable domains that might have useful
lives of only hours or a few days, in bulk, is the cost per unit.


".us" is in much the same situation because I am seeing promotional prices
of $4.50 to $5 per domain for the first year.





On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 1:31 PM goemon--- via NANOG  wrote:

>
> https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/10/us-harbors-prolific-malicious-link-shortening-service/
>
> "The NTIA recently published a proposal that would allow registrars to
> redact all registrant data from WHOIS registration records for .US
> domains. A broad array of industry groups have filed comments opposing the
> proposed changes, saying they threaten to remove the last vestiges of
> accountability for a top-level domain that is already overrun with
> cybercrime activity."
>
> What hope is there when registrars are actively aiding and abeting
> criminal enterprises?
>
> Are there any legitimate services running solely on .us domain names?
>
> -Dan
>


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-02 Thread bzs


On November 2, 2023 at 22:09 al...@allan.vin (Allan Liska) wrote:
 > I think it is a matter of proportionality. 
 > 
 > According to Spamhaus malicious domains account for only 1.5% of all .com 
 > domains, but 4.8% of all .us domains 
 > (https://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/tlds/) - compare that to .tk where 6.7% 
 > of all domains are malicious. 

And the bit.ly shortening service is operated under the Libyan ccTLD.

Also frequently used in spam email etc.

Libya doesn't even have a generally recognized government. Or perhaps
put better has more than one competing governments.

-- 
-Barry Shein

Software Tool & Die| b...@theworld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: +1 617-STD-WRLD   | 800-THE-WRLD
The World: Since 1989  | A Public Information Utility | *oo*


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-02 Thread William Herrin
On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 3:10 PM Allan Liska  wrote:
> According to Spamhaus malicious domains account for only 1.5% of all .com 
> domains, but 4.8% of all .us domains 
> (https://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/tlds/) - compare that to .tk where 6.7% 
> of all domains are malicious.

Hi Allan,

Careful. Statistics don't mean much when separated from their context.
Spamhaus doesn't appear to have published the raw numbers for anything
except the "top ten."

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William Herrin
b...@herrin.us
https://bill.herrin.us/


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-02 Thread Rubens Kuhl
On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 5:46 PM William Herrin  wrote:
>
> On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 1:30 PM goemon--- via NANOG  wrote:
> > https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/10/us-harbors-prolific-malicious-link-shortening-service/
> >
> > What hope is there when registrars are actively aiding and abeting criminal 
> > enterprises?
>
> I'm confused. Does .com/.net/.org have a different/better
> vulnerability profile to these third party link shorteners?

This is likely related to NTIA ongoing consultation on redacting .us
WHOIS. Everytime such a movement happens, a number of reports showing
the world will end because of that appear.

Rubens


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-02 Thread Allan Liska
I think it is a matter of proportionality. 

According to Spamhaus malicious domains account for only 1.5% of all .com 
domains, but 4.8% of all .us domains 
(https://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/tlds/) - compare that to .tk where 6.7% of 
all domains are malicious. 


allan




--- Original Message ---
On Thursday, November 2nd, 2023 at 4:46 PM, William Herrin  
wrote:


> 
> 
> On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 1:30 PM goemon--- via NANOG nanog@nanog.org wrote:
> 
> > https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/10/us-harbors-prolific-malicious-link-shortening-service/
> > 
> > What hope is there when registrars are actively aiding and abeting criminal 
> > enterprises?
> 
> 
> I'm confused. Does .com/.net/.org have a different/better
> vulnerability profile to these third party link shorteners?
> 
> Regards,
> Bill Herrin
> 
> --
> William Herrin
> b...@herrin.us
> https://bill.herrin.us/


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-02 Thread Richard Holbo
There are LOTS of small business that have .us domains.  I've got several
that just use these domains as well as locality specific things such as
schools or towns that use them rather than the longer ones supplied to
municipal entities.

/rh

On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 1:34 PM goemon--- via NANOG  wrote:

>
> https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/10/us-harbors-prolific-malicious-link-shortening-service/
>
> "The NTIA recently published a proposal that would allow registrars to
> redact all registrant data from WHOIS registration records for .US
> domains. A broad array of industry groups have filed comments opposing the
> proposed changes, saying they threaten to remove the last vestiges of
> accountability for a top-level domain that is already overrun with
> cybercrime activity."
>
> What hope is there when registrars are actively aiding and abeting
> criminal enterprises?
>
> Are there any legitimate services running solely on .us domain names?
>
> -Dan
>


Re: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-02 Thread William Herrin
On Thu, Nov 2, 2023 at 1:30 PM goemon--- via NANOG  wrote:
> https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/10/us-harbors-prolific-malicious-link-shortening-service/
>
> What hope is there when registrars are actively aiding and abeting criminal 
> enterprises?

I'm confused. Does .com/.net/.org have a different/better
vulnerability profile to these third party link shorteners?

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William Herrin
b...@herrin.us
https://bill.herrin.us/


RE: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-02 Thread Shawn L via NANOG

I personally own a .us domain name -- while it's a personal domain and doesn't 
do a lot of traffic, it's still a legitimate domain.


-Original Message-
From: "goemon--- via NANOG" 
Sent: Thursday, November 2, 2023 4:30pm
To: "NANOG list" 
Subject: .US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service



https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/10/us-harbors-prolific-malicious-link-shortening-service/

"The NTIA recently published a proposal that would allow registrars to 
redact all registrant data from WHOIS registration records for .US 
domains. A broad array of industry groups have filed comments opposing the 
proposed changes, saying they threaten to remove the last vestiges of 
accountability for a top-level domain that is already overrun with 
cybercrime activity."

What hope is there when registrars are actively aiding and abeting criminal 
enterprises?

Are there any legitimate services running solely on .us domain names?

-Dan

.US Harbors Prolific Malicious Link Shortening Service

2023-11-02 Thread goemon--- via NANOG

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/10/us-harbors-prolific-malicious-link-shortening-service/

"The NTIA recently published a proposal that would allow registrars to 
redact all registrant data from WHOIS registration records for .US 
domains. A broad array of industry groups have filed comments opposing the 
proposed changes, saying they threaten to remove the last vestiges of 
accountability for a top-level domain that is already overrun with 
cybercrime activity."


What hope is there when registrars are actively aiding and abeting criminal 
enterprises?

Are there any legitimate services running solely on .us domain names?

-Dan