Message from Stuart Lynn to the Internet Architecture Board
To the Internet Architecture Board:
On Friday, [3 January 2003,] VeriSign Global Registry Services announced a set of steps relating to the implementation of internationalized domain name capabilities, including changes in the behavior of the authoritative name servers for the .com and .net zones. The announcement is at <[http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/2003-01/msg00023.html]>. The announcement appears to anticipate the RFC Editor's publication of the remaining component documents that define IDNA (Internationalized Domain Names in Applications), the standards-track output of the IETF's IDN Working Group.
In response to the VGRS announcement, some commentators have raised concerns that VGRS's plan for handling DNS requests containing non-ASCII octets would be contrary to DNS standards. In particular, see the communication from Paul Hoffman of the Internet Mail Consortium, included with attachment below.
In keeping with ICANN's commitment to seek authoritative technical guidance from the IETF about the relationship of actual or proposed DNS operations to the IETF's standards-track activities, we are requesting the advice of the IAB (together with the IESG or other IETF bodies, if appropriate) about the announced VGRS changes to the behavior of the .com and .net name servers. Although ICANN's focus must be on violations of standards VGRS has agreed to follow, we would also welcome any IAB comment on effects the VGRS changes may have on architecture for the protocols and procedures used by the Internet.
I am copying Brad Verd and Chuck Gomes of VGRS on this message, and also actively invite any input or response VGRS may wish to give. We will also be referring the issue raised in Paul Hoffman's e-mail to ICANN's IDN Committee and Security and Stability Committee.
Sincerely,
Stuart Lynn
cc: Chuck Gomes, Vice President for Policy and Compliance, VGRS
Brad Verd, Resolution Systems Operations Manager, VGRS
Masanobu Katoh, Chair, ICANN IDN Committee
Steve Crocker, Chair, ICANN Security & Stability Committee
Attachment - Message from Paul Hoffman
From: Paul Hoffman / IMC
Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 7:18 PM
To: mclaughlin@pobox.com
Cc: Louis Touton; Patrik Faltstrom
Subject: Serious technical problems with VGRS's announcement
Greetings. This message follows up on the announcement from VeriSign GRS
(the com/net registry) that they will start responding to DNS requests
that contain non-ASCII octets and giving positive answers when they should
be giving negative answers. VGRS's announcement is at <http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg06058.html>.
There are many technical problems with this change. It essentially undermines IDNA, which is now on standards track, by adding a level of guessing to the DNS that IDNA is explicitly designed to avoid. Further, it makes it appear that IDNs are only useful in domain names for web sites (and only for sites in .com and .net), and only at the second level. VGRS has said that their plug-in will not work with most of the ccTLDs, for example.
For example, if you enter <a-ring>.com in Internet Explorer for Windows, where "<a-ring>" is the single hex octet 0xE5, you see the screen shown in the attached file called "[lynn-message-to-iab-06jan03-]e5.tif". (Sorry about the TIFF image, but it's the only reliable format for PC screen dumps.) As you can see, VGRS makes wild guesses about what the user wanted, some of which are very clearly impossible. Worse yet, they do not include all of the legal guesses that they could have made. And, just to make it completely confusing to the user, not all of the choices work.
The DNS is not supposed to be a best-guess service, yet VGRS has turned .com and .net into this just before IDNA is to be an RFC. VGRS should not be allowed, through its monopoly on the .com and .net gTLDs, to destroy the coherence of the DNS for its own short-term profit. ICANN should demand that VGRS immediately stop giving incorrect answers to any query in .com and .net, and should instead follow the IETF standards. If VGRS refuses, ICANN should re-delegate the .com and .net zones to registries that are more willing to follow the DNS standards.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium